Solutions · Tour operators & DMCs

Sell trips that still work on day six

You already know how to design a good trip. Nova takes on the drafting, the chasing and the day-of re-plans, so the itinerary stays a living plan your team steers — not a PDF that goes stale the moment it's sent.

Book a discovery call Read the alpine case study

Hands work marionette strings attached to buses, boats and guides while a mechanical hand untangles two strings. — Field noteOperators run marionettes with a hundred strings. The win is fewer tangles, not fewer strings.

Timeline

A Tuesday in high season

A composite of days we've seen at small and mid-size operators. If none of it sounds familiar, you probably don't need us.

7:10 AM
Thirty-one emails before coffee
Supplier replies arrived overnight. Two confirmations are scanned PDFs. One hotel has written “fine for 3 of the 4 rooms” in the third paragraph of a reply about something else.
9:30 AM
Proposal four of the week
A couple wants ten days across two regions, slow mornings, one big hike. Your planner copies last year's version and spends forty minutes checking whether the winery still closes on Mondays.
11:45 AM
The coastal road is shut
A guide calls from the field: a rockfall has closed tomorrow's route. Day three for a group of twelve needs a new shape by tonight.
2:00 PM
Rebuilding day three by phone
Three suppliers, two provisional holds and a transfer company that only confirms by voice note. Nobody writes down why the new plan works.
4:30 PM
Finance finds a mismatch
A supplier invoice doesn't match the voucher issued in March. Someone digs through a thread to find out who agreed to what.
7:20 PM
The 9:30 proposal still hasn't gone out
The couple sent the same inquiry to two other operators. One of them replied at lunchtime.

Side by side

What changes with Nova

Your people still design, decide and sign off. The difference is where they start each task, and how much of it they have to hold in their heads.

Without NovaWith Nova

ProposalsBuilt from last year's copy, checked from memory and open tabs, sent when someone finds a free hour.Drafted from your own supplier library and margins, with travel times and opening windows already checked. Your planner edits — draft, don't decide.

Supplier confirmationsRequests sent by hand; replies read, re-read and retyped into the reservation system.Requests sent in each supplier's preferred format; replies parsed, partial confirmations flagged, and only the odd ones routed to a person.

Day-of disruptionsA phone tree and a whiteboard. The fix lives in one person's head.A re-planned day proposed within minutes, reasons spelled out, supplier changes queued, and the guide's approval requested before anything moves.

ReconciliationInvoices matched to vouchers at month end, if at all.Every voucher tied to the confirmation that produced it; mismatches surface the day the invoice arrives.

What the business knowsWhich supplier is reliable and which road floods — held by your longest-serving staff.Captured as constraints and notes the whole team, and every future proposal, can use.

Where we'd start

Most operators begin with proposals and confirmations, then add on-trip re-planning once the supplier data is clean.

How it works

A sample workflow, inquiry to departure

Roughly how a first pilot runs for a multi-day operator. Every step that touches a traveler or a supplier has a named human approver.

01
The inquiry becomes a brief
Minutes
An email or web form is turned into a structured brief: dates, party, pace, must-dos, deal-breakers. Your planner corrects anything misread.
02
A first draft arrives
Under an hour
Itinerary Studio drafts two or three versions from your own suppliers, priced with your margins. Route Engine has already checked that each day is physically possible.
03
Your planner makes it theirs
Swap a hotel, add the family-run restaurant only you know, change the tone of day four. The edits teach the system your preferences.
04
Booking Flow does the chasing
Days, not weeks
Once the client accepts, requests go out, replies are parsed and partial confirmations are flagged. Vouchers issue when everything is confirmed.
05
On the road, the plan keeps up
If a road closes, Concierge and Route Engine propose a re-planned day, explain the trade-offs, and wait for your guide or ops lead to approve.

The drafts aren't perfect, and they don't need to be. What changed is that my team starts most proposals mostly done, and spends its time arguing about the interesting part.

Operations director, multi-day walking-tour operator in the Alps

Field report: proposals and re-planning in the Alps

A family-run walking-tour operator came to us with two problems: proposals took most of a planner's morning, and mid-trip changes — a closed hut, a washed-out path — were handled entirely by phone. The case study covers what we connected first, what we deliberately left manual, and how the team measured the pilot.

Proposal drafting from a cleaned, deduplicated supplier library
Planner review built into every draft
Re-planning for hut closures and mountain weather

Read the case study

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Do we have to replace our reservation system?

No. Nova sits alongside the reservation system, CRM and supplier library you already use, connected through standard REST APIs, webhooks, or CSV/SFTP where that's all a system offers. See Integrations for the categories we connect.

Will the drafts use our suppliers and our pricing?

Yes. Itinerary Studio drafts only from inventory you've approved, at the rates and margins you've set. It doesn't invent hotels or pull in suppliers you haven't vetted.

What about suppliers who only confirm by phone or fax-to-email?

Every operator has a few. Booking Flow handles the ones it can and routes the rest to a named person with the request already written, so the manual cases get faster even when they stay manual.

Who approves a re-planned day during a trip?

You decide. Most operators require a guide or ops lead to approve any change that affects a traveler or a supplier. The system drafts the change and explains why; it doesn't send it alone.

How long before we see whether it works?

A pilot usually runs eight to twelve weeks on live trips, with one or two measures — median proposal time, say, or confirmations handled without a human — agreed and tracked from the start.

Bring us your messiest week

Send us a real inquiry and a real disruption from last season. We'll walk through how Nova would have handled both, and where we'd start.

Book a discovery call Estimate hours returned

Sell trips that still work on day six

Thirty-one emails before coffee

Proposal four of the week

The coastal road is shut

Rebuilding day three by phone

Finance finds a mismatch

The 9:30 proposal still hasn't gone out

The inquiry becomes a brief

A first draft arrives

Your planner makes it theirs

Booking Flow does the chasing

On the road, the plan keeps up

Keep exploring

Bring us your messiest week