Moving from direct bookings to a platform: a port agency playbook
By Henry Popiolek · Published 21 May 2026
Staze is in use across more than 75 countries on every continent, with port agency networks large and small. Over the years we've worked closely with these clients on what actually makes a rollout succeed, what tends to slow it down, and what's worth doing in what order.
This piece shares that playbook. If your agency is considering moving hotel bookings onto a platform, this is what the path typically looks like.
Start with a pilot, across a handful of ports
The first move is a pilot. The shape of it matters: a single port is too small a sample to draw conclusions from, and rolling out everywhere at once before anyone's actually used the system is too much change too fast.
A handful of ports works best. Enough to see how Staze performs across different markets, hotel types, and booking patterns. Enough to get multiple bookers using the platform so you're not relying on one person's experience. Enough to give you real numbers when you decide whether to expand.
Pick ports where you have meaningful booking volume, ideally a mix: somewhere you have a direct deal you're happy with, somewhere you don't, somewhere with a difficult invoicing history. That spread tells you the most about what Staze will do for the rest of your network.
Training call before any bookings happen
Once the pilot ports are agreed, we run a training call with your team. The Staze team demos the platform, walks through the specific ports you'll be booking in, and answers whatever your bookers want to ask.
The purpose is straightforward: bookers need confidence in the system before they trust it with a live crew change, and they need to know how to get help when something doesn't go to plan. Staze has a 24/7 help centre, and we explain on the call exactly how to reach it. After that, bookers know what to do when a vessel schedule shifts at 11pm on a Sunday.
Bringing the bookers with you
This is the part of a rollout that's easy to underestimate. Most bookers have been handling crew change hotels the same way for years, often a decade or more. Booking through a platform is a real behaviour change, not just a new tool.
Two things matter here. The first is being clear with your team about why you're making the change in the first place: faster invoicing, less chasing, better commercial control, more flexibility on which hotels they can book. Bookers adopt new systems much faster when they understand what's in it for them and for the business, rather than feeling something's been imposed on them.
The second is accepting that there will be teething pains. A booker who's done something one way for years isn't going to be at peak speed on a new system in week one. Mistakes happen, questions come up, edge cases surface. That's normal. Our job is to support your team through it, with hands-on help during the early bookings, fast responses from the help centre, and direct contact with the Staze team for anything that needs escalating. Done properly, the curve flattens within a few weeks.
Bookings start, with weekly reports
From there, your team starts booking on Staze in the pilot ports. The weekly rhythm is simple. Program leaders receive a booking report showing number of bookings, spend, and earnings. Individual bookers log in and book hotels.
One practical recommendation: bookers should log in with a shared team inbox, not personal email addresses. Crew changes don't pause when someone's on leave, and a shared inbox means anyone on the team can pick up a booking, amend it, or handle an issue without needing to chase a colleague.
Feedback call after a month
After roughly a month of bookings, we run a feedback call. The point isn't to sell anything further, it's to understand how the platform is performing in practice, what's working, what isn't, and what would make it work better for your team.
Most issues that come up here are small and quickly fixable. Sometimes a booker has a workflow question that hasn't been answered. Sometimes there's a port where the hotel mix needs adjusting. Sometimes there's a request to upload specific hotels or set up a particular markup configuration. The call is the place where those get raised and resolved.
Expanding from there
Once the pilot has run and the feedback's been worked through, the conversation shifts to scale. That usually involves:
- Adding more ports onto the platform
- Setting up training for additional bookers or offices
- Uploading any direct deals you have at specific hotels so those bookings flow through Staze too
- Refining the commercial setup, markup approach, rebate structure, anything that benefits from a second pass once you've seen the platform in action
This stage moves at your pace. Some agencies expand quickly once the pilot results are clear. Others roll out port by port over a longer period. Both work.
What makes rollouts succeed
The single biggest factor we've seen, across years of onboardings, is whether program leaders treat the rollout as a real internal priority rather than a side project. That doesn't mean huge resource. It means someone owning it, attending the calls, checking the weekly reports, raising issues as they come up. Two hours a week of attention from the right person makes the difference between a pilot that proves the case and one that drifts.
The good news on the other side: after a few weeks of using the platform, bookers tend to appreciate how quick it is, how easy it is to get help when they need it, and the fact that it takes a chunk of fiddly work off their plate so they can focus on other parts of their job. The early friction passes. The improvement sticks.
If you're considering a move and want to talk through what your specific rollout would look like, get in touch.
