Data migration fear keeps more agencies trapped on bad software than any other factor. Here's what actually goes wrong in traditional migrations—and how AI-powered import finally makes switching painless.
You know your current software is holding you back. You've seen the demos, compared the features, maybe even picked your replacement. But then you think about the migration—and suddenly staying stuck feels easier than switching. You're not alone. Data migration fear keeps more agencies trapped on bad software than any other factor.
Let's talk about why onboarding to new travel agency software feels so terrifying, what actually goes wrong, and how AI-powered data import is finally making pain-free migrations a reality.
Ask any travel agency owner what stops them from switching software, and you'll hear the same concerns:
These fears aren't irrational. They're based on real experiences—horror stories passed around the industry about migrations that went catastrophically wrong.
The hidden cost: Agencies lose an estimated £15,000-50,000 per year staying on inadequate software because the perceived cost of switching feels higher. It rarely is.
Having helped agencies migrate from dozens of different systems, we've seen every failure mode. Here's what typically derails migrations:
Your old system stores dates as "15/12/2024". The new one expects "2024-12-15". Your customer names are "SMITH, JOHN" but need to be "John Smith". Phone numbers have brackets, dashes, spaces—all different.
Multiply these tiny format differences across thousands of records and dozens of fields. Manual fixing takes days and inevitably introduces errors.
Your old system has a field called "Client Reference". The new system has "Customer ID", "Account Number", and "External Reference". Which maps to which? What about fields that don't exist in the new system?
Without careful mapping, data ends up in wrong fields or gets lost entirely.
Customer #1234 has bookings #5678 and #9012. In your old system, these are linked. But when you import customers first, then bookings separately, how does the new system know booking #5678 belongs to customer #1234?
Preserving the relationships between customers, bookings, payments, and notes is where most DIY migrations fail completely.
John Smith, J. Smith, Mr John Smith, and john.smith@email.com—are these one customer or four? Your old system might have duplicates you never noticed. Import them blindly and you've multiplied the problem.
You import all your customers, only to realise you forgot the passport expiry dates. Or the marketing preferences. Or the notes field that contains critical booking details. Back to square one.
Until recently, agencies had three options for migration—all painful:
Export to CSV. Spend weekends reformatting in Excel. Hope you mapped everything correctly. Discover problems months later when you can't find a booking.
Cost: £0 cash, 40-100 hours of your time, high risk of errors
Pay someone £500-2,000 to manage the migration. Better than DIY, but they still face the same format and mapping challenges. And they don't know your business.
Cost: £500-2,000, still 2-4 weeks, medium risk
Abandon your history. Start the new system with a clean slate. Lose years of customer data, booking history, and business intelligence.
Cost: Priceless data lost forever
None of these are good options. Which is why agencies stay stuck, year after year, on software they've outgrown.
AI-powered data import isn't just faster manual work. It fundamentally solves the problems that made migrations painful:
When AI sees "15/12/2024" and "2024-12-15" in the same dataset, it understands these are the same format challenge and converts them consistently. It recognises "UK", "United Kingdom", "Great Britain", and "GB" as the same country without you creating a mapping table.
AI can look at your data and understand that "Customer_ID" in your bookings table matches "ID" in your customers table—even if they're named differently. It rebuilds the relationships automatically.
Instead of discovering errors months later, AI reviews your entire dataset before import. Impossible dates? Flagged. Potential duplicates? Highlighted for review. Missing required fields? Listed clearly.
If you correct AI's interpretation of one field, it applies that learning to similar fields automatically. The more you use it, the smarter it gets about your specific data patterns.
With AI-powered import, the process becomes surprisingly simple:
Total time: Hours, not weeks. Total stress: Minimal.
Even with AI making migration easy, we recommend running both systems in parallel for 2-4 weeks. Here's why:
Pro tip: During parallel running, use the ID mapping report to quickly find the same record in both systems. Old booking reference #12345 instantly shows you the new SimpTrav booking ID.
Not all "AI import" features are equal. When evaluating software, ask:
The migration fear that's keeping you on inadequate software? It's based on yesterday's reality. AI-powered import has fundamentally changed what's possible.
Yes, switching software is a decision that deserves careful thought. But "what if migration is a nightmare?" is no longer a valid reason to stay stuck. The technology exists to make it painless.
The real question isn't whether you can migrate safely—it's how much longer you're willing to pay the cost of not switching.
SimpTrav includes AI-powered data import free with every plan. Download the template, paste your data, and watch AI do the heavy lifting. No consultants, no weekends lost to spreadsheets.
See how SimpTrav can save you 52-68% compared to piecing together multiple tools.
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