Congratulations! By now you've successfully reserved your trip and set your earnings. Now you get to choose your launch date. 🚀 A launch date is the moment you’ll start inviting your community to book their spots.

It’s important to set a launch date because:

There are a few things to consider that will ensure you’re set up for a smooth and impactful launch...

Decide on a specific date and time to announce that your trip is open for bookings. This is more than just a target date, it’s the official starting point for promoting and filling your trip! It’s a big, celebratory moment.

Remember, your launch date must be within 14 days of when you reserved your trip.

Draft up a promotion plan for at least 30 days — and stick to it! This should include hyping up your trip prior to launch day, your ‘now open for bookings’ announcement, and subsequent promotions to keep the trip top of mind for your community. You’ll need to collect at least 2 bookings within the first 14 days of your launch to avoid trip cancellation, so having an effective plan and holding yourself accountable to promoting will be essential.

To keep things easy, our team has built out a 30-day promotion template that you can use to map out your plans. Beyond that, we have an entire library of articles dedicated to promotions that will help you fill your trip!

Although we recommend having a month of promotions planned out for launch, it’s important to note that trips often take up to 3 months to fill! Continuing to promote to keep the trip on your community’s radar will be key.

Speaking of promotions, one of the best ways to ensure a successful trip launch is to have a direct line to your most engaged community members who are ready to book. Just share your Host Profile Page link and encourage folks to join your trip mailing list so they can gain exclusive early access to spots and savings on your trip(s) a.k.a. early bird pricing.

Head to the portal to grab your Host Profile link. Then you can use social media, your website, or any other platform where your audience is active to promote it and collect emails. The more people you can reach, the better your chances of filling your trip quickly!

One of the additional ways Trova supports our Hosts is by offering each and every one of them a free email marketing tool. It’s complete with our most effective subject lines and messaging tactics that will get your community hyped and inspired to book. The templates even contain areas where you can add a customized message that speaks directly to your audience.

Check out this quick article to get more details and how to use it.

Launch day…it’s finally here! Time to jump for joy and jump online to officially welcome bookings with open arms.

Get online a few hours before launch and share an official reminder, letting your community know when exactly your trip opens so they can snag their spot.

Sounds the alarms! Share everywhere with a clear call to action. Let your community know how excited you are to travel with them and that if they want to join you, the time to book is now. As in today. As in right this minute, because there’s no telling how long the booking window will be open. Whether in a live Q&A, a post, an email, or something else entirely, this is the time to be direct.

It’s way more fun to focus on travel and adventure and building community, but let’s be real, traveling the world does cost money. But it’s also one of the best investments someone can make in themselves—and we believe that with our whole heart.

We know talking finances can feel awkward or icky, but the reality is, knowing the exact pricing details and payment options will put your Travelers at ease. Start with early bird discounts and be sure to share that trips don’t need to be paid in full right away. Travelers can start with just a 25% deposit to lock in their spot, or apply to pay over time with Affirm’s 6, 12, or 18-month plans* (a millennial’s dream).

Talking about payment options is also a good opportunity to segue into specifics. Any unknowns make folks less likely to book and if there’s one thing people hate more than reading, it’s doing math. So break everything down for them. Instead of just saying the deposit is 25%, give them the exact dollar amount. Instead of saying final payments are due 90 days before the trip starts, give them an exact date. This will clear things up for your community and make it that much easier for them to say yes.

Also, be sure to really drive home the value of everything that’s included in your trip. Are you leading workshops? Talk about them! Is the itinerary packed to the brim with bucket list adventures? Get them excited and envision themselves there! Oh, and don’t forget, a local Guide will be there with you and your group the whole time, leading you every step of the way. Talk about a VIP experience!

As early bird spots fill, you may want to dust off an old QVC classic and countdown the ones remaining. Counting spots via Stories, posts, or Instagram Live tend to be very effective methods. Whichever way you prefer, just don’t forget to make that initial call to action!

Launch day is a big milestone, but it’s not the final one. There’s still plenty to look forward to — like making new friends and actually traveling — but you’re also probably wondering how long it will take for your trip to confirm. To that we say: relax. It’s not a Taylor Swift concert so, even with your fantastic promotion, selling spots can take some time. How long? It’s perfectly normal to take days, weeks, or even months. 😱 And we get it, waiting is annoying AF. But just remember Trova is your partner in this process which means your rep is there to workshop promotion ideas that will make your trip happen.