The most valuable call in my operation isn't a sales call. It's the debrief after a trip comes home, because that's where next year's product gets designed, by the only people qualified to design it: the guests who just lived it.
“I don't trust anybody with logistics. I check everything.”
Run it like R&D, not like feedback
- Score everything separately, every venue, every vendor, every evening. "The trip was great" hides the one guide with a language barrier and the dinner that ran ninety minutes late.
- Capture failures precisely, without defensiveness. The badly executed evening, the pacing crushed by traffic, specificity is what makes a fix possible.
- Convert every finding into an action before the call ends: the vendor comes off the roster, the trip gains a day, the family-packed venue gets swapped for the adults-only one, the billing discrepancy gets chased tomorrow.
- Send the recording to your on-ground coordinator. Feedback that never reaches the person who executes is just therapy.
Claire's own numbers
The framework, step by step
- 1
Score everything separately — every venue
every vendor, every evening. "The trip was great" hides the one guide with a language barrier and the dinner that ran ninety minutes late.
- 2
Capture failures precisely
without defensiveness. The badly executed evening, the pacing crushed by traffic — specificity is what makes a fix possible.
- 3
Convert every finding into an action before the call ends
the vendor comes off the roster, the trip gains a day, the family-packed venue gets swapped for the adults-only one, the billing discrepancy gets chas
- 4
Send the recording to your on-ground coordinator
Feedback that never reaches the person who executes is just therapy.
Claire's own framework from this essay, in the order she teaches it.
Source: Claire B. Soares, from her own travel business and live trainings.
Why this is a strong opinion
Most travel companies treat the post-trip window as marketing time, review requests, referral asks, next-trip promos. All fine. But if that's ALL you do, you're skipping the meeting where your product improves. My trips get better every single year for one unglamorous reason: we hold the meeting. An itinerary is a hypothesis. The debrief is the experiment's results. Read them.
Common Questions
What is a post-trip debrief?
A structured call after guests return, scoring every venue and vendor and converting each finding into an operational action before the call ends.
Why do a debrief instead of just asking for reviews?
Because the review request is marketing and the debrief is product development. Without it you never learn which guide, venue, or pacing decision quietly hurt the trip.
What do you do with debrief findings?
Act immediately: remove the vendor, adjust the itinerary length, swap the venue, chase the billing discrepancy, and send the recording to the coordinator who executes on the ground.
Written By
Claire B. Soares
6× Condé Nast Top Travel Specialist, Certified AI Consultant, and founder of Travel AI University. $3.4B+ in enterprise travel software sold to Google, IBM, Boeing, the federal government, and the DoD; $16M+ in luxury travel sales with Up in the Air Life.
About Claire
