Fareway

The email that changed how we thought about the problem

Three months into building Fareway, we got an email from an operator in the pilot program. She'd been using the system for a few weeks and had just closed her largest booking ever — a $48,000 corporate trip to Ireland.

"I won this because I responded in 4 hours," she wrote. "The client told me they'd contacted six operators. Two never responded. Three took 3-5 days. I was the only one who got back to them same day with a real proposal."

We'd been focused on building features. This email refocused us on the actual problem: speed.

Why fast responses actually matter

The conventional wisdom in premium travel is that clients expect high-touch, personalised service. And they do. But there's a conflation happening between "high-touch" and "slow."

Clients reaching out about a $20,000 golf trip aren't expecting instant responses. But they're also not waiting around for a week. They have jobs, families, planning committees. They're often comparing multiple operators. The one who responds first with something substantive has a massive advantage — not because the client is impatient, but because that responsiveness signals competence.

Think about it from the client's perspective. You send an enquiry to four tour operators. One responds in 4 hours with a detailed proposal and clear pricing. Another responds in 3 days with a generic "thanks for your interest, let me gather some information." Who do you trust more?

The anatomy of a slow response

We've mapped out the typical quote process for a dozen golf tour operators. The steps are remarkably consistent:

Hour 0-2: Initial acknowledgment. Most operators send a quick "thanks for reaching out" email. This is easy enough.

Day 1-2: Availability checking. Here's where things slow down. The operator emails or calls course contacts to check dates. For a 4-course trip, that's 4 separate communications, each with its own response time. Some courses respond same day. Others take 48 hours.

Day 2-3: Pricing calculation. Once availability is confirmed, the operator builds out pricing. This usually involves a spreadsheet with formulas — base green fees, group discounts, seasonal adjustments, margin calculations. It's not intellectually hard, but it's time-consuming and error-prone.

Day 3-4: Document creation. The quote needs to look professional. Most operators have a Word template they customise — adding course descriptions, inserting photos, adjusting the itinerary narrative. More time.

Day 4-5: Review and send. A final check for errors, maybe a colleague review for big trips, then the email goes out.

Total elapsed time: 3-5 days. Total actual work: maybe 2-3 hours. The rest is waiting.

Where AI actually helps (and where it doesn't)

There's a version of this problem that AI can't solve: the relationship work. The course that gives you preferred tee times because they know you. The hotel that upgrades your groups because you've sent them 50 clients. The supplier who texts you when a cancellation opens up inventory. That's earned over years and can't be automated.

But there's a larger version of the problem that AI can solve entirely: the mechanical translation work.

Checking availability shouldn't require individual emails. Courses have inventory systems — the data exists. Building pricing shouldn't require manual spreadsheet work. The logic is consistent — it just needs to be encoded. Creating documents shouldn't require copy-paste from templates. The structure is predictable — it can be generated.

What Fareway does is collapse that 3-5 day timeline by automating the parts that don't require human judgement:

Availability: We integrate directly with course systems where possible, and maintain real-time inventory data where direct integration isn't available. When an enquiry comes in, availability is already known.

Pricing: Operators set their pricing rules once — base rates, seasonal adjustments, group discounts, target margins. The system calculates instantly for any combination of dates, courses, and group sizes.

Documents: Quote proposals are generated automatically with course imagery, day-by-day itineraries, and proper formatting. The operator reviews and customises, rather than building from scratch.

The result: that same 3-5 day process happens in 20-30 minutes. Most of that time is the operator reviewing and refining — which is where their expertise actually matters.

The second-order effects

Faster quotes don't just win more deals. They change how operators work in ways we didn't fully anticipate.

More iteration. When a quote takes 3 days, you send it and hope it's right. When it takes 20 minutes, you can send an initial version and refine based on feedback. Clients appreciate the collaboration.

Higher volume. Operators in the pilot are handling 40-50% more enquiries without working longer hours. The capacity that was locked up in admin work is now available for client relationships.

Better margins. When pricing is calculated manually under time pressure, errors favour the client (operators are reluctant to quote too high and lose the deal). Automated pricing is more accurate in both directions.

More enjoyable work. This one surprised us most. Multiple operators have mentioned that they enjoy the job more when it's focused on expertise and relationships rather than spreadsheet wrangling.

What "minutes" actually means

We want to be precise about what we're claiming, because AI hype is exhausting.

Fareway doesn't generate perfect quotes instantly. It generates good first drafts quickly. The operator still reviews every quote, adjusts recommendations based on their expertise, personalises the message to the client. What changes is the starting point.

Instead of: blank screen → gather availability → calculate pricing → build document → send

It's now: generated draft → review → adjust → send

That's the shift from days to minutes. Not automation replacing expertise, but automation enabling expertise to scale.

The competitive dynamics are already shifting

One thing we've noticed: as more operators adopt tools like Fareway, client expectations are adjusting. The 3-5 day response that used to be normal is starting to feel slow. Operators who don't adapt are losing deals they would have won two years ago.

This isn't unique to golf travel. It's the pattern we've seen in every industry that gets better software: the performance bar rises, and the laggards get left behind.

The operators who move early get a window of advantage. Eventually, fast responses become table stakes. But right now, being the operator who responds in hours while competitors take days is a genuine differentiator.

If you're an operator reading this, that window is open. It won't be forever.