How to build a WhatsApp chatbot for your travel agency

Start from what customers actually send. Travellers ask about package prices, visa requirements, what is included, flight timings, and changes to a booked trip.

Then look at what goes wrong today:

• Travel inquiries require fast response to convert.
• Trip information scattered across WhatsApp and email. Flight PNR, hotel voucher, activity bookings, travel insurance — in different chats and emails. WhatsApp organises it all.
• Post-trip follow-up never happens. Traveller returns from Thailand. Amazing trip. Nobody followed up with "Where next?" They book their next trip with someone who did.

Each of these is a conversation with a predictable shape — a question, a lookup, a confirmation. That shape is what a chatbot handles well.

1. Where to? Popular destinations as a list, or free text.
2. When and how long?
3. Who is travelling? Adults, children, ages.
4. Budget per person — ranges as buttons.
5. Flights from which city?
6. Ready packages that match, or "an agent will send a custom quote within the hour".

Notice what the business side does: it answers with the specific detail (time, reference, next step), it asks for one thing at a time, and it gives the customer a one-word way to reply. Those three habits matter more than how clever the bot is.

The bot answers what a package includes and excludes — flights, hotels and meal plans, transfers, sightseeing, visa — from the package sheet. Travellers compare inclusions more than prices; clear answers win bookings.

Reputoo supports both, and most travel agencies end up using both:

• Keyword flows — a fixed menu or trigger word ("MENU", "BOOK", "STATUS") leads down a set path. Predictable, easy to audit, right for anything with a fixed answer.
• AI chatbot — reads the customer's own words and answers from your knowledge base (website, price list, policies). Right for the long tail of questions nobody wrote a menu item for.

A sensible start for a travel agency: keyword flows for the top two or three tasks, AI for everything else, and a person behind both.

For each destination the bot sends the visa document checklist you maintain, the processing time as published, and your service fee. It does not promise approval.

Booked travellers ask what is due and when. The bot answers from the booking and sends the link for the next instalment.

• Complaints, refunds and anything where the customer is upset.
• Anything involving money the bot cannot see — a disputed bill, a custom quote.
• Health, safety or legal questions.
• Any customer who asks for a human. Do not make them ask twice.

For travel agencies specifically: custom itineraries, cancellations and refunds, and any problem while the traveller is abroad need an agent.

Handover on Reputoo moves the chat into the shared inbox with the conversation so far, so staff never ask the customer to repeat themselves.

1. Connect your WhatsApp number to Reputoo (official API; takes minutes).
2. Add your website and documents to the knowledge base so the AI answers in your travel agency's own terms.
3. Build keyword flows for the top tasks above. What to connect: A booking system or CRM with trips and travellers; itineraries and documents should come from there.
4. Choose who gets handed-over chats, and during which hours.
5. Test from a personal phone, then share the number or a QR code with customers.

Messages with "stuck", "missed flight", "lost passport", "hospital" or "emergency" skip the bot and alert the duty person immediately, with the traveller's booking attached. For medical or safety emergencies, the bot's first line gives local emergency numbers.

Change requests — dates, travellers, hotels — are collected with the booking reference and passed to the agent, with the supplier's change rules explained up front.

Travellers write in many languages; the AI chatbot replies in theirs, which matters for international clients and for families where the elders prefer their own language.

• Enquire for a ready package and for a custom trip.
• Ask a visa checklist question.
• Check a payment schedule as a booked traveller.
• Send an emergency message and check the duty alert.

Honeymoon enquiries get their own path: wedding date, travel dates, style (beach, mountains, city, adventure), budget and any special requests like a candlelit dinner. The bot suggests honeymoon packages and hands custom requests to an agent who specialises in them.

For pilgrimages and fixed group tours, the bot lists departure dates, seats left, what is included, fitness or age guidance you publish, and the booking amount. Elderly travellers and their families often ask detailed questions; the bot answers from the tour sheet and hands anything medical to an agent.

"What should I pack for Leh in June?" — the bot answers from destination notes your team wrote, including altitude or weather cautions, and sends a packing list.

The bot explains travel insurance plans and forex options you offer, with what they cover and cost, and adds them to the booking with a payment link. Claims go to the insurer's process with your help.

A welcome-back message asking how the trip went — [Loved it] [Some problems] — catches issues while you can still make amends with suppliers, and is the moment to ask whether they would like ideas for their next trip.

Custom quotes, changes, cancellations, complaints and anything during a trip go to an agent with the traveller's details, dates and the booking attached.

Watch time to first reply, enquiries that became quotes and bookings, document requests answered without staff, and emergency alerts that reached the duty person immediately.

The bot sends booked travellers a pre-departure checklist a few days out and answers questions about it — web check-in, baggage allowance from the ticket, transfer pickup time.

Short domestic trips need a faster flow: destination, dates, travellers, budget, and ready packages with hotels and transport. Many can be booked without an agent, with the bot confirming availability and sending a payment link.

The bot sends deposit and balance links, confirms payments and sends receipts — useful for travellers claiming leave-travel allowance or company reimbursement.

The bot tells enquirers the agency's hours for quotes, and tells travellers on trips how to reach the duty person at any time. Keep both current in one place.

Visitors to India ask about tours, visas for India, safety and local customs. The bot answers from your destination notes in the visitor's language, suggests your inbound tours, and hands custom itineraries to an inbound specialist.

Travellers want to see the room before they book. The bot sends photos and videos of the hotels in a package from your media set, and asks an agent to source more when a traveller wants a specific view.

The bot explains what a package price includes and the basis — per person, twin sharing, from which city. Requests for discounts go to an agent; the bot never invents one.

Read handovers weekly: destinations the bot did not recognise, packages people asked for that you do not offer, questions it could not answer. Update packages and notes accordingly.

Balance-due reminders carry [Pay now] [Talk to my agent]; document reminders carry [Uploaded] [Need help]. The bot records payments and uploads, and passes "need help" to the agent with the booking attached, so nothing falls through before departure.

Company travel desks send requests for flights and hotels for employees. The bot collects traveller names, dates, cities and policy limits and passes them to the corporate desk, confirming receipt instantly so the travel coordinator knows it is being handled.

With the final documents, the bot sends the duty contact number and explains how to reach help abroad — by messaging this chat any time — so travellers know what to do before anything goes wrong.

Returning travellers often send trip photos. The bot thanks them and asks whether the agency may share them with future travellers — with a clear yes or no recorded — which builds a library of real images for packages.