A proposal is your itinerary draft inside a trip, the structured place where you plan out each day, add components like flights and hotels, and share it with your client in a professional and aesthetic layout. When you create a trip, TripLoft automatically generates a default proposal with one section per day, so you can start building right away.
This article walks through the basics of building out a proposal: laying out sections, adding components, and getting it in front of your client.
🎥 Prefer to watch? See Proposal | TripLoft Academy for a video walkthrough.
Open the default proposal
Inside any trip, click the Proposals tab in the left navigation.
Click the default proposal card to open the builder.
You'll land on the proposal builder, which has two main areas:
The left panel (Add Items) lists every trip component you can drag into the proposal, plus shortcuts to import content from My Library, Smart Import using AI, and supplier bookings
The main area shows the proposal itself: a cover photo, name, description, and a series of sections you fill in
Understand the proposal layout
Every proposal starts with the same default structure:
A Trip Details section at the top, for generic information that applies to the whole trip, like an introduction, key inclusions, or contact info
One day section for each day of the trip, labeled "Day 1," "Day 2," and so on, with the corresponding date shown above each label when the trip has fixed dates. If the trip uses Add Dates Later (a day count instead of fixed dates), the sections show just "Day 1," "Day 2," etc., without dates
Each section has a placeholder reading Drop a component here until you fill it in.
Rename sections
The default section names are functional but generic. Give them clearer titles so your client can navigate the proposal more easily:
Click on the section header (for example, Day 1).
A side drawer opens from the right with section settings.
Edit the section name. For example, change "Day 1" to "Arrival in Paris."
Close the drawer. Changes auto-save as you type.
You can do this for any section, including Trip Details.
Add trip components
Components are the building blocks of a proposal: flights, hotels, activities, and so on. You add them by dragging from the left panel into any section.
In the left panel, find the component you want (for example, Lodging).
Click and hold the component, or use its drag handle on the left edge.
Drag it into the section where you want it to appear.
Drop it. The component appears in that section with a placeholder reading "No description added yet."
You can drop components into Trip Details just like any day section. This is useful for trip-wide items like a travel insurance overview or a welcome message.
Edit a component
Once a component is in a section, click on it to fill in the details:
Click anywhere on the component row.
An edit drawer opens from the right side of the screen.
Fill in the fields under General Info: title, travelers, dates, and other details specific to that component type (more on each component type later in this article).
As you type, TripLoft auto-saves your changes.
Click Save at the bottom of the drawer when you're done to close it.
You can come back and edit any component anytime by clicking on it again.
Assign travelers to a component
Each component drawer has a Travelers dropdown at the top. All travelers added to the trip are assigned to each component by default.
However, if you add a new traveler to the trip after a component has already been created, you may need to assign that traveler to the component manually - search for and select travelers from the dropdown, or click + Add from contacts to pull in someone new.
Travelers must exist in TripLoft Contacts before they can be added to a trip - once they're on the trip, they'll show up in this dropdown for every component.
Reorder sections and components
You'll often want to adjust the order of things as you build:
Components within a section: drag a component up or down within its section using the handle on its left edge
Components across sections: drag a component from one section into another (for example, move a flight from Day 2 to Day 1)
Sections: sections can only be swapped with the section directly above or below them, not freely repositioned. To swap, click the ⋮ menu on the right of any section header and choose Swap with previous day or Swap with next day. When you swap two sections, only the components inside them move. The date and title of each section stay in place.
Preview the proposal
Before sharing with your client, see what they'll actually see:
Click Preview at the top right of the proposal builder.
A new tab opens with a banner at the top reading "You are in preview mode. This is what your proposal looks like to your clients."
Browse through the proposal as your client would, then close the tab to return to editing.
Save vs. Publish - the most important distinction
This is the single most important thing to understand about how proposals work in TripLoft.
Save stores your changes inside TripLoft. Your client doesn't see saved changes; saving just protects your work
Publish pushes your most recently saved changes to the client portal. Only published content is visible to your client
If you make edits after publishing, those new edits are not automatically reflected to your client. You have to publish again to push them through. The workflow is always: edit and save, then publish when you're ready for your client to see the latest version.
The Publish button is available both at the top of any proposal and at the trip level. Both do the same thing: clicking either one pushes every change you've saved across the trip to the client portal.
Share the proposal with your client
Once published, you can deliver the proposal to your client in two ways:
Click Share at the top right of the proposal.
Choose:
Via Email: opens an in-app composer with the trip's travelers pre-populated in the To field, the trip name in the Subject line, and a default email body containing the proposal link. You can edit the body directly, or use Ask AI to refine the content. The email is sent from TripLoft with your reply-to address set to your own, so any client response comes back to your inbox
Copy Link: opens a small dialog with a shortened, shareable link you can paste anywhere (chat, email, message)
Trip components reference
Each trip component you drag into a section opens an edit drawer with multiple tabs. The General Info tab is the one you'll fill in for the basics. The Media, Attachments, Pricing & Booking, and Invoice tabs are covered in their own articles - for pricing, see Configure Pricing for Proposal Components, and for media and attachments, see Manage Documents & Media in a Trip. Most components are self-explanatory, but a few have richer flows worth walking through. Click on each to expand and see the details.
Flights
Flights
Flights can be added in two ways: manually, or by searching a GDS.
By default, the Flights drawer opens in GDS search mode:
Enter the Flight date and Airline / Airline Code (searchable).
Type the Flight number and click Search Flight. TripLoft pulls the flight details automatically.
Use + Add Flight to add additional legs to a multi-leg journey.
Use Add Seat next to each traveler's name to assign specific seats.
To add a flight manually instead, flip the Add manually toggle at the top right of each Flight Leg. This is useful for charter flights, low-cost carriers, or anything not in the GDS.
The Flight display dropdown at the top of the drawer controls how multi-leg flights are presented to your client (combined vs. per-leg).
[SCREENSHOT: Edit Flight drawer showing the Add manually toggle and Search Flight button]
Lodging
Lodging
Lodging supports a name-based autopopulate that pulls in details automatically:
Start typing the Property name field. A dropdown of matching hotels appears.
Select one. TripLoft pulls in basic property details, room information, and media automatically. Anything auto-populated stays editable.
Fill in Check-in date/time, Check-out date/time, and timezone.
Pricing and attachments are not auto-populated - you fill those in separately on the Pricing & Booking and Attachments tabs.
Adding rooms
Lodging has a dedicated Room tab. Each lodging can have multiple rooms, with travelers assigned to specific rooms:
Open the Room tab and click + Add Room.
Give the room a name and description.
From the Unassigned Travelers list at the bottom, drag traveler chips into the room they'll be staying in.
If you'd rather show your client multiple room options and let them choose, use the Convert to Options button at the top. See Manage Room and Cabin Options for the full flow.
Cruise
Cruise
Cruises can be added in two ways: by searching the Cruise Library, or manually.
By default, the Cruise drawer opens in library search mode, where you can search and pull a cruise's full details in automatically. See Import a Cruise from the Cruise Library for the detailed flow.
To add a cruise manually, flip the Add manually toggle at the top right. Manual mode lets you enter the Carrier, Ship, and build the cruise itinerary port by port: a Departure port and Arrival port are required, and you can add intermediate ports via + Add Port. Each port has its own date, time, and timezone.
Ports
Whether the cruise is added from the library or manually, TripLoft automatically creates two Port components in your proposal: one for departure and one for arrival. These appear as their own line items in the relevant day sections.
You can also drag a Port component from the left panel directly into any section. When you do, it gets linked to a cruise via a dropdown inside the Port drawer.
If you delete a cruise that has linked ports, TripLoft will ask whether to delete the linked ports too or keep them as standalone components.
Adding cabins
Cruise has a dedicated Cabin tab. The flow mirrors Lodging's Room tab. Add multiple cabins, give each one a name and description, and drag travelers from the Unassigned Travelers list into the cabin they're booked in. The Convert to Options button at the top works the same way as it does for Lodging rooms.
[SCREENSHOT: Edit Cruise drawer showing the Cabin tab with cabins and traveler assignment]
Hiding and deleting components
Every component row has a ⋮ menu on the far right with two options:
Hide in Client View: keeps the component in your internal proposal but hides it from what the client sees. Useful for internal notes, supplier confirmations, or speculative items you're not ready to show
Delete: removes the component from the proposal entirely
When you delete a cruise that has linked ports, TripLoft will surface a confirmation modal asking how to handle the linked ports:
Delete Cruise & All Linked Ports: removes everything
Delete Cruise Only: keeps the ports as standalone components
Sections cannot be deleted directly. They're tied to the trip's duration, so the only way to remove a section is to shorten the trip's duration in the proposal settings. When you do, TripLoft will ask how to handle any components on the affected days. See Edit Proposal Settings for adjusting a proposal's dates and duration.
Save a component to My Library
If you've built a component you want to reuse on future trips (a popular hotel, a standard ground transfer setup, a frequently-recommended activity), click Save to Library at the bottom of the edit drawer. This adds the component to My Library.
For more, see Import from My Library.