The challenge
Disconnected systems took the focus off customers
As providers of premium travel experiences, the group puts the customer at the centre of everything it does, from the first point of contact to a warm welcome home.
“Giving travellers cherished lifelong memories with friends and family is what we are all about,” says Sean Collins. As Head of CRM, Sean looks after customer experience, marketing, service, sales, and operations systems.
Before HubSpot, they juggled multiple legacy systems — including Zendesk for support and Microsoft Excel, Outlook, and Teams — that were disconnected from each other and not integrated with the reservation system, creating complex manual processes and duplicate information.
“Our hard-working crew always did what it took to give customers an amazing time, but time-consuming admin and workarounds could take their focus away from looking after travellers,” says Sean.
With thousands of trips in progress and hundreds of support requests every week, the lack of integration between the business tools and reservation system impacted backend operations, too.
“Playing email, text, and phone tennis at all hours was a real headache. For example, simply organising a boat repair could take up to 10 different screens to be updated and multiple calls to arrange trades, schedules, invoicing, and reporting,” says Sean.
Whether it’s the holiday of a lifetime, a special occasion, or an annual family trip, any marine voyage is an enormous logistical challenge where every detail matters.
“Making the sale is just the start of the operational workload. The journey to get that customer on a yacht safely and seamlessly has the biggest impact on their experience. With information spread across different systems, you're doomed to fail. If you're like us with over 1,800 charters this month alone, you need unified data to run the workflow and provide personalised service,” says Stephen Kvedaras, CRM Product Owner at Travelopia.
The Solution
Putting the customer at the heart of the business
Operating 24/7/365 across global time zones, in multiple languages, with guests embarking at all hours of the day, Sunsail and The Moorings needed a powerful solution to unify the customer experience end-to-end.
They also wanted to empower and support staff and crew with integrated operations systems so they could focus more on customers and less on administration and reporting.
The business had already started using HubSpot email marketing tools to create personalised messages — using data imported from bookings — but Sean knew from experience that the HubSpot customer platform could deliver so much more.
With a skilled in-house team of marketers and technology specialists, they collaborated with HubSpot to implement Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and Service Hub.
Once they had centralised all customer information and fully connected the backend operations, they used HubSpot’s customisable APIs to integrate data with their existing reservation and booking systems, completing a two-way information loop across the organisation.
This sophisticated Service Hub integration is a game-changer for Sunsail and The Moorings. Every trip involves many suppliers and moving parts, from boats available in specific regions to hotel availability, insurance, the particular sailing expertise required, visa regulations, safety specifications, and more.
“By breaking down multiple silos and consolidating everything, Service Hub not only gives our customer one home but their holiday as well. Getting each detail correct is how we ensure everything is just right when a customer arrives on their yacht,” says Stephen.
The transformation
Delivering once-in-a-lifetime experiences every day of the year
With a mission to enrich lives through travel, each Travelopia brand is focused on delivering luxurious personal service at every touch point, whether on the phone or on the water.
“With marketing, sales, services, and bookings synchronised in real-time, HubSpot is now the single source of truth of everything to do with the customer, their boat, and their trip,” says Sean.
Accelerated and unified customer support:
Since moving from Zendesk to Service Hub, average support response times have been 63% faster, and centralising departments into one system has made a big impact.
“Our service teams often rely on other internal teams to solve complex customer requests. Before consolidating our service delivery, we had interdepartmental wait times anywhere from 5 to 14 days. Since moving to Service Hub, average response times have dropped to just 13.3 hours, and it’s still falling,” says Stephen.
Having a user-friendly interface with one ticket accessible by all teams, a centralised customer care workspace, and automated replies and alerts has made a world of difference.
Personalised sales and marketing:
For customers, researching trips can take a year or more. By tracking customer engagements such as web page visits, destination searches, email clicks, live chats, calls, and questions, the team understands exactly what people are interested in when it comes time for inbound or outbound campaigns.
“We never bombard people with messages. Great marketing is a genuine service. It’s all about delivering relevant messages at the right time, personalised to our customers,” says Sean.
Meticulous booking and planning:
In the months before departure, the system centralises details such as guest specifications, service preferences, boating experience, special requests, destinations, transfers, and accommodation.
“On top of fine-tuning logistics and preparing behind the scenes, we use Marketing Hub to share personalised content with guests, such as weather conditions, gear to pack, travel tips, and destination information based on feedback from past trips,” explains Sean.
Seamless on-water operations:
As the crew prepares, they can view booking details in real time to organise the boats, staff, catering, equipment, plane transfers, hotel pickups, and more.
Life on the water can be unpredictable. If there are weather delays, issues, or itinerary changes, customer care and operations teams see that immediately — along with timely photos and messages — so they can preemptively make alternative arrangements and update travellers.
“As hosts, we’re like 5-star hotel concierges. Service Hub helps us anticipate and react to customers' needs and sort out all the details to make their trip as effortless and enjoyable as possible,” says Sean.
Post-trip service and follow-up:
Using Service Hub’s feedback surveys and past activity tracking, Sunsail and The Moorings understand customers’ preferred destinations, travel times, boat types, skipper qualifications, and budgets. Personalising trip recommendations based on this data makes rebooking easy for the sales team.
Taking this to the next level, Sunsail and The Moorings associate customers’ Net Promoter Score (NPS) scores with their profiles. If a survey is poor, it will automatically be added to the account manager’s pipeline with an alert for them to pick up immediately.
“As a result, our NPS has been going up and up and up as we’ve enhanced and optimised our response times, personalised service, and satisfaction surveys over time with the help of Service Hub.”
With brands across the wider Travelopia Group also using HubSpot, each business shares knowledge and best practices to maximise its benefits for customers and staff.
A future focus is further integrating online and offline marketing channels — from digital to trade shows, events, and direct mail — so the group can fully attribute and optimise marketing spend.
“HubSpot has been brilliant for us. It’s the only tool that works across all stages of our customer journey,” says Sean.
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