What a travel quotation includes
A quotation has to let the client say yes without asking anything else. In practice that takes six things, and the order matters, because most clients read it on a phone:
- What is being quoted, in the first line, in the client's words: "Bariloche, 4 days, family of four".
- Dates and number of travellers, split by adults and children when the price changes.
- The total price and the price per person, with taxes included.
- What is included and what is not: transfers, entrance fees, meals, the guide's language.
- The expiry date, the day the agency stops holding that price and those seats.
- The conditions: deposit, when the balance is due, cancellation policy.
The logo, the company details and the sales pitch can go at the bottom. Nobody decides on those.
Quotation, invoice and booking confirmation
The three documents are easy to confuse because they carry the same services and the same prices. What separates them is the moment and what each one commits the agency to.
| Quotation | Booking confirmation | Invoice | |
|---|---|---|---|
| When it is sent | Before the client decides | After the client accepts | After the payment |
| What it commits | Price and seats until the expiry date | The seats, on those dates | Records the sale for tax purposes |
| Can it change | Yes, as many times as needed | Only by modifying the booking | Only with a credit note |
| What the client does with it | Compares it and decides | Keeps it for the trip | Keeps it for their accounts |
A quotation that is accepted and paid should turn into a booking without anyone typing the details again. When it does not, the second typing is where dates and names get mixed up.
How long a quotation is valid
As long as the agency can keep the price and the seats. For a regular excursion that is usually between 3 and 7 days; for a package with hotel rooms in high season, closer to 48 hours, because the room will not wait longer.
Without an expiry date, the client files the quotation to "look at later" and opens it again weeks afterwards, expecting last month's price. With one, they decide. Putting the date next to the total, rather than in the small print, is what makes it work.
Example of a travel agency quotation
A quotation from a Bariloche agency for a family of four, two adults and two children, in January. Fictional agency, sample prices.
| Day | Service | Price |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Airport to hotel transfer, private van | USD 60 |
| 2 | Boat trip to Isla Victoria and the Arrayanes forest | USD 340 |
| 3 | Circuito Chico with a bilingual guide | USD 180 |
| 4 | Hotel to airport transfer, private van | USD 60 |
| Total for 4 travellers | USD 640 | |
| Price per person | USD 160 |
Below the table: what the price includes (transfers, boat ticket, park entrance on day 2, guide in English on day 3), what it does not (meals), the deposit needed to confirm (30%) and the expiry date, five days after it was sent.
If one of those services were charged in pesos, it would carry its own total in pesos instead of being converted at the rate of the day. Two currencies in one quotation are normal in inbound work; adding them into a single figure is where the margin disappears.
Why a quotation goes unanswered
It is rarely the price. A quotation that never comes back usually has one of three problems, and all three can be spotted from the outside in a minute.
The first is a price that is not final. "USD 640 plus taxes" reads as a number that is still going to rise, and a client comparing three quotations drops the one where they cannot tell what they will pay.
The second is a format that does not open well on a phone. A four-page PDF designed for printing makes the client zoom in to find the total, and half of their attention goes in that gesture.
The third is harder to see from inside the agency: not knowing whether the client opened it. Without that, follow-up is blind. The agency sends the same message to someone who never looked and to someone who opened it five times, and the second one, who is deciding, is the one worth calling today.
How to build one step by step
The practical guide on how to build a travel agency quote clients accept goes through the fields, the order and what a Word template leaves out, with a longer example.
In Viajalo the quotation is a web page instead of a file: it is built from the catalogue, sent as a link, opened on the client's phone and accepted right there, and the booking is created with its seats taken and its payment link. The quotes page shows how it looks.