A customer asks, “Why is this year's tour price higher than last year's?” The answer is spread across five places
The extra NT$3,600 per person breaks down into the exchange rate, maple-season hotel rates, a fuel surcharge, and one sentence that was only ever said in a group chat.
Ms. Chen from a client's employee welfare committee sends a message on LINE: “Why is this year's company trip about NT$3,000 more per person than last year's?” It is one question, but the answer is scattered across five places. (The scenario and numbers below are illustrative.)
That trip was a year ago. The quote is stored in Google Drive, the yen rate is in finance's Excel file, the maple-season hotel rate is in an email the hotel sent to the group department's shared inbox, the fuel surcharge is in a notice from the airline, and one more piece was only ever said in the LINE client group with the welfare committee. Sales reps and ops (tour operations) at travel agencies deal with questions like this every day.
The short version. Take last year's quote as the baseline. The extra NT$3,600 per person breaks down into four items: the yen rate, maple-season hotel rates, the fuel surcharge, and guide tips. Those four sit in finance's Excel file, two emails, and one LINE group. ANIMA finds them all in one pass and attaches a source to each, and the draft reply to the client goes out only after the sales rep confirms it.
The price gap, broken down: five pieces of data
It is the same five-day, four-night trip to Kyoto and the same hotel, but this year it departs in maple season. This year's price is NT$42,500 per person against NT$38,900 last year, a difference of NT$3,600. Explaining the gap means checking five pieces of data: last year's quote is the baseline, and each of the other four explains part of the difference.
| Where it lives | What it answers | What it said |
|---|---|---|
| Last year's quote | What was last year's price? | Five days, four nights in Kyoto, NT$38,900 per person |
| Finance's exchange rate sheet | How much did the rate change? | Last year 1 yen = NT$0.215; this year NT$0.225 |
| Hotel email | Why did the hotel cost more? | Maple-season rates are higher: about NT$1,500 more per person for four nights at the same hotel |
| Airline notice | What about the flights? | Fuel surcharge adjusted: about NT$600 more per person |
| LINE group | What was left out last year? | The sales rep agreed that the company would cover guide tips, about NT$500 per person, and it was not written on the quote |
Why this question is hard to answer
Each document knows only its own piece. Last year's quote does not know the exchange rate at the time. Historical yen rates can be looked up at Bank of Taiwan, but which day's rate last year's quote used is recorded only in finance's Excel file. The maple-season hotel rate is in one email in the shared inbox, and the fuel surcharge notice is in another; fuel surcharges on international flights from Taiwan-based airlines move with oil prices, so the amount can differ each time (see the surcharge explanation from the Civil Aeronautics Administration). To answer, a sales rep has to dig these out one email at a time.
The guide tip was never written into any document. “We'll cover the guide tips” was agreed by last year's sales rep in the client group with the welfare committee, and it does not appear on the quote. Under Article 9 of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications' standard contract template for overseas travel, guide tips are not part of the trip price to begin with, so last year's coverage was something the rep agreed to on top. If the rep who handled it last year has since moved on, the new rep has no idea this happened and only sees a gap that does not add up.
In peak season, sales reps and ops are running several groups at once. Often the first reply to the client is “let me look into it,” followed by digging through emails one by one, asking colleagues one by one, putting the five pieces together, and working out the difference by hand.
With or without AI, when a client asks about a price increase, you can start by looking at these four kinds of records:
- Last year's quote for the same trip Whether the departure date was low or peak season, and whether the hotel is the same one.
- The exchange rate used on the day of the quote Which day's rate was used last year and this year, and how far apart they are.
- This year's notices from the hotel and the airline Whether room rates or fuel surcharges were adjusted.
- Anything promised last year but not written into the quote Tips, extra meals, and room upgrades are often only mentioned in a group chat or on the phone.
How ANIMA answers this question
ANIMA is an AI agent connected to your company's LINE groups, Google Drive, NAS, and email. You ask a question, and it finds the answer and attaches the sources. Gemini or ChatGPT can read an Excel file you upload, but they cannot read last year's LINE group or your company mailbox, and those are the places this question needs.
1. Ask directly in the LINE group
Sales reps do not need to leave LINE or open another system. In the internal group, @ANIMA and type one line: “Why is the welfare committee's trip price higher than last year's?” That is all it takes.
2. It checks five places and breaks the gap down
ANIMA reads last year's quote, finance's exchange rate sheet, the hotel and airline emails in the shared inbox, and the client group with the welfare committee, then splits the extra NT$3,600 per person into four reasons:
- Yen exchange rate: NT$1,000 About 100,000 yen per person in local costs, and each yen costs NT$0.01 more: 100,000 × 0.01 = NT$1,000.
- Maple-season hotel rate: NT$1,500 Four nights at the same hotel, with higher room rates in maple season.
- Fuel surcharge: NT$600 The airline adjusted the amount this year.
- Guide tips: NT$500 The company absorbed them last year; this year they are listed in the trip price.
The four items add up to NT$3,600, exactly matching the gap. ANIMA has to be added to the group and connected to the mailbox before it can read this data, and who can see what follows the permissions your company sets; for details, see “How ANIMA protects your data”.
Every number comes with a source you can click back to the original data. Click “LINE group” and you see the message where last year's rep agreed to cover the tips: who said it, in which group, on what day. Click “Hotel email” and the email opens, the one from the hotel with the maple-season rates. A newly assigned sales rep does not have to ask around again and can check the answer for themselves. For other examples that pull from several places, see AI workflows.
3. A draft reply to the client, sent only after you confirm
ANIMA has the reply to Ms. Chen ready in the internal group, explaining the four reasons in terms the client can follow. The draft is never sent on its own. The sales rep edits it, confirms it, and pastes it back to the client.
Hello Ms. Chen, this year's price is NT$3,600 more per person, mainly for four reasons: a higher yen exchange rate, maple-season hotel rates, an adjusted fuel surcharge, and the guide tips that we covered last year and have included in the trip price this year.
4. It remembers what was agreed this time
When a sales rep says in the group, “From now on, guide tips are included in the trip price for the welfare committee's trips,” you can ask ANIMA to remember that, and it shows you what it has saved. Next year, when someone quotes this client, it raises that condition first and attaches the original message. For how quoting itself works, see “Sales and quotes”.
What ANIMA cannot find. It can only look in the places that are connected. If the guide tip was promised over the phone and nobody wrote it into the group or an email afterward, ANIMA cannot find that piece either. For anything agreed on a call, add a line in the group after you hang up.
If your sales reps are also often asked “why is it more than last year,” you can book a 30-minute call, bring one of your own group quotes, and we'll walk through it together.