A hotel booked from the 14th, flights landing on the 15th
Tailor-made and multi-centre trips are built piece by piece. You book the flights one day, the first hotel the next, the train between cities once the timetable opens, the car hire after the client decides they want one, and the airport hotel when they mention an early flight. Each is correct on its own.
Together, they can contradict each other. The hotel starts on the 14th but the overnight flight lands on the 15th. The transfer is booked for 14:00 but the flight lands at 15:30. The train leaves forty minutes after an arrival at an airport an hour away. The car hire return is after the flight home departs. You check by reading everything side by side, and most of the time you catch it. The one you miss becomes a very bad day for your client.
Why clashes are easy to miss
- Components are booked on different days, often after changes.
- Overnight flights and time zones make dates misleading.
- Times are in different formats and local time zones on each confirmation.
- Amendments to one component do not prompt a recheck of the others.
- Checking relies on reading several documents side by side.
The more your business sells tailor-made trips, the more components each trip has, and the more places a clash can hide.
What a clash costs
A client arriving at a hotel that has already charged a no-show, or standing at an airport with no transfer, remembers it for years. Fixing a clash on the day is expensive and stressful. Fixing it at booking is usually a quick change. Clashes caught late also damage the client's confidence in the rest of the trip.
Automatic checks across every component
- Each booked component records its start and end in local time with the correct time zone, and its location: airport, station, hotel, depot.
- Checks run whenever a component is added or amended: hotel nights cover every night between arrival and departure, transfers fall after arrival times with a buffer you set, trains and onward flights allow enough time from the previous arrival, car hire pickup and return fit around flights.
- Travel time between locations, such as from an airport to a station, is estimated from a mapping service and used in the checks.
- Anything that fails a check is flagged on the booking with a plain explanation, such as 'transfer booked before flight lands' or 'no accommodation on the night of the 15th'.
- You decide: fix the component, or mark the flag as intended, such as a client staying with friends one night.
- Flags must be resolved or acknowledged before the travel pack is sent.
| Check | Example flag |
|---|---|
| Accommodation continuity | No hotel on the night of arrival |
| Transfer after arrival | Transfer at 14:00, flight lands 15:30 |
| Connection time | Train departs 40 minutes after landing, airport is far from station |
| Car hire and flights | Return time after flight departs |
| Overnight flights | Hotel check-in date before landing date |
The buffers are yours to set. How much time a particular client needs, with luggage, children or reduced mobility, is your judgement; the system simply makes sure the question is asked.
Clashes caught at the desk, not at the airport
You find clashes when you book or amend, while they are cheap to fix. Complex trips no longer depend on an evening of reading confirmations side by side. And when a supplier changes a time, the checks run again, so a schedule change that breaks a connection is caught straight away.
A worked example: a three-centre trip with an overnight flight into Singapore, two hotels, a flight to Bali and a transfer. The checks flag that the Singapore hotel starts the night before landing, because the flight departs on the 14th and arrives on the 15th. You amend the hotel. Later, the Bali flight is retimed. The checks flag that the Bali transfer is now too early, and you move it before the client ever knows.
Could a clash be hiding in your bookings?
- You check multi-part trips by reading confirmations side by side.
- Overnight flights have caught you out with hotel dates.
- Amendments do not trigger a recheck of the rest of the trip.
- Transfers are booked from times you typed in by hand.
- A client has been stranded by a timing mistake.