Every channel travelers use
Web chat, WhatsApp, SMS and email, with one conversation history across all of them, and replies in the traveler's language.
Platform · Concierge
An in-trip assistant that knows when to call a person
Concierge answers travelers on web chat, WhatsApp, SMS and email from your live operational data. It re-plans the day when weather or a closure breaks it, and passes the conversation to your staff, with full context, the moment it should.
What it does
Here’s a WhatsApp thread from a mid-August afternoon in northern New Mexico, lightly edited:
Traveler, 12:52 PM: The ranger at the trailhead says the upper loop is closed. What now?
Concierge, 12:53 PM: Thanks for telling me. That closure isn’t in our feed yet, so I’ve flagged it to the team. Two options that keep your afternoon: the lower canyon walk from the same trailhead (about 90 minutes, mostly shaded, back before the storms usually build), or moving tomorrow’s pottery studio visit to 2:00 today, where there’s space. Shall I ask your guide to confirm one?
Traveler, 12:55 PM: Pottery. Hiking in this heat isn’t worth it.
Concierge, 12:56 PM: Sent to your guide for a yes. If it’s approved, I’ll move tomorrow’s hike into the cooler morning slot and confirm both here.
Underneath, Concierge checked the day’s plan, the forecast and the studio’s availability, asked Route Engine for a re-plan that fit the rest of the day, offered only options it could stand behind, and put the change in front of the guide before promising anything. The traveler saw none of the machinery. The guide saw a one-tap approval.
That’s the job: answer from facts, re-plan within rules, and know which decisions belong to a person.
How it works
What happens when a traveler writes
- 01
Recognize the trip
The message is matched to a booking and a traveler, and consent is checked. Concierge knows today's plan, who's guiding, and what has already been said.
- 02
Ground the answer
It retrieves from your operational data (itinerary, supplier status, policies, weather, verified place notes), and every fact carries a source and a timestamp. No source, no claim.
- 03
Choose the right move
Information gets answered. A change gets proposed and confirmed. Anything touching safety, health, money above a limit, a complaint or low confidence goes to a person.
- 04
Act through the platform
Re-plans come from Route Engine and supplier changes go through Booking Flow, so a change in the chat is a change in the system, not a promise someone has to remember.
- 05
Leave a clean record
Each conversation is logged with the sources used and the decisions made. When staff edit a reply, the edit feeds the tone guide.
Hand-off to humans
The hand-off is the product
Answering the fortieth question about breakfast hours is easy. The real test is the message at 11 PM from a guest with a pounding altitude headache, or a traveler who can't find their passport the night before a flight home. Concierge is designed around those moments. It knows they aren't its to handle, and it passes the baton cleanly.
- Clear thresholds. Health, safety, money above a limit, complaints, legal questions, low confidence, or simply can I talk to someone.
- Context travels with it. A two-line summary, the trip, what was already said, and a suggested first reply for your staff.
- The traveler knows what's happening. Who is coming, through which channel, and roughly when.
- Staff can hand back. Once the human part is done, Concierge picks up the routine follow-through.
Capabilities
Grounded answers
Answers come only from your live data and verified place notes, each with a source and a freshness stamp. When the data isn't there, Concierge says so.
Live re-planning
When weather, a closure or a delay breaks the day, Concierge proposes a new schedule that still respects pacing and existing bookings. Re-planning instead of rebooking.
Proactive, sparingly
It reaches out only when it matters: a storm window, a changed pickup, a check-in reminder. Quiet hours and message limits are yours to set.
Tone design
Your voice, worked out with your team: how warm, how brief, how to apologize, which words never appear. Concierge should sound like your front desk on a good day.
Staff console
Your team sees live conversations, takes over in one click, approves proposed changes, and reviews what Concierge said overnight.
On the first night it handed a guest with an altitude headache to our duty manager in under a minute, with the room number and what she'd already tried. That's when our staff stopped being nervous about it.
Side by side
A generic chatbot, and a concierge
AspectGeneric chatbotConcierge
Where answers come fromWhatever the model remembers about the placeYour itinerary, suppliers, policies and verified notes, with sources
When it doesn't knowFills the gap with something plausibleSays so, and asks your team
A closed trailRecommends it anywayRe-plans the afternoon and asks the guide to approve
Changing a bookingPromises a change nobody makesMakes it through Booking Flow, or doesn't promise it
A health questionOffers adviceHands off to a person at once, with context
ToneCheerful, generic, endlessYour voice, brief, and silent when silence is better
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Which channels does Concierge support?
Web chat on your site, WhatsApp, SMS and email. One conversation history follows the traveler across channels, and your staff see all of it in one console.
What stops it from making things up?
Grounding. Concierge answers only from your operational data and verified place notes, traces every fact to a source, and is tested against your real traveler questions before launch. We wrote about why in Phantom trails and closed cafés.
Can it change bookings on its own?
Only within rules you set. Routine changes, such as moving into a free timed slot or rebooking a transfer, can be confirmed automatically or sent to a person for one-tap approval. Money above a limit and anything unusual always go to staff.
How do we decide when it hands off?
We design the thresholds with your team during onboarding (topics, values, confidence levels, times of day) and review them after the first weeks of real conversations.
Will it message travelers who haven't asked anything?
Only about things that matter to their day, within the quiet hours and frequency limits you choose. A good concierge is mostly silent.
Related
Keep exploring
- ServicesDisruption Response AutomationPlaybooks for weather, closures and delays that assess impact, draft a re-plan and prepare every message, then wait for a person to approve it.
- SolutionsHotels, Resorts & LodgesAI for boutique hotels and lodges: cancellation risk flagged early, packages built from real guest behavior, and a concierge that knows today's conditions.
- Field Notes · Operations & AutomationWhen an AI Concierge Should Stay QuietA practical framework for proactive messages, hand-offs and silence in AI travel concierges: four message tiers, an attention budget and the metrics that matter.
- Field Notes · Operations & AutomationDisruption Playbooks: Re-planning a Trip Before the Shuttle LeavesHow to build disruption playbooks for weather, closures and delays: triggers, pre-approved options, decision deadlines, supplier terms and one clear message.
- PlatformRoute EngineConstraint-based itinerary routing that weighs opening windows, travel time by mode, pacing budgets, accessibility, weather and capacity, and explains each day.
Design the hand-off first
Tell us the five messages your staff dread at 11 PM. We'll show you how Concierge would answer them, re-plan around them, or pass them on.