Case Study: How Discover Banff Tours Conquered Booking Chaos with AI
Discover Banff Tours is an award winning group of tour operator businesses based in Banff, Canada. Their highly professional team had a challenge that was holding back the growth of their businesses - they were getting overrun with booking requests from Wholesalers and independent travellers especially during the peak months. Their Operations Manager, Emily Duann, had recently joined and was given the task of improving their existing process, which relied heavily on printing and data entry to stitch together disconnected systems. She led the implementation of Booking Automation AI starting with Discover Banff Tours and later rolled it out to all businesses in the group.
About TourConnect AI
TourConnect AI is at the cutting edge of AI solutions for the tourism industry. Our key product for tourism supplier businesses is Booking Automation AI. It is designed to revolutionize operational efficiency for tourism and hospitality businesses. By leveraging advanced artificial intelligence, it streamlines booking processes, reduces manual errors, and enables teams to focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences.
About Discover Banff Tours
Discover Banff Tours is a dynamic tourism operator managing five distinct businesses across the Canadian Rockies, including Banff Trail Riders, Chinook Rafting, Yamnuska Wolf Dog Sanctuary, and Banff Ghost Walks. With a lean operations team of nine employees during peak season, they handle complex booking requirements across multiple brands, serving wholesale and public tour markets. Discover Banff Tours recently won a TripAdvisor Travellers Choice Award 2024, a testament to their innovative tours and excellent customer service.
A modern Discover Banff tour bus surrounded by natural beauty.
The Challenge: Drowning in Bookings
As a multi-brand tourism operator managing five different businesses, Emily Duann knew their booking process was broken. Picture this: a growing mountain of printed booking requests, agents juggling walk-ins, phone calls, and emails, manually processing each booking in 5-7 minutes - unless they’re interrupted.
"We'd have a growing pile of requests that would stress us out," Emily recalls. During peak summer weekends, they were spending up to 8 hours just inputting bookings - time that could be spent delivering incredible customer experiences.
It was similar at the other businesses in the group. The affordable price point, monthly contract and free onboarding of Booking Automation AI made it easy to pilot with one business before considering rolling out to the rest of the group.
The Case for Change
- A typical weekend during the busy season would result in 98 bookings to be manually processed on the following Monday. Just for Discover Banff Tours.
- It was taking 5-7 minutes per manual booking with no interruptions
- Risk of critical errors during high-pressure periods
- Inability to quickly respond to wholesale clients booking for the following season, risking loss of business
- The issues seen at Discover Banff Tours were also experienced in other businesses in the group
- High ROI and flexible volume based pricing of the Booking Automation AI
The AI Solution: Instant, Accurate Booking Automation
What Changed:
- Booking time reduced from minutes to seconds
- Exceeded the wholesale clients requirement for a Guaranteed 48-hour response time
- Simplified cross-team coordination
- Zero paper waste
- Scaleable solution with AI easily managing the requirements of different businesses in the group
- Stress levels dramatically reduced
Emily's Verdict: "It takes seconds to book now. We just press load, double-check, and we're done."
A tour guide shares knowledge about local wildlife.
Who Should Pay Attention:
- Tourism operators managing multiple brands
- Businesses with high booking volumes
- Teams struggling with manual booking processes
Pro Tip: Complex product lineup? No problem. The AI adapts to your specific booking requirements.
Ready to transform your booking process? Let's talk.
