ApproveThis manages your Xola Integration approvals.

When Booking Chaos Meets Approval Gridlock

Lets get real: your adventure business isnt just selling zip lines or kayak tours. Youre selling time slots. Every minute spent waiting for someone to approve a group booking, update pricing, or greenlight a new experience is money left on the table. Xola handles the bookings. ApproveThis handles the bottlenecks. Together? They turn "waiting on approvals" from a daily frustration into a closed-loop system that actually works.

Why This Combo Works for Mid-Sized Operators

Most tour companies outgrow spreadsheets and email chains around the 50-employee mark. Youve got:

• Sales teams booking corporate retreats needing manager sign-off
• Operations managers juggling guide schedules and equipment rentals
• Marketing teams launching new experiences stuck in legal review

ApproveThis doesnt just move paperwork faster. It gives each team control over their part of the process without requiring everyone to live in Xola. Approvers get what they need in email (yes, even the CEO who refuses to learn new software), and you get an audit trail that doesnt rely on chasing down reply-all emails.

Three Ways This Integration Solves Real Problems

1. Large Group Bookings That Dont Ghost You

A school district wants to book 200 students for next month. Your sales rep creates the Xola booking, which triggers an approval chain in ApproveThis. The ops lead checks guide availability, finance verifies the deposit terms, and the GM gives final pricing approval. All before the client refreshes their inbox.

Key feature: Approval thresholds auto-approve discounts under 10% but escalate anything higher to the CFO. No more undercutting prices because someone didnt check the matrix.

2. Launching New Experiences Without Committee Hell

Marketing creates a new sunset cruise package in Xola. ApproveThis automatically routes it through safety compliance (permits), operations (boat capacity), and legal (waivers). If the operations managers OOO, vacation delegation shifts approvals to their second-in-command. Launch date stays on track.

Hidden win: Calculated fields in ApproveThis automatically flag if the new pricing would undercut existing packages. No more manual cross-checking.

3. When Last-Minute Changes Actually Last Minute

A client wants to add 10 people to tomorrows tour. The guide approves the capacity change in ApproveThis via email, which auto-updates the Xola booking and triggers a payment link. No back-office scramble. No overbooked vans.

Why it matters: Real-time tracking means the sales team sees approved changes instantly. Theyre not fielding angry calls because the system hasnt synced.

Setting This Up Without Hiring a Zapier Expert

Connect Xola and ApproveThis in 15 minutes flat:

1. Grab your Xola API keys (here's Xola's guide)
2. Connect both apps through Zapier  no coding
3. Build your first "New Xola Booking 192 ApproveThis Request" Zap
4. Add conditional logic like: If booking total > $5k, require CFO approval

Pro tip: Use ApproveThis's email-based approvals so external vendors (like contracted caterers) can approve without getting Xola logins.

Who Actually Benefits in Your Company

Operations Teams

Stop playing phone tag with guides about availability. ApproveThis routes booking requests with exact participant counts and dates. Approve/deny right from your inbox, or set auto-approvals for last-minute changes under 10% capacity.

Sales Teams

Close group deals faster by showing real-time approval progress. If a client asks "When will we get the contract?", pull up the ApproveThis dashboard instead of making excuses.

Finance Teams

Custom workflows require PO numbers or budget codes before approvals. Automatic escorts for anything over $10k? Yes. Audit trails that dont require digging through Slack? Double yes.

The Nuts and Bolts You Care About

No extra Xola seats needed: Approvers only interact with ApproveThis. Great for one-off vendors or execs who wont log into yet another system.

Two-way sync that matters: Approval statuses update Xola bookings automatically. Denied requests trigger cancellation emails through Xola. No manual toggling.

Scale without chaos: Duplicate workflows for different tour types. A 50-person corporate hike requires HR approval. A public weekend tour doesnt. You set the rules once.

This Isnt Just About Saying Yes Faster

Its about eliminating the Whos got the latest version? chaos. When every booking change or new experience goes through predefined approval chains:

• Legal catches liability issues before the waiver is signed
• Ops cant accidentally overbook guides
• Marketing gets data on why listings get rejected (fix the problem, dont just resubmit)

And when (not if) you get audited? Pull the ApproveThis report showing who approved what, when, and with which terms. No more I thought you checked that! finger-pointing.

How to Not Screw This Up

Common mistakes weve seen:

Dont: Create one massive approval workflow for all booking types. A $500 family booking needing 3 approvals will annoy everyone.

Do: Use calculated fields to auto-route requests. Examples: Booking value >$5k? Route to CFO. International clients? Add legal review.

Dont: Let managers micromanage every tiny approval. Set thresholds so they only get pinged when it matters.

Do: Use vacation delegation. July is peak season  ensure backups are assigned so approvals dont stall because someones off-grid.

Ready to Stop Chasing Approvals?

ApproveThis isnt another tool that might work. Its the missing layer that makes Xola actually fit how your company operates now that youre not a 5-person startup.

Book a 15-minute demo and well show you how to:

- Set up your first Xola-to-ApproveThis workflow live

- Import existing approval rules from spreadsheets/email

- Train your team in under 30 minutes

Or screw around with CCd emails and missed approvals for another quarter. Your call.

Show Me How It Works 192