Software Review: YouLi - Group Travel Platform

It’s obvious to see when you look online there is A LOT of software platforms out there. The difficult task is deciding which one is right for you. YouLi is a group travel platform that we wanted to introduce you to. In this post we are going to be discussing the benefits of YouLi, the features they offer, why we decided to create a working partnership with them and how it can make your trip planning experience much simpler.

YouLi is short for ‘You Live to Travel” and was created to enable group travel organizations to streamline pre-trip workflows. The reason we wanted to discuss this platform is that it is LEADING the way. Katie wishes she had YouLi YEARS ago to help her manage multiple, multiday group trips all with 10+ pax!!! Her life would have been easier, clients’ pre-trip preparations smoother and trips would have run even better!

Whether you are inbound or outbound, YouLi can work for you. It works best for multi-day group travel and isn’t a system that would work if you are providing short-duration activities. For example, frequently booked activities like zip-lining or daily lessons.

Disclaimer– some of the links in this post are affiliate links. Peak Flow has a working partnership with the YouLi team. This means we may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you if you make a purchase or sign up.

Who is YouLi?

YouLi is a group of people who combined their love of travel and technology together. Their main focus is to help people within the travel industry streamline their back-end processes, save them time, and have everything in one centralized space.

This software is an all-in-one booking platform and group management software that allows you to run and promote your trips to your target audience. Consisting of a completely remote team they all have experience and knowledge of the travel industry. This helps them provide such a valuable platform in our opinion.

The YouLi team

Jen, Vika, Geoff and Claire are a few of the team we have had the pleasure of working with. Jen, the CEO, brings vision and is always curious about how YouLi can be improved. Vika teaches and shares about the platform through various marketing channels. She shows her passion for ensuring clients and leads are clear about what YouLi is. Geoff is always so happy. It must be the Aussie accent plus he brings a wealth of platform knowledge which is always useful. Claire is tech support and her response times kick butt and she always offers helpful solutions. The team is awesome and it shows through the platform and their monthly masterclasses.

The YouLi community

The YouLi team hosts a variety of events that are FREE to attend on zoom every month. We make sure to attend them all as we find them very beneficial. Not only for us but to pass along the information to our clients. They help you learn how to use the YouLi platform from a variety of different angles. You get insights into what other people are doing, what’s working and if you should implement it into your trip processes.

If you are a group leader, travel company founder, marketplace builder or at any stage of your journey in building a travel business, we advise you to join the conversation with organizers who have faced the same challenges and learn from each other.

Peak Flow and YouLi collaborations

The Peak Flow team is privileged enough to have collaborated several times with the YouLi team to discuss Adventure Industry Risk Management Standards, the best practices to have in place to provide a duty of care for travelling customers and how to launch your own affiliate programme. Together we provide a high-level overview of what information, advice, procedures you should provide, and how. We recommend grabbing a coffee and watching them all!

Setting up your YouLi profile

When starting the process of creating a YouLi account you will be surprised with how straightforward and simple it feels. With each profile, you will receive a unique link that you will list on your website.

YouLi offers four different plans based on your needs;
A- Explorer which is the Pay Per Use plan, is great for start-ups or low volume businesses.
B- Pro BYO Website
C – Pro Plug and Play
D – Enterprise plan in which you can speak to a YouLi team member (likely Geoff!) directly to discuss your options.

If you would like more information about what each plan includes be sure to check out their pricing page. This gives a full breakdown of what is included so you can choose the right plan for you. We recommend the Pro Byo Website plan for most travel businesses that already have a website in place.

What will potential clients see in the beginning?

Your clients will click on your unique URL and have full access to visit and browse your YouLi landing page. This gives you a beautiful opportunity to showcase what trips you have to offer all in one centralized space. Immediately it is clearly visible for the potential travellers to see the;

The name of the trip
Where the trip is located
The dates and pricing

On the left-hand side, there is a ‘highlights’ tab that lets them read more information. This is a great way to really emphasize the best selling points of this trip and include client testimonials. It is simple and easy for them to navigate through a day-by-day itinerary and view relevant images. This gives them a complete idea of what to expect on your trip.

Clients are easily able to view pricing options that are available to them. YouLi makes it possible for them to see them in a specific breakdown format. For example, whether they are needing a single or double room will impact the pricing of their trip.

What makes YouLi different to other platforms?

YouLi comes with many bonus features such as being able to add in a map and drop in a pin. Potential clients can really get a grasp of where the trip will be taking place each day. Plus give them a visual overview of the itinerary.

At the bottom of every page, there is a call to action that encourages people to ‘Sign Up!”, “2 Spots Left” , ‘Apply’ or prompt them to do the next task. This helps avoid many email threads and clarifies the trip prep process for your clients.

It’s quick to get live and set up trips. Check out this great ‘creating a trip’ help article to get a sense of the setup.

The customizable side of things is great, you can tweak the labels to fit the language to suit your demographic and community. This allows for it to sound intuitive and make it easier for your clients to navigate and feel comfortable for them.

A list of companies that use the YouLi platform.

How will my clients pay for my trips and how will I get paid?

They allow for what you previously have in place to integrate with their system so you can get paid on time and not have to spend the time setting up another system.

You get to choose the payment processor that works for you. They are fully integrated with Stripe and Square, and even adapt to your gateway of choice with their open API.

On each trip, they have different travel payment plans and options in which you can get paid. You get to choose from up to 5 payment methods including credit card, PayPal, paying over the phone, direct bank transfer, or by using their custom payment link with no booking or credit card fees. Plus it’s easy to keep track of all payments on the trip dashboard you would have already set up!

What happens when a client expresses interest in one of my trips?

Once a client expresses interest and they are signed up it becomes super simple. They get access to a Personal Trip Page which acts as a client portal that can easily be tailored to the person wanting to know more information. This is where they complete their profile and eventually go on to pay their deposit. After they pay the deposit they get redirected to the tasks page that they have to complete with assigned due dates.

Our favourite feature on YouLi

The task feature in our opinion is what sets this platform from the rest, on the base platform you have 10 tasks per trip that you get to use but you also have the option to upgrade to an unlimited number of tasks if that is what you feel like you need.

What is a task?

A task is a way of creating a to-do item that would include all the details of what your clients need to do next. You can map out the order you want them to do something by assigning them due dates and everything is either relative to the booking date or set to be due on a fixed date. Tasks are best used for items like getting waivers signed, collecting registration forms (yes, you can custom build forms too!), and other pre-trip tasks.

How will I get clients to sign waivers?

Ideally, you’re using digital waiver signing software like Smartwaiver. If you are, you can simply embed links into tasks and make the task a checkbox. Once they have digitally signed, the traveller should return and check it off the list! (Watch out: the hyperlinks all open in the SAME window, so people will get lost). The documents tab is for uploads, so if you’re having people sign and scan paper waivers, this is where you will find those!

Is it possible to create individual tasks?

Yes! You can set up any task to be seen by only the people you select. Watch out: this uses your task limit! But you can add the unlimited task upgrade anytime to create as many task flows and custom tasks as your business needs to create the ULTIMATE traveller prep sequence!

What does the back-end look like for me?

The great thing about this platform is, it easily lets you navigate back and forth so you can see what your clients will be seeing. Each trip will be given a specific URL but it is also possible to create individual magic links on the back end. It is possible for you to send it to your client so they can see their profile in relation to the trip.

To allow you to include your trips on your website YouLi populates an HTML code that you can copy and paste onto your site and preview what it will look like.

It is easy to manage your trip with individual categories, keep notes and set your groups to public or private. The back-end layout is comprised of a form-like style that makes it easy to load in all your information, create settings and due dates.

They recognize that not every business is the same. That’s why they make it super simple to include your company branding with your logo, images and company colours. Say no more to basic ‘click here’ buttons. You can customize the buttons to include things such as two spots left or one week left to register. This makes it personalized and is a great call to action.

The top features of YouLi in our opinion;

Client review of someone who uses YouLi.

Tasks – you can create and set up tasks to map out the order your clients need to complete things. What is required of them relative to the date of their upcoming trip. THIS feature alone is worth the fee IMO since it saves you so much time searching out whos completed what, who’s overdue and repeating that at each stage of trip prep!
Customizability – you can tailor buttons, tabs, tasks and more to match the language used in your brand. Tasks can also be customized PER TRAVELLER and you can create custom forms inside tasks.
Trip board – it’s possible to have a high-level overview of each client with their individual profile. You are able to see if they have filled out the waivers, made payments, signed required documents etc. PLUS see how they got to your page to book the trip.
Unique portal – each client gets a unique link that will redirect them to their profile. They can see what is outstanding and what is required which stops them emailing you back and forth.
Centralized – everything about the travellers going on the trip is in one place. Your waivers, policies etc are all in one centralized place which helps your travellers avoid losing things. Essentially you provide them with a one-stop place to visit that gives them everything they need on one platform.
Ongoing Development – Jen and the team are always asking for feedback and are constantly working to improve the platform. They have THE BEST ongoing development I have seen yet by a travel software platform!

A few considerations about using YouLi;

YouLi is not a magic unicorn software. No software is perfect or a one stop shop, that is because developers have to decide what is worth it to build from scratch vs just integrate with. YouLi integrates with a few things at the moment that can help connect other areas of your business like Xero, Zapier and payment gateways like Stripe.
YouLi doesn’t handle email marketing well. While yes, you can capture leads, you still have to convert them. Right now, the platform basically signs them up for a trip, then asks for the deposit or an application to be submitted. So only your HOTTEST leads should be signing up in YouLi. We recommend you maintain sales nurturing outside of YouLi in your email marketing software. You also can’t track opens/clicks etc to see who got your emails! You do have use Zapier to send YouLi info to other places, which is an additional cost.
There’s still limitations in viewing multiple trips at a higher level. If you want to see what new registration forms were submitted, you would have to click through each trip or use the payments report to ID who’s booking is new and then open each profile. There is a lack of a summary view at a high level as well for lead source, task completion and client profiles across multiple trips.
There is no client profile across trips. Repeat clients basically have to repeat the entire trip process for each trip they book and there’s no way to see quickly how many trips or which trips a client has been on over time. This is why, for now, you would pair YouLi with a true CRM system like Active Campaign, Hubspot etc.
There is no native doc signing function. Your travellers will still use your online waiver system to sign waivers and you will still have to cross check each pax between the YouLi trip and software like Smartwaiver.
Tasks are all individual per trip. If you make a spelling error in your template then duplicate it 10 times, you now have 10 words to fix! Global tasks would be a gamechanger here!
Each trip is it’s own date. If you run multiple dates of the same trip, you will have multiple trips to manage. YouLi’s capacity to manage itinerary’s by DATE inventory lacks but is being worked on!

Helpful resources about the YouLi group travel platform

Recently we did a FULL walk-through on our Business of Adventure Facebook group. You get a look into what your clients would see and how you would navigate it from the back-end. Be sure to check that out here. – plus we have a discussion of the benefits of being a YouLi affiliate.

Resources to support the use YouLi to its fullest;

To Conclude

YouLi isn’t a Unicorn platform that can do everything and solve all your problems – is there such thing? Despite its imperfections, we still consider it THE LEADING multiday group trip management software out there today.

YouLi helps make the process of creating itineraries and designing travel itinerary templates fun. They recognize that you’re an expert in your destination, activity and your portfolio. You should stand out from the crowd and let your trips speak for themselves.

YouLi as an itinerary platform is also acting as a sales page, travel agent quote, and booking engine. We recommend you stop using multiple software platforms and streamline your day-to-day process by centralizing it all in one place.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out and hopefully, we can help.

Join the Conversation

We would love for you to join our Business of Adventure Facebook group. This is a collaborative space for business owners or freelancers in the adventure travel and tourism space. The focus here is to share best practices and tips about online presence and digital marketing (front end) and online systems (backend) so you can establish a rock-solid foundation for your adventure business. If this is something you could benefit from, please join!