From the system behind every booking to the platform its clients travel with
Travel Places arranges travel for sports teams, media and entertainment, from flights and hotels to the coach at the airport. For nearly ten years we have built the systems behind it: first on FileMaker, joining operations, flights and finance into one estate, and for the last 18 months on the web, one module at a time.
- Client
- Travel Places
- Working together
- Nearly ten years
- Pillars
- Systems
- Partnership
- 360
Nearly ten years behind every trip.
It started with one internal platform on FileMaker, built to run Travel Places' operations more efficiently. As the business grew, so did the platform: enquiries across flights and hotels for client after client, then finance, with invoices, purchase orders and the commission hotels owe, until one estate ran the business day to day.
Today an embedded team of ours works as Travel Places' digital partner: it sets the technical direction with Travel Places as well as building. The operations are moving to the web module by module while the business keeps running, and with that foundation in place, the portal its clients use is next.
The partnership in numbers
Nearly 10
Years building Travel Places' systems
18
Months moving the estate to the web, module by module
1,800+
Changes shipped to the web platform since January 2026
2 min
For a change on the web to reach FileMaker, and back
How we work together now
One embedded team across three parts of the business, each building on the one before it.
- 01OperationsThe foundation
One platform for every trip
Events, bookings, suppliers, seats and travellers on the web, in step with the FileMaker systems the business has run on for years, so every department works from the same record.
- 02FinanceThe engine
Money that follows the booking
Commission invoiced and chased every night, supplier payments from request to paid, and client purchase orders against an event's sale value, all on the booking itself.
- 03ClientsWhat it unlocks
The trip in the client's hands
TP Connect shows clients their travel today. Its next version, designed with Travel Places, puts travellers, seats, rooms and requests in their hands, with an app for the ground.
The pains we set out to solve
Much of the travel industry still runs on dated tools, and a sports team's trip touches many of them, from booking platforms to back offices: dozens of people on flights, in rooms and on coaches, with every change mattering to someone. Travel Places needed systems shaped around how it actually works, joined to the platforms around it.
As the business grew, so did the data. FileMaker held it well, but its screens could no longer show it well, and every department kept its own view of the same trip. Moving to the web could not mean stopping: Travel Places books, travels and invoices every day.
What we set out to do together
Make the operation efficient first: one record of every event, booking, supplier and traveller, the finance that follows it automated, and the systems around it joined in, so the team spends its time on the trip rather than on the admin.
Then give clients the same view: a portal and an app on that foundation, where each team manages its travellers, sees its bookings and raises its requests, as the core of Travel Places' digital experience.
How the work grew, one piece at a time.
From the foundations to the client, each step built on the last. Scroll to watch Travel Places' estate come together.
Travel Places' estate in three stages. Foundations: the FileMaker systems for operations and flights, and finance in the same estate. Connect: the passport form, web pages inside FileMaker, the operations platform on the web and commission chased every night. Clients: TP Connect today, and the portal and app designed next. Beneath them, reports and a two-minute sync keep every part in step.
One internal platform, on FileMaker
Built to make Travel Places' operations efficient: enquiries across flights and hotels, for a growing list of clients, most of them in sport.
Finance in the same estate
Invoices, purchase orders and the commission hotels owe, joined to the bookings they come from, so finance and operations read the same record.
TP Connect
A portal on FileMaker WebDirect where Travel Places' clients follow their budgets and their travel.
Passports from a text message
A short form a traveller opens on their phone to confirm their passport details, checked against what Travel Places already holds.
The web, inside FileMaker
The first web pages run inside FileMaker itself: a client list, traveller forms, a flight list by phase and cabin, and reports for the client.
The operations platform goes live
Events, bookings, suppliers, tasks and the seat mapper on the web. Every change reaches FileMaker within two minutes.
Commission, chased every night
Invoices raised after every stay and chased at set intervals, with supplier payments and client purchase orders on the booking.
The trip in the client's hands
The next TP Connect, designed with Travel Places: travellers, seats, rooms and requests for each client, and an app for the ground.
- Travel Places · FileMaker
Flight and passenger reports inside FileMaker
Reports by flight, airport, date and client in a FileMaker web viewer, in an internal version and one for the client.
FileMakerReportingWeb viewer
What comes next
The work ahead, in the order it is planned.
- The new client portal and mobile app, built on the operations platform
- Requests for proposal to hotels and proposals to clients, switched on in the platform
- Passport review, bulk import and duplicate merging rolled out to the team
- More of the FileMaker estate moved to the web, one module at a time