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Company Profile
Detours is a premium adventure travel company based in Canada, known for curated small-group experiences and highly personalized service. Since its founding in 2012, the company has built a loyal international community of travelers who return year after year.
As the business grew, so did operational complexity: bookings, payments, cancellations, loyalty rewards, referrals, and customer service interactions were expanding beyond what manual coordination could sustain.
Detours needed more than a CRM. They needed a fully integrated travel commerce engine.
The Challenge
- Website bookings and payments required monitoring across systems; payment confirmations, follow-ups, and exceptions demanded manual oversight
- Travel cancellations involve layered timing rules, deposit transferability, and non-refundable thresholds that were difficult to enforce consistently without automation
- Failed payments, partial payments, pending carts, and overdue balances required manual tracking, increasing financial risk and administrative workload
- Despite strong repeat customers, there was no automated system to reward loyalty, manage tier levels, or track referral performance
- Booking confirmations, reminders, cancellation notices, discount codes, and payment receipts required coordinated communication but lacked a centralized automation strategy
- As operations expanded, internal notifications and coordination required real-time visibility without adding operational noise
The Solution
- Built a Stripe integration that processes charges, tracks payment status in real time, flags failed transactions, and reconciles bookings against payments automatically
- A rules engine evaluates cancellation timing, applies deposit transfer percentages, determines non-refundable windows, and sends structured cancellation communication automatically
- Points are awarded automatically per trip with tier-based multipliers, automated tier reassignment, expiration, and redemption tracking
- Unique referral codes track referred bookings and award loyalty points automatically, turning word-of-mouth into a measurable acquisition channel
- Website bookings create real-time Salesforce records, sync payment data, trigger confirmations and reminders, notify hotels, and generate invoices automatically
- Case management now includes automated response tracking, escalation timing controls, and centralized booking/payment context within each case
- Automated Slack notifications cover bookings, payment issues, cancellations, and referral triggers so the team can act in real time
Results at a Glance
Revenue Protection Improved
Automated Stripe tracking and charge logic reduced missed payments and manual follow-ups.
Cancellation Risk Managed
Policy-driven automation protects deposits and enforces fairness consistently.
Customer Retention Strengthened
Loyalty tiers and referral automation incentivize repeat business and organic growth.
Administrative Overhead Reduced
Automation replaced manual monitoring across bookings, payments, and communications.
Scalability Achieved
Detours can now increase trip volume without proportionally increasing operational complexity.