Give an AI assistant a short client brief and your confirmed supplier quotes, and have it draft five blocks in turn: cover page, day-by-day plan, inclusions and exclusions, price page and terms. Check every fact against supplier confirmations, assemble the blocks in one master document, then export it as a PDF.
The AI writes the prose and must never supply the facts. An assistant will happily invent opening hours, transfer times and hotel features that read well and are wrong, and a client holds you to every line of a PDF. So each block starts from facts you typed in and ends with a check against a supplier document. The reusable template is a by-product: once one proposal has passed the checks, strip it back to placeholders.
Gather the brief and confirmed quotes before opening the assistant
Most weak proposals fail before the AI is involved. The agent asks the assistant for a seven-night itinerary and receives a plausible stranger's trip. Reverse the order. Write the client brief in a few lines, copy the confirmed prices and inclusions from the supplier documents, and put both in one plain-text facts sheet. Every later prompt starts from that sheet, so the assistant has no gap to fill with invention.
Below is the facts sheet for the worked example used through this tutorial: a seven-night beach-and-culture trip for two adults, land arrangements only. No destination is named and every figure is invented.
CLIENT BRIEF
Travellers: 2 adults, anniversary trip, relaxed pace, no early starts
Length: 7 nights, arriving [arrival date]
Budget: about $3,500 to $4,000 for land arrangements; flights separate (client books)
Interests: one cultural day, one boat day, good food, plenty of free time
CONFIRMED QUOTES (copied from supplier documents)
Hotel: [Resort name], four-star, sea-view double, breakfast included, $390 a night, 7 nights = $2,730. Resort fee $14 a night payable at the hotel, not included.
Transfers: private car, airport to hotel and back, about 45 minutes each way, $80 each way = $160
Day 2: guided old-town walking tour, private, 3 hours, $120 for two
Day 4: half-day boat trip with lunch, $135 per person = $270
Day 6: cooking class, 3 hours, $70 per person = $140
Our planning and booking fee: $180
Quote valid until: [date]. Prices subject to availability.Notice what the sheet contains and what it leaves out. Every price copies a supplier quote, the resort fee is recorded as payable at the hotel and not included, and flights are explicitly out of scope. The sheet has no adjectives. Adjectives are what you ask the assistant to add, within limits, and the limits are what most of this tutorial is about.
Five blocks, and who writes what
A proposal is five blocks. Treating them as separate jobs lets you give the assistant one narrow prompt per block and check each result before it joins the others. The table shows where the AI helps and where it does not.
| Block | What it holds | Who writes it | Checked against |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cover page | Title, travellers, dates, valid-until date, one summary line, one photo | You supply the details; the AI drafts the summary line | The client brief |
| Day plan | One entry per day: what, when, how long, who runs it | The AI drafts from the confirmed quotes; you fix the timings | Supplier confirmations and a map |
| Inclusions and exclusions | Two lists, one line per item | The AI turns each quote line into a plain sentence | Every line traced to a quote |
| Price page | Itemised table, totals, deposit, balance date, validity | Your spreadsheet totals; the AI formats the table | A calculator or sheet, never the AI |
| Terms | Payment, changes, cancellation, documents, insurance | Your standard text; the AI trims it to one page | Your adviser and the suppliers' own terms |
Work through them in the order shown, because later blocks depend on earlier ones: the price page can only be right once the day plan and the inclusions agree with each other. If you are building from a rough itinerary rather than from scratch, how independent travel agents use AI to draft itineraries covers the research stage that comes before this one.
Cover page: what goes on it, and the one line to ask AI for
A cover needs the travellers' first names, a title that says what the trip is ("Seven nights at [Resort name]"), the dates, the line "Prepared by [your name] on [date]" and a "Valid until [date]" line. That last line matters more than it looks: it stops a stale proposal being accepted at an old price months later. Add one photograph from the supplier's trade image library or your own files. That is the whole cover.
The only line worth asking an AI for is the summary under the title. Give it tight limits and a list of banned words, because the default register of an assistant is brochure language.
Using only the facts sheet below, write one summary sentence for a proposal cover page, 25 words at most. Plain, warm, specific. Do not use the words luxury, unforgettable, dream or perfect. Do not mention anything that is not in the facts sheet.
[paste facts sheet]Without those limits, a typical first draft reads like this: "An unforgettable luxury escape by the sea, with hand-picked experiences for two." It breaks three rules in one line. A four-star hotel is not luxury, "unforgettable" says nothing, and "hand-picked" implies a selection process the facts sheet cannot support. With the limits, the output is closer to the version below, which you can use or lightly edit.
Seven relaxed nights by the sea, with a guided old-town walk, a boat day with lunch and a cooking class.That sentence is 20 words, uses only items from the quotes, and promises nothing a supplier could fail to deliver. Re-run the prompt two or three times and choose the one you would say out loud to the client.
Day plan: let the AI set the rhythm, then test the timings
A good day plan shows pace as much as content: one anchor activity per day, free time you can see, and no day that needs a stopwatch. Ask the assistant for the rhythm and keep the facts yours.
Write a day-by-day plan from the facts sheet. For each day give: a short title, what happens, approximate start time and duration, and who runs it (hotel, transfer company, activity provider). Use only activities in the sheet. For days with no activity write "Free day" and suggest nothing. Keep each day under 60 words. Flag any day where the timings look tight.
[paste facts sheet]A realistic first answer from an assistant, with the problems still in it, might include entries like these (illustrative).
Day 2: Old town on foot
After a leisurely breakfast, meet your guide at 9:00 for a three-hour private walking tour of the old town. Enjoy lunch at the famous harbour restaurant before an afternoon by the pool.
Day 4: Out on the water
Join the sunset catamaran cruise at 17:00 and watch the sky turn gold from the deck.
Day 6: Cooking class
Transfer at 8:00, class at 11:00, then free time to explore the market.Each entry carries a different kind of fault, and these are the ones to hunt for in every plan. The "famous harbour restaurant" is not in the facts sheet; the assistant invented a venue, and a client may well try to book it. The "sunset catamaran cruise" contradicts the quote, which is a half-day boat trip with lunch, so the client could turn up at five o'clock for a trip that ran over lunchtime. The cooking class entry leaves a three-hour gap between the transfer and the start, and mentions a market that appears nowhere in the sheet. The fixes are to delete the restaurant, restore the quoted boat trip with its real duration, and replace the Day 6 timings with times from the supplier confirmation.
Three tests catch most of this before a client sees it.
- Source test. Can you point to the quote or confirmation behind every activity, time and venue? If not, delete the line.
- Clock test. Add the durations, transfers and meals for each day on a scrap of paper. A day that only works if nothing is late is a day to loosen.
- Pace test. Count the days with two or more bookable activities. For a "relaxed pace, no early starts" brief, a plan with a 7:00 pick-up fails the brief even if every fact is right.
The same habits are set out in more detail, with a longer checklist, in AI itineraries: what a travel agent must check before sending. Treat that tutorial as the reference list and this one as the build.
Inclusions and exclusions written from the quotes, line by line
This block is where a proposal protects you. Clients read the price, glance at the day plan and assume everything in between is covered. The inclusions and exclusions lists are the only place you say otherwise. Convert each quote line into one plain sentence, then add the items that clients commonly assume are covered and are not. For the worked example, the two lists look like this.
| Included in the price | Not included |
|---|---|
| 7 nights in a sea-view double room at [Resort name] (four-star), breakfast daily | Flights, and any airport charges or baggage fees |
| Private car transfers: airport to hotel on arrival and hotel to airport on departure, about 45 minutes each way | Resort fee of $14 a night (about $98 for the stay), payable at the hotel |
| Private guided old-town walking tour, 3 hours (Day 2) | Lunches and dinners other than those listed, and all drinks |
| Half-day boat trip with lunch (Day 4) | Tips and gratuities |
| Cooking class, 3 hours (Day 6) | Travel insurance |
| Our planning and booking service | Visas, entry fees and travel documents |
Two details earn their place here. The resort fee is stated with a figure, because a client who meets a surprise charge at the front desk blames the adviser, not the hotel. And every item on the left traces to a line of the facts sheet; nothing is there because it sounded nice. Ask the assistant to produce both lists, then compare them with the quote lines one by one.
The prose around the lists matters too. A before-and-after shows the difference. Before: "Includes transfers and activities." After: "Private car transfers on arrival and departure (about 45 minutes each way), plus the three activities listed in the day plan. Any other excursions are paid for separately." The second version removes an argument before it starts, and an assistant will write it readily if you tell it to be specific about what is and is not covered.
Price page: per-person figures, totals and the deposit schedule
Do the arithmetic in a spreadsheet and give the assistant the finished numbers to format. Assistants are fluent in prose and unreliable at long chains of sums, so the rule is simple: the AI never calculates a figure that goes on a client page. The worked example prices out as follows.
| Line | Basis | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel, sea-view double, breakfast | 7 nights at $390 | $2,730.00 |
| Private transfers | 2 journeys at $80 | $160.00 |
| Old-town walking tour | Private, for two | $120.00 |
| Half-day boat trip with lunch | 2 people at $135 | $270.00 |
| Cooking class | 2 people at $70 | $140.00 |
| Planning and booking fee | One-off | $180.00 |
| Total for two adults | $3,600.00 | |
| Per person | Total divided by 2 | $1,800.00 |
| Deposit due on acceptance | 30% of total | $1,080.00 |
| Balance due 60 days before departure | 70% of total | $2,520.00 |
Total (C8): =SUM(C2:C7)
Per person (C9): =C8/2
Deposit (C10): =ROUND(C8*0.3,2)
Balance (C11): =C8-C10Add an options line when you want to offer a choice without muddying the base price: "Option: upgrade to a sea-front suite, $90 more per night, $630 more for the stay." That is a quick sum worth checking (7 nights at $90 is $630) and one you present as an extra, not a replacement for the total. State the currency, the validity date and the phrase "subject to availability until booked", because supplier prices can move between a quote and a confirmed booking.
When you hand the figures to the assistant, tell it exactly what it may and may not do.
Format the figures below as a clean client-facing table with three columns: Item, Basis, Amount. Do not change, round or recalculate any number. If any line looks inconsistent with the total, tell me instead of fixing it.
[paste the figures]That last instruction is the useful one. Sometimes the assistant notices that a basis column says "2 people at $135" next to a figure that is not $270, which is a fault in your sheet and worth knowing about. It should say so and leave the number alone.
Terms: a short block your adviser has read
The terms block is a single page that says what the client agrees to by saying yes. AI can tidy the wording into plain English and check that the page does not contradict your full booking conditions. It cannot decide what your legal position is, and it should not invent refund rights, so have a qualified adviser read the standard text once and treat that version as fixed. The tutorial on writing terms of business with AI and what needs a lawyer explains where that line sits. The sample below shows the shape of the page, and every clause is an example to be replaced by your own.
Prices are in USD and are valid until [date]. They are subject to availability until the booking is confirmed by the suppliers.
A deposit of 30% confirms the booking. The balance is due 60 days before departure.
Changes and cancellations are charged under each supplier's own terms, which we will send with your booking confirmation.
You are responsible for holding valid travel documents and meeting any health or entry requirements for your destination.
We recommend that you take out travel insurance when you book.
Our planning and booking fee is [refundable / non-refundable].Notice the last clause is left open on purpose: whether your fee is refundable is your commercial decision, and the assistant should not choose it. Ask the assistant to check one thing only: whether any sentence on the terms page conflicts with a sentence elsewhere in the proposal. If the day plan says "private" and the terms say "shared transfers", the check should catch it.
Assemble and export: styles, page breaks and the PDF
Assembly is a half-hour of mechanical work, and it is where most proposals either look professional or look pasted together. The order below avoids the common problems.
- Paste each block into the master document as plain text first (paste without formatting), so the assistant's stray styling does not come with it.
- Apply heading styles from the document tool's style menu, not by enlarging text by hand. Named styles keep every proposal consistent and let you restyle the whole template in one move.
- Put a page break before the day plan, the price page and the terms, so the price page prints as its own sheet. Clients often forward that page on its own.
- Build the price page as a real table, with the total row in bold and the validity date directly under it.
- Add a header or footer with your agency name, the proposal date and page numbers, so a loose page can always be traced back.
- Insert photographs sparingly, at modest resolution, so the file stays small enough to email comfortably.
- Export to PDF using the document tool's own PDF option (Save As or Download, depending on the tool), then open the PDF on a phone. If the price table breaks across a page or the text is tiny, fix the master and export again.
Name the file so it can be found a year later: client surname, destination placeholder, version number and date. Never overwrite a PDF you have already sent; change the version number instead. If a client says "the price on page 4 was different," you want the exact file they received.
Turn one finished proposal into a reusable master
Template reuse is the real payoff of this method. Once the first proposal has passed its checks, save a copy as the master and replace everything specific with a placeholder. Keep the wording of the blocks that do not change from trip to trip, such as the terms and the inclusion and exclusion headings. A table of placeholders keeps the replacement honest.
| Placeholder | Example fill | Where the fact comes from |
|---|---|---|
| [TRAVELLER_FIRST_NAMES] | Two first names | Booking form |
| [TRIP_TITLE] | Seven nights at [Resort name] | Your own title, from the brief |
| [HOTEL_BLOCK] | Room type, board basis, nights, rate | Hotel quote document |
| [ACTIVITY_BLOCKS] | One paragraph per bookable activity | Each supplier confirmation |
| [PRICE_TABLE] | The itemised table | Your pricing sheet |
| [VALID_UNTIL] | A date you choose | Supplier quote expiry dates, whichever is earliest |
Beside the master, keep a small content library: a document of reusable blocks such as your standard exclusions, your terms page, a paragraph about how you work and any destination text you have verified. Give every block a "last verified" date. Reuse the structure freely and reuse facts cautiously. A transfer time or an opening day that was true in spring is a risk in autumn, so the placeholder system exists to force the new facts in, not to carry the old ones along.
Keep your five prompts in the same place. When one of them produces a recurring fault, such as a banned word creeping back, add a line to the prompt and note the date. After a few proposals the prompt set is the thing that makes the next one quick. As an illustration, a first proposal may take two hours with all the checks; a second, built from the master with new quotes, may take 30 to 45 minutes. Treat those figures as a guide only, since quote gathering from suppliers is slower than anything the AI does.
A pre-send check that catches the expensive errors
The last step before the PDF leaves is a claims audit. Give the assistant the finished text and the facts sheet and ask it to find what the sheet does not support. This inverts the usual use: you are not asking it to write, you are asking it to doubt.
Compare the proposal text with the facts sheet. List every statement in the proposal that the facts sheet does not directly support, quoting the exact words. Include times, venues, distances, features, superlatives and anything described as included. Do not rewrite anything. If a statement is supported, do not mention it.
PROPOSAL:
[paste]
FACTS SHEET:
[paste]On a proposal that has been through the earlier checks the list should be short. A typical result for the worked example might be: the phrase "steps from the beach" in the hotel paragraph (the sheet gives no distance), "intimate boat" (no capacity in the sheet) and "local specialities" in the cooking class description (the class supplier's menu is not in the sheet). Each one is a phrase an assistant added to make the paragraph flow, and each is a claim the client could quote back. Either source it or cut it.
Then run the human checklist, which is quick once you have a habit.
- First names, dates and the travellers' number match the booking form.
- Every price on the price page equals a supplier quote or your own fee, and the total adds up on a calculator.
- The deposit and balance dates fall before departure, and the validity date is no later than the earliest supplier quote expiry.
- Every activity appears in both the day plan and the inclusions, and nothing appears in one without the other.
- Photographs show the actual property or activity, and you have the right to use them.
- The PDF opens on a phone, the price page prints on its own sheet, and the file name carries a version number.
The tutorial on catching made-up figures in AI-drafted proposals goes deeper into the numeric side of this check and is worth reading before your first live proposal.
Proposal platforms versus a PDF you build yourself
Downloadable templates give you a layout. They do not write the day plan or check the sums, so they save less than they appear to. The more realistic alternative to the AI-built PDF is a travel-specific platform. Travefy, for example, presents an itinerary and proposal builder, a CRM and a website builder as one product, and other travel CRMs sell similar quote and itinerary tools. Check current features and pricing in a trial before you decide, because both change.
A PDF is a snapshot. If your prices change often, or clients want to adjust the plan and see it update, a link-based itinerary in a platform will serve you better than re-exporting files. If you send a few proposals a week, want full control of the wording and prefer not to pay for another subscription, the master document and a checked prompt set are enough. A sensible compromise is to build the first ten proposals this way, note which steps annoy you most, and let that list tell you whether a platform would remove them. Once the PDF has gone out, the follow-up emails that chase silent quotes pick up where it leaves off.
Questions about building a travel proposal with AI
How long should a client-ready trip proposal be?
Long enough that nothing the client will rely on is missing, and short enough to read on a phone. For a one-week trip, six to eight pages is a sensible target: cover, summary, a two- or three-page day plan, inclusions and exclusions, price page and terms. Group trips and multi-stop journeys run longer. Cut adjectives before you cut facts.
Can I use AI-generated images in a proposal?
Use photos you have the right to use, normally from the supplier's trade image library or your own, because an AI image of a hotel room can show a room the client will not get. A decorative AI illustration on the cover carries less risk, but never use one to represent a named hotel, boat or tour.
Should the proposal include flights?
Only if you have priced them live and say so. Show the fare's validity and the ticketing deadline, and state clearly whether flights are inside the total. If the client books flights separately, list them under exclusions so nobody assumes they are covered by the figure on the price page.
How often should I update the master template?
Review the whole master every quarter and after any supplier changes its terms. Destination blurbs and standard inclusions go stale fastest, so give each reusable block a last-verified date. A block with no date, or one older than your threshold, gets rechecked before it goes into a new proposal.
Further reads
- Travel Agent Commission Tracking: Match Supplier Payments With AI — Track the commission on the bookings these proposals win
- ChatGPT Prompts for Travel Agents: 10 for Quotes and Follow-Ups — Ten prompts for quotes and follow-ups once the PDF is sent
- ChatGPT for Travel Agents: Group Trip Info Packs and Departure Emails — Extend the method to group trips with info packs and departure emails
- Travel Agent Checklist: Pre-Departure Document Packs With AI — Build the pre-departure pack after the proposal is accepted
- Catering Proposal Template: Packages, Prices and Terms With ChatGPT — See the same blocks applied to catering packages and terms
- AI Proposal Mistakes That Cost You the Job — Mistakes that cost you the job in any AI-drafted proposal
- Travel Agency CRM: What a Small Agency Needs and Where AI Helps — The small-agency minimum for a travel agency CRM: lead stages, trip records and reminders, with AI used for notes and email drafts.
- How to Get Clients for a Travel Agency: Niche Content, AI Follow-Up — A niche scoring grid, a monthly content plan, lead capture and an AI-drafted five-email follow-up sequence for a small travel agency.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: Travefy's product pages for its itinerary, proposal and CRM features (checked October 2026). The trip, prices and sample outputs are invented for illustration.