Improving Stop Sales Processing With 60% Automated by AI

1. About the Client 

We worked with one of the largest and most reputable Online Travel Agencies in the market, an OTA that also holds direct hotel contracts, which come with their own operational issues. 

2. The Challenge 

Hotels often sell the same rooms through many different retailers. When a particular room type sells out, the hotel sends a Stop Sale notice to everyone selling that inventory. If a retailer doesn’t process that notice quickly, they risk selling rooms that are no longer available. That usually means cancelling holidays or paying compensation, both painful outcomes for the business and for customers. 

3. How We Helped 

For a large retailer, it’s completely normal to receive 500 notices every day, all in different, unstructured emails. We built a system that reads every incoming email, identifies which ones are relevant, and extracts the key details, dates, room types, and restrictions into structured data.  

From there, the system automatically updates their booking platform with the correct Stop Sale information. To keep things transparent and under control, we built a web-based validation tool where the team can quickly review what the AI extracted compared to the original email. They can approve it with a click or amend it as needed. 

4. What We Achieved Together 

The AI now handles the heavy lifting. Emails from suppliers are processed automatically, and only a low percentage of tricky cases are passed to the team. Even for those exceptions, the validation tool makes the work faster and less stressful than doing everything manually. A large retailer can now process 500 Stop Sale emails a day with less than half the staff they previously needed. Accuracy is higher, turnaround time is faster, and the risk of overselling drops dramatically. 

 6. What This Means Going Forward 

Extracting complicated details from unstructured emails and loading them into a booking system is work that computers are simply better suited for. When the automation handles the repetitive tasks, the team is free to focus on the exceptions; the places where human judgment and experience actually make a difference.