Spun shows every WhatsApp group your operations number is in next to your direct chats, with AI recaps, voice notes as text and reports on how your team answers in each group. It runs on a flat monthly plan with team members free and a free trial, and it needs no Business API approval and no new number.
This guide covers the rest: why tour operations end up in so many groups, how to follow them without reading every message, how to see who on your team is answering, and where the limits are.
Why tour operations live in WhatsApp groups
A tour operator or DMC rarely works in one-to-one chats alone. There is a group with each transport company, one per hotel partner, one per departure with the guide and the driver, one with sub-agents who sell your tours, and often one per traveller party. Each group is small, but together they are where pick-up times change, rooms get swapped and problems first appear.
The trouble is volume and scatter. A coordinator who is in 60 groups cannot read every message, and the one that matters, a driver saying the coach is late, sits between photos and thank-you notes. When the coordinator goes home, the groups stay on their phone, and nobody else on the team knows what was agreed.
The Business API cannot help here, because API-based tools cannot join the groups your number is already in. A normal WhatsApp number can, so the tool you use has to work with that number.
Put every group in one list
Start by connecting the number that is already in your groups. Spun links it as a device through a connection provider, the same way WhatsApp Web works, so the phone keeps working and every group the number belongs to appears in Groups & Channels.
From there the list behaves like a workspace rather than a phone screen. Search groups by name, filter them by label, open a group to manage participants or invite links, and export its member list as a CSV file when a supplier asks who is on the coach. Each group also shows its 7- and 30-day activity, its top senders and how its membership has grown.
- Label groups by type, such as Suppliers, Guides or Departures, so you can filter to one kind at a time.
- Name departure groups with the date first, so the list sorts in the order you need.
Related: WhatsApp groups for tour operations · Spun for tour operators
Stay on top of groups without reading every message
Reading everything does not scale past a handful of groups. Spun gives you three ways to read less and miss less, and most operators use all three.
- 1
A morning recap
The daily summary arrives at the time you choose, in Spun or on your own WhatsApp number, with short AI recaps of the last 24 hours in up to five groups you pick, plus your alarms and tasks for the day. Pick the groups for the departures running this week.
- 2
A standing question
A chat digest asks the same question across up to 25 chosen chats and groups, such as "which pick-up times changed and which bookings are still unconfirmed". Run it when you need it, or schedule it daily.
- 3
Alerts for what matters
An AI monitor watches selected groups for the signals you describe, such as a cancelled transfer or a complaint, and alerts you straight away or in a digest. Setting one up asks you to confirm you have consent for the groups first.
You can also ask Weave, Spun's assistant, a direct question about one group, such as "what did the hotel confirm about the late check-in". It answers from the messages in that group.
Voice notes and other languages
Guides and drivers send voice notes because they are driving or standing in a car park. Spun can transcribe incoming voice notes to text for every chat or only the groups you pick, and show the text in another language. Transcription is automatic and flags text it is unsure about, so check anything critical such as a pick-up time with the sender.
Partner groups often mix languages: a supplier writes in Spanish, a sub-agent in Arabic, your team in English. Translation shows each message in your language, and summaries and reports can be written in the language you choose.
See how your team answers in groups
In most operations, coordinators and guides answer in groups from their own phones, not from the shared operations number. That is fine. When they reply inside groups your number is in, Spun sees their messages, and once you tell Spun who your staff are it can count them.
Mark your staff in one of two ways: give their contacts a staff label, or keep an "Employees:" list of their phone numbers. Then ask Weave for a staff activity report for any period up to 92 days. It shows, per employee, messages sent, groups active, median response time and the share of requests answered within an hour. A group activity report lists the busiest groups first and the requests that had no team reply within an hour.
Per-person rows are part of advanced staff reporting on the larger plan; smaller plans show organisation totals or no staff report. Spun also keeps "sent from this number" apart from "replies by your team", so a report never shows a false zero for an agency that answers from staff phones.
Related: Plans and pricing
How one agency runs more than 2,000 groups
A Saudi umrah and hotel agency runs its operations through WhatsApp groups: hotels, transport companies and sub-agents, more than 2,000 groups on one agency number. The owner rarely posts. What the owner needs is to know what is happening and how each employee is handling it.
Spun connected the existing number with all of its groups. Arabic messages and voice notes are translated and transcribed, so nothing is missed. Each week the owner asks Weave for a management report: activity per employee and per group, response times and what is still waiting. Chat digests keep standing questions answered across the groups that matter most. The owner also connected their own ChatGPT through Spun MCP to list groups and read messages when preparing reports. The agency never needed the Business API, which cannot join groups.
Related: Spun for umrah and hajj agencies
Ask ChatGPT or Claude about your groups
If your team already works in ChatGPT or Claude, Spun MCP lets you connect your own AI account to your WhatsApp through Spun. The AI can then list your groups, read the messages and write the report you ask for, such as a weekly supplier issues list.
It runs in your AI account, so what it reads goes to that AI provider. A manager chooses the access level and can disconnect it at any time. If travellers share passport photos or ID numbers in groups, set PII redaction so personal data is removed before messages reach Spun's AI.
Related: Connect ChatGPT to your travel WhatsApp · Analyse WhatsApp group chats
Posting in groups
Many operators use Spun only to watch their groups and never send from it. When you do want to post, you write in the group from the shared inbox like any chat, and the whole team sees what was sent. Smart replies in groups appear only when you click "Suggest replies", so nothing is drafted into a group by itself.
For daily check-ins with a departure group, such as a morning voice note asking whether everyone is ready, a check-in rule prepares the message on schedule and it always waits in Approvals for a person to send.
The limits to know
- Spun sees only the groups your connected number is a member of. Add the number to a group to see it.
- It reads messages from when you linked the number onward, plus the history WhatsApp hands over at link. Older history is not fetched later.
- Members who hide their number in WhatsApp stay hidden in member lists and exports.
- AI recaps and transcripts are automatic. Treat them as a guide to where to look, and check times and names in the original message.
- Each running AI monitor and each daily digest uses a workflow slot, so the number you can run depends on your plan.
What Spun does not do
- It does not connect to your booking or reservation system. Copy what you need, or export contacts and chats to Google Sheets (one way, from Spun to the sheet).
- It does not take bookings or payments. Send your own booking or payment link; Spun can remind a traveller about a balance.
- It does not use the WhatsApp Business API or its message formats. It runs on your normal WhatsApp number, so normal WhatsApp limits apply.
- It does not post in groups on its own. Suggestions and check-in messages wait for a person, and a chatbot only runs if you switch it on, and marks its replies.
Related: Spun for travel businesses · Spun for tour operators