Inspiration Travel: Modern Website & Booking Engine 

Brief Summary 

Inspiration Travel, a Christian travel management company, faced challenges with their outdated system, RezMagic. OpenSense Labs provided a comprehensive solution with a new website, booking engine, and custom dashboards, resulting in streamlined workflows, enhanced user experience, and significant cost savings.

If you're also struggling with old systems in your business and need a complete solution with a new website, take a look at our services.

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Let's explore how we assisted Inspiration Travel in refreshing their website's appearance and experience!

Client Background and Mission 

Inspiration Travel (formerly Inspiration Cruises and Tours) has been serving Christian ministries and churches since 1981, specializing in group travel experiences. Inspiration Travel team's mission is to provide seamless and enriching travel solutions that foster spiritual growth and fellowship.

Needs and Challenges 

Inspiration Travel faced several key challenges: 

• Outdated System: RezMagic, Inspiration Travel legacy system, was inefficient and no longer met their evolving needs. 

• Inefficient Processes: Manual processes for tasks like managing marketing sources and custom dropdowns consumed valuable time and resources. 

• Limited Customization: RezMagic lacked the flexibility to adapt to their unique requirements for Inspiration Cruises and Tours events planning and partner collaboration. 

• Cost vs. Value: The high subscription cost of RezMagic was not justified by its limited functionality and outdated technology.

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OpenSense Labs Approach 

OpenSense Labs proposed a comprehensive solution to address Inspiration Travel, challenges: 

• Rebuild the Main Business Website and Web Portal: This platform would serve as the central hub for publishing Inspiration Cruises and Tours events, managing bookings, and providing personalized dashboards for travelers and event partners. 

• Rebuild the Booking Engine/Agent Portal (Spire): This portal would manage essential business data, facilitate phone reservations, and include custom features like group details management and a comprehensive reporting system.

Strategy 

The project strategy focused on: 

• Modernizing Design: Aligning the website and portal with current aesthetics and usability standards. 

• Process Automation: Streamlining workflows to minimize manual tasks and improve operational efficiency.    

• Feature Personalization: Developing bespoke features to cater to the specific needs of Inspiration Travel such as Inspiration Cruises and Tours events planning, partner management, and reporting. 

Implementation Details (Design & Development) 

Design: 

• OpenSense Labs focused on creating a user-friendly and visually appealing design for the main business website including the traveler and Inspiration Cruises and Tours events partner dashboards, and the booking engine, Spire. 

• Wireframes and prototypes were developed to ensure an intuitive and efficient user experience.

If you want your business website to be easy to use and look great, take a look at our services. 

Migrate to Drupal today!

Let's understand some key challenges and their solutions!

Development: 

The main business website and booking engine were rebuilt using Drupal and React.js, providing a robust and scalable platform. Custom features were developed to address the unique needs of Inspiration Travel, including:  

1. Marketing Sources  

Challenge: 

• When a reservation is created, Inspiration tracks marketing information, including the source, channels, and specific details.  

• This information is different for different  Inspiration Cruises and Tours events but previously required importing complicated Excel sheets each time an event was set up for adding, editing, or deleting sources, channels, or details. 

Solution: 

• Eliminated the dependency on Excel sheets. 

• Enabled Inspiration Travel to maintain a default master list of marketing sources that are automatically added to all the  Inspiration Cruises and Tours events. This list contains commonly used marketing information for all the  Inspiration Cruises and Tours events. 

• Developed a simple and intuitive interface for adding and updating marketing sources, channels, and details within the required hierarchy for all the Inspiration Cruises and Tours events, making the process instantaneous and error-free. 

2. Custom Dropdowns 

Challenge: 

• Dropdowns across the site relied on Excel sheets for updates. 

• Any addition, editing, or deletion required maintaining and importing these sheets, creating inefficiencies. 

Solution: 

• Added a dedicated page in the Spire admin section to manage all customizable dropdowns in one place. 

• Transformed the process into a seamless, instantaneous experience, allowing users to directly add, edit, or remove dropdown options without relying on Excel sheets.

3. Group Details 

Challenge: 

• Preparing for Inspiration cruises and tours events was a lengthy process, requiring Inspiration to gather pre-event information using Excel sheets over several months. 

Solution: 

• Built comprehensive forms tailored to capture pre-event information based on all Inspiration Cruises and Tours events types, along with pre- and post-extension data. 

• Enabled Inspiration to convert group details into Inspiration Cruises and Tours events, transferring specific data as required, reducing setup time, and improving accuracy.

4. Inspiration Cruises and Tours Events Partner Dashboard 

Challenge: 

• Inspiration lacked a collaborative platform for Inspiration Cruises and Tours events partners. 

• Partners depended on Inspiration Travel for updates on past and upcoming events and had to request reports regularly. 

Solution: 

• Developed an Inspiration Cruises and Tours events partner dashboard that provides partners with direct access to information about their past and upcoming events without requiring mediation. 

• Enabled self-service reports and visual insights, including event-specific traveler details and GA4 data, empowering partners to track their Inspiration Cruises and Tours events performance in real time. 

• Added visual graphs and analytics to help partners better understand traveler behavior and Inspiration Cruises and Tours events success. 

Clean, Intuitive, User-Friendly:  

The new website and booking engine are designed with the user in mind. The interface is clean and intuitive, making it easy for travelers, Inspiration Cruises and Tours events partners, and agents to navigate and access the information they need. Custom features and automated workflows enhance efficiency and provide a seamless user experience.

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Results and Impact: 

• Reduced Costs: By eliminating the RezMagic subscription, Inspiration Travel achieved significant cost savings. 

• Enhanced User Experience: The modernized design and streamlined workflows provide a more user-friendly experience for travelers, partners, and agents. 

• Improved Efficiency: Efficient processes, such as managing marketing sources, custom dropdowns, and group detail management resulted in a 90% reduction in manual effort to set up. 

1. Group Details Management: Create extensive forms used during the requirement-gathering phase for events, aiding the pre-event planning process. 

2. Comprehensive Reporting System: Over 90+ customized reports tailored to diverse business needs. 

3. Elite Travelers Reports: Specialized insights for travelers with reward statuses. 

4. Query Builder Tool: A user-friendly feature for creating quick, on-demand reports. 

• Increased Flexibility: The new platform provides the customization and flexibility needed to adapt to Inspiration Travel's unique requirements.