Trip planning moved out of the inbox
Mary Plans Vacation, a travel planning agency, turned its trip process into repeatable SuiteDash projects, with client preferences captured up front, automated trip communications, and a personalized portal for every traveler's documents.
Each new trip creates its own project with tasks, notifications, and client communications already in place, so the agency works ahead of each trip instead of reacting to it.
A travel planning agency that plans trips for individual travelers and groups, and had started using SuiteDash about two years earlier without automating its core process.
- The agency's to-do list lived in an inbox full of notifications from its travel software, TravelJoy.
- Emails sent on the agency's behalf were often treated as spam, a real problem when travelers need timely updates for safety and health reasons.
- Client preferences were gathered informally and the same tasks were repeated by hand on every trip, so each new client added more urgencies and mini-crises.
What we did
- 1Map the trip process
We reviewed the agency's workflow descriptions, forms, emails, and documents, built detailed process maps of how a trip moves from inquiry to travel, and identified the steps that repeat on every trip.
- 2Build trips as projects
Automated client onboarding that captures what each traveler is looking for early, and a project created for each trip from task templates, with notification triggers at each step. Email segments and campaigns handle both trip-specific messages and regular updates to clients and contacts.
- 3Set up the document vault and portal
A document vault where each client sees only the materials assigned to them, with notifications when they access them, and personalized portal pages for travel documents and next steps. Then hands-on Zoom training, system documentation, and 10 days of follow-up support.
More from this engagement
Onboarding asks every client what they want from the trip at the start, so planning begins with the right information instead of a round of follow-up emails.
Trip tasks live in each trip's project with their own notifications, so nothing depends on finding the right email.
Segmented emails and campaigns send trip details to the individual or group concerned, from the agency's own system rather than a third-party sender.
Each client's portal page shows the documents and steps for their trip, and the agency knows when they've been opened.
Under the hood
Before the build, the agency had been on SuiteDash for about two years but still ran its day from TravelJoy notifications in an inbox. Emails sent through that tool were often flagged as spam, and each trip involved the same manual steps repeated from memory.
On the client side, a new traveler moves through an automated onboarding that captures their preferences up front. Once a trip is booked, their personalized portal page holds the travel documents assigned to them and the next steps for their trip, and emails about their travel arrive at the right moments.
On the agency side, each trip is a project built from task templates, so the same steps happen in the same order every time. Notification triggers flag what's due, segments group travelers by trip, and campaigns handle regular communication with clients and contacts.
After hand-off, the agency was trained hands-on over Zoom, with documentation to work from and 10 days of support as the first trips ran through the new process. The biggest shift was working ahead: with the routine steps automated, attention goes to the details that make a trip go well.
What changed
The agency stopped running on its inbox. Every trip follows the same proven process, travelers hear what they need when they need it, and growth no longer means more mini-crises.
Let's talk about what you're trying to change.
Tell us where your client work gets stuck. In a short call we'll map it to a SuiteDash build and tell you honestly whether it's a fit.
- Where clients and documents get stuck today
- What a first version of your portal would include
- A realistic timeline and price