Group travel preparation : behind the scenes

Organizing a group trip is not something that can be improvised. For over 40 years, Receptour has put its expertise and network at the service of its customers’ turnkey holidays. Always on the lookout for new ideas, the team takes a look at the nuts and bolts of preparing a group trip. Follow the guide behind the scenes!

Receptour’s secret recipe

When you use a DMC like Receptour, you’re putting your trust in people who know the destination inside out.

Specialized into creating and operating unique tour packages throughout Canada, our brochure is the result of a skilful combination of 3 elements : the must-sees of our travelers year after year, a careful watch of market trends and the inspirations of our FamTour staff in the field. This enables us to offer you a wide variety of tours across Canada.

Step 1 : Perfectly designed tours

Our product and sales team is determined to create the best trips, from classic to thematic trips, to everything in between! Working closely with the different departments and discussing needs with our International partners, their job is also to ensure that essential elements of the program are in place. The aim is always the same : to make travelers’ stay as comfortable as possible, and to ensure that their future stay is a complete success!

• The activities are designed not to be too “long”: having to stand for hours on end, not just in the heat, planning according to the weather, and so on.
• Establish an “acceptable” travel time between 2 stages: not too long, with photo opportunities and breaks for travelers, etc.
• As far as hotels are concerned, we need to know about the size of the rooms, whether they are smoking or non-smoking, whether it’s possible to park a bus and so on.

Step 2 : Choice of destination and requirements

Once you’ve decided on a destination, we’re committed to accommodating all participants and tailoring our services to meet the most specific requirements.  

Nevertheless, Receptour’s expertise and professionalism lie in having a sales team capable of providing advice and informing customers about the feasibility or otherwise of a request. Flexibility is essential, but knowing the realities of the field and not hesitating to make suggestions is proof of our team’s competence.

Our job is to help you create a program, make suggestions and use our knowledge of the destination to make your trip a success.

Once the travelers’ specifications are met and the program determined, the project will then be managed by the operations teams who will finalize all the details.

The more details you can give us, the more efficiently we can prepare your stay.

• How old are the participants?
• Would they like a bus or a minibus?
• Are they more interested in culture or nature?
• Is there a particular request for accommodation?  
• A room upstairs or downstairs rooms?
• etc. 

Every detail of the file is important. It helps us prepare for your stay by making the right reservations with our suppliers.

Step 3 : Support and choice of service providers   

The aim behind our day-to-day work is to design a turnkey holiday for your customers. These months of meticulous preparation, just-in-time management and team meetings at the drop of a hat, all converge towards the same goal : 100% relaxation for our passengers.

The quality of our service is also due to our network of suppliers. Harmonious collaboration with hundreds of accommodation, activity and transport providers is the key to smooth organization.

Always giving our suppliers as much advance notice as possible of changes, being able to respect a reasonable period in the event of cancellation, being flexible,  these are all aspects that make the difference and create a good working relationship.

Step 4 : Finalize the travel quote and send the contract for your group  

Once you’ve found the perfect combination for your customers’ stay, thanks to our team’s discussions, it’s time to make it official. The final contract, together with the complete travel program, is sent by our sale’s team, for your approval. This is the time to recap, make corrections if necessary, and seal the sale so we can get on with the operational details.

Of course, when we work to accommodate your request, price is an important factor in buying a trip, but we can’t limit ourselves to that. Is internal management and communication with a given supplier smooth ? Does the product still meet our standards? In some cases, we’ve been working together for years on the basis of an established relationship of trust, and that’s not for nothing.

Paying a little more to be sure of the service, being able to have a partner who accommodates a last-minute request, is also the guarantee of a successful stay, and we always invite our agencies to take this into account.

Step 5 : Checks before departure 

As we get closer to the arrival, it’s time for us to do a double-check with our client agency to pass on the final details to our accommodations.

Is rooming correct? Have any dietary restrictions been mentioned ? What is the flight information for the group? Is there a logo to be used to welcome travelers at the airport ? Does the program communicated by the agency to its travelers correspond to the quote and services booked by us ? 

All these final details will ensure the trip runs smootly.

Step 6 : A trip under control 

Hand-picked guides

The other essential aspect of preparing a Receptour trip is the choice of our guides. The quality and professionalism of our staff contribute greatly to our reputation. They are the memory-makers and the guardians of the general good atmosphere on a holiday.

For some, it’s a collaboration that has lasted for many years, and we’re proud of this loyalty. All our guides are multilingual (like the whole team), passionate about their work and have a particular area of interest (geology, music, history…). 

Our 40 years of experience enable us to choose the best possible match for our groups. Trained in and committed to Receptour values, we organize a briefing session with each of our guides a week before the travelers’ arrival. This is an opportunity to share all the information and particularities concerning the group, and to provide the guide with his kit of documents necessary for the smooth running of the tour.

24-hour support and assistance !

Our mission doesn’t stop once the travelers are on site, on the contrary. We follow up with our guide to keep the client agency informed. We do an initial review 48 hours after arrival, and then halfway through the stay.

It’s important to know if everything is going according to plan, if there are any difficulties or setbacks. In winter, a snowstorm may force us to cancel an activity, for example, and it’s up to us to liaise with our service provider. This enables us to prevent, anticipate and find solutions if necessary. 

The guide is the first line of defence if a problem arises. He’s on site, he knows the terrain and he’s the one who’s going to try and manage the situation in the first place.

At our Montreal offices, our Operations team supervises the entire stay. What’s more, during the season, our staff take it in turns to be on call 24/7. We’re always available when our groups are on site.   

Step 7 : Quality control   

Once the trip is over, we implement our travel quality analysis process. In the interests of continuous improvement, innovation and customer satisfaction, it’s essential to get feedback from our guides and travelers.

On the one hand, our guide will give us his feedback with the positive and negative points, linking them to the organization and service delivered by the suppliers.  

We also ask travelers to fill in a comment form on the overall quality of their stay (the guide’s service, transport, activities, hotels, etc.).

We pay particular attention to this feedback, which will enable us to improve and favor certain suppliers and guides that travelers have really appreciated. Conversely, feedback on an activity that has not been unanimously approved will lead us to reflect on the relevance of continuing to offer it.

Ensuring customer satisfaction, at both agency and traveler level, means closing the travel loop from A to Z. We also owe our longevity to a certain Quality Charter that guides the preparation of our trips.

All feedback is then shared with our customer agencies to help them in their work, and to design the next trip even better together !

In conclusion, the preparation of a Receptour trip is based not only on the customer’s request, but also on all the traveler feedback we receive.

What’s more, our employees regularly take part in FamTours to different parts of Canada. It’s an opportunity for them to ensure the quality of the services provided by the suppliers we work with, as well as to canvass for new ones, so that we can always offer you new products. 

Entrusting us with the management of your group’s stay means choosing expertise in the field, knowledge of the destination and a hand-picked network of service providers !

Let’s sum up all this?