Travel quotation follow-up works best when it is planned before the quotation leaves: a validity date tied to something real, one recommended option, and a link the client can accept on. After that, follow up on a schedule set by what the client did, not by nerves: a question on day 2, a reason to decide on day 5, a clear close on day 10.
Before you send: make it easy to answer
A quotation often goes unanswered because answering it is hard work: options that differ in five ways, no recommendation, no date, no obvious next step. How to lay one out is the subject of the day-by-day travel quotation. For follow-up, four things matter:
- A validity date, so every message has an honest reason to exist.
- One recommended option, so "which would you suggest?" already has an answer.
- A one-step answer: accept, or ask for a change, without writing an email.
- The right reader. A DMC follows up with the agency, never with the agency's client.
In the iTravel travel CRM the client accepts on the quotation's link: they choose an option, tick any optional extras and type their name. Or they ask for changes in their own words. A quotation with no validity date is one of the things flagged before it goes. On a deal sold through a partner agency, the quotation is emailed to the agency, and a traveller's own address is refused.
Sending it, and what each channel tells you
Send the paper by email, and the link on the channel the client wrote to you on. In iTravel the email goes out under your brand, from your own mail server if you connect one, in the client's language and with your note, and replies come back to the seller. You can also copy the client's link, or send the quotation as a WhatsApp message with the sections you tick.
A draft becomes "sent" only once the email has actually left; if the send is refused it stays a draft and says so. Copying the link counts as sending too, because the client can now read it. Every send is kept in a log: what went, to whom, when, and whether it left.
Knowing it was opened, and what that does not mean
There are two different signals, and they deserve different trust.
The quotation page was opened. iTravel counts an open of the client's link from a signal the page sends in a real browser, so a mail scanner or a chat app's link preview never reads as "opened". You see how many times it was opened and when it was last opened.
The email was opened or clicked. This is off until you switch it on in the CRM's email settings. When it is on, opens that a mail app makes by itself, within seconds of the send or from a known scanner, are counted apart from a person's. A click always counts as a person.
Read them as hints, never as facts about the client:
- Opened several times in an evening: they are comparing, or showing someone. A good moment for a question.
- Opened once, then nothing: they saw the price. Follow up about the choice, not the price.
- Never opened: the channel may have failed. Send the link where they last wrote to you.
- No recorded open is not proof they did not read it. Never write "I can see you opened it".
When the client asks for a change: versions
A sent quotation should never change under the client's feet. In iTravel it cannot: a change makes a new version under the same reference, the earlier one stays readable and is marked replaced, and its link no longer takes an acceptance, so nobody can accept last week's price. A summary of what changed, line by line and in the total, can go with the new email; cost and margin are never in it.
When a client asks for changes on the link, their words are kept on the quotation, and the deal's owner gets a task and an email. Answer the same day if you can. A change request is the warmest message in the whole cycle: the client is already planning the trip with you.
Validity: the date that makes follow-up honest
Tie the validity date to something real: the date the hotel releases rooms it is holding for you, the end of the rate's season, a fare that will not hold. Too long and you carry the price risk; too short and the client feels pushed.
When the date passes, the quotation should say so. In iTravel the client's link stops accepting it and gives the date; the automatic reminders stop; once the date has passed on your account's own calendar, the quotation is marked expired and moves to the list's Declined or expired tab; and a card in the quotations list shows the ones ending within 7 days, so a seller writes before the date rather than after. Quoting again is a new version, with a new date and its prices checked again. If your costs live in rate sheets with contract dates, iTravel also lists the live quotations that use a service after its rates end.
What to say on day 2, day 5 and day 10
The days are a pattern, not a rule. A quotation valid for five days compresses it; a DMC answering an agency may run days 2, 4 and 7.
| Day | Goal | Channel | What to say | Avoid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Start a conversation | The one they wrote on | "Did option A or B suit better? I can change the hotel or the order of the days." | "Just checking you got my email." |
| 5 | Give a reason to decide | Email or a call | "The hotel holds these rooms until the 13th. I can confirm option B today with the deposit." Only if true. | Invented scarcity, a discount nobody asked for |
| 10 | Close, either way | A call, or the channel they answer on | "Your prices hold until Friday. Shall I confirm, change the dates, or close the file for now?" | Letting the validity date pass in silence |
Each message ends with a question that has an easy answer. "Close the file for now" is a real option: a client who says no today gives you a lost reason and a date to try again, which is worth more than a deal nobody is working.
Automating the schedule without sounding automatic
Automate the reminders that can be generic, and keep the ones that need judgement for a person.
iTravel sends one reminder email by itself, on by default: 3 days after the quotation was emailed, unless you choose 2, 5, 7, 10 or 14, and a seller can untick it for one send. It leaves at 10:00 in your timezone, carries the same link, and goes only if the quotation is still unanswered, not replaced and inside its validity.
For the rest, write rules. A rule can start when a quotation is still unanswered a number of days after it was sent, or after the client first opened it, and can create a task, send an email or WhatsApp message from your own templates, tell someone, email the quotation again or move the deal. Each rule fires once per quotation, and you can try one in a dry run first. The quotations list keeps three cards for the seller's morning: changes asked, no answer for 3 days, and ending within 7 days.
A worked example: one quotation, ten days
Say you quote a family of four for five nights on Monday 2 March, with two options, valid until Friday 13 March because the hotel holds the rooms until the 14th. The built-in reminder is set to 5 days, and one rule creates a call task when a quotation is unanswered 2 days after it was first opened. Everything here is illustrative.
| Day | Date | What happened | What the seller did |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Mon 2 | Emailed with a note; the link sent on WhatsApp | Nothing more today |
| 1 | Tue 3 | Link opened three times that evening | Waited |
| 2 | Wed 4 | No answer by the morning; in the evening the client asks on the link to move the tour from day 2 to day 4 | WhatsApp in the morning: "A or B?"; version 2 sent that evening, with what changed |
| 3 | Thu 5 | Version 2 opened in the morning | Waited |
| 5 | Sat 7 | Unanswered 2 days after its first open: the rule makes a call task | Called; they prefer B but worry about the price |
| 7 | Mon 9 | The built-in reminder for version 2 leaves at 10:00 | Nothing |
| 10 | Thu 12 | No answer | "Your prices hold until Friday. Shall I confirm B?" |
| 10 | Thu 12 | Client accepts option B on the link and ticks the evening cruise | The owner gets a task and an email |
Version 1's call task and reminder never happened: it was replaced on Wednesday evening, before either was due. On acceptance the deal moves to its won stage, unless you switch that off, and its value becomes option B plus the cruise. If you have connected your own payment provider, the client can pay the next instalment of the payment schedule online. From here the work belongs to the handover to operations, and the deal leaves the sales pipeline as a win.
Checklist: before and after you press send
- [ ] A validity date tied to a hotel hold, a season or a fare.
- [ ] One option recommended, and options that differ in one thing.
- [ ] The client can accept, or ask for changes, on the link.
- [ ] For an agency's deal, it goes to the agency.
- [ ] The paper by email, the link on the channel they wrote on.
- [ ] A dated task for day 2, before you close the tab.
- [ ] The automatic reminder on, or deliberately unticked.
- [ ] Every change is a new version, with a summary of what changed.
- [ ] A message before the validity date, never after it.
- [ ] A lost reason and a retry date when the answer is no.
