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Lato Zapier integrationAutomate Lato with Zapier.

Lato Zapier integration: 2 triggers, 2 actions, 0 searches. Lato, the itinerary tool for travel professionals, can push every new or edited traveler contact to the rest of your tools the moment it changes, and receive contacts from your forms and CRM in return.

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Overview

What the Lato Zapier integration does for a travel business

The integration lets a Zap (an automation that runs a set of steps every time something happens in an app) move traveler contacts in and out of Lato without copy and paste. Lato can start Zaps when a contact is added or edited, and it can receive new or updated contacts from other tools.

Three results tourism teams actually use. One list of travelers everywhere: New Contact sends each traveler you create in Lato to your mailing tool or a shared sheet, so marketing and operations work from the same names. Leads that arrive ready for an itinerary: a quote request from your website form becomes a Lato contact through Create Contact, and you start designing the trip without retyping anything. Corrections that follow the traveler: when someone fixes a phone number or an email in Lato, Updated Contact carries the change to your CRM; going the other way, Update Contact keeps Lato current when the CRM changes first.

Both Lato triggers are instant: Lato tells Zapier itself, so the polling grid of your plan never slows them down. That makes Lato friendly to the free plan, as long as each Zap stays at two steps.

What Zapier does not do here. The integration only knows contacts: nothing about itineraries, trips, bookings or payments goes through it. There is no search either, so a Zap cannot look up whether a traveler already exists before creating one. If you are comparing platforms, see our Make vs Zapier and n8n vs Zapier comparisons.

Vocabulary

Zapier vocabulary in one minute

Eight words appear on every Zapier screen. Plain definitions first, then the rest of the page uses them as is.

Zap
The automation you build on Zapier: one starting event, then one or more steps that run each time that event happens.
Trigger
The event in an app that starts the Zap, like a new contact in Lato. Once the Zap is switched on, Zapier waits for it.
Action
What the Zap does once it has started: the step that writes, sends or updates something for you in another app.
Task
The unit Zapier bills: one action the Zap completes successfully. Your plan's allowance is counted in tasks.
Polling trigger
A trigger Zapier checks on a timer, asking the app for new items at a fixed interval that depends on your plan.
Instant trigger
A trigger the app reports itself the moment the event happens, so nothing waits for the next check. Both Lato triggers work this way.
Filter
A step that lets the Zap continue only when the incoming data meets a rule you set, and stops it otherwise.
Multi-step Zap
Any Zap beyond one trigger and one action. A filter or a second action makes it one, and it then needs a paid plan.
Cost

What it really costs

Lato is not a premium app, so it runs on the free plan. Zapier bills in tasks, and only completed actions count.

  • Lato trigger0 tasks, instant on every plan
  • Each successful action1 task
  • Free plan100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps only
  • Premium appNo

The Lato trigger never costs a task: a new or edited contact starting the Zap is free. Each action that goes through costs one, whether it is Create Contact in Lato or a row in another tool; an action that fails is not counted. The free plan gives 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps only. Add a filter or a second action, and the Zap needs a paid plan. The interval grid below applies to polling triggers in other apps, not to Lato's instant ones.

Connect

Connect Lato to Zapier in three steps

  1. 01

    Open your Apps page

    In your Zapier account, go to Apps and click + Add connection. Every connection is stored here, so you link Lato once and reuse it in each Zap afterwards.

  2. 02

    Pick Lato

    Type Lato in the search field of the dialog, select it and click Add connection. A new tab opens on the Lato side to complete the link, and that is where the next step happens.

  3. 03

    Sign in and grant access

    Log in to Lato in that tab and let Zapier access the account. Use a login that can read and edit every contact the Zap will touch, including ones a colleague created.

First Zap

Your first Zap: new Lato travelers into a shared sheet

GoalEvery traveler created in Lato that passes your filter is added to your follow-up sheet.

  1. 01

    Create the Zap and pick Lato

    Start a new Zap, choose Lato as the trigger app and New Contact as the event, then select your Lato connection. Lato is the app that starts this Zap.

  2. 02

    Test the trigger

    Run the test: Zapier brings back the three most recent contacts from your Lato account. Pick a real traveler so the next steps are mapped on actual data.

  3. 03

    Add the filter

    Click the plus icon, add a Filter and set the field, the rule and the value. This step makes the Zap multi-step, so a paid plan is required.

  4. 04

    Add the sheet action

    Add the spreadsheet app as the action, choose the sheet and map the Lato contact fields you need, first and last name included, into its columns.

  5. 05

    Test and publish

    Test the action, check that the row appeared, then click Publish. From now on, each new Lato contact reaches the sheet right after it is saved.

Triggers

Lato triggers in Zapier

2 events start a Zap when something happens in Lato, and 2 of them are instant: the app calls Zapier straight away, whatever your plan.

1

New Contact

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a new contact is added.”

Starts your Zap each time a traveler is added to Lato, and hands the following steps that person's details so they can be copied into your other tools without anyone retyping a name.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan
When to use it
someone on your team records a new client in Lato and the welcome email, the newsletter list or the sales sheet should pick that client up straight away.
Watch out
only contacts added after the Zap is published start it, so your existing traveler base needs a separate import.
2

Updated Contact

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a contact is updated.”

Fires whenever an existing Lato contact is edited, so a corrected phone number or a new email can be pushed to wherever else that traveler lives.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan
When to use it
your CRM or mailing tool must stay in step with Lato when the team fixes traveler details during trip planning.
Watch out
never pair it with Update Contact on the same Lato record, or each edit triggers another edit and the Zap loops, burning tasks on every round.
Actions

Lato actions in Zapier

Lato gives you 2 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.

1

Create Contact

Action

In Zapier“Creates a new contact.”

Adds a new traveler to Lato from data that an earlier step collected, such as a quote form or a CRM record, so the trip design can begin from a clean profile.

When to use it
a prospect fills in your website request form and should appear in Lato before you call them back.
Watch out
First Name and Last Name are both required, and a form with a single name field leaves one of them empty.
2

Update Contact

Action

In Zapier“Updates an existing contact.”

Changes the details of a traveler who already exists in Lato, using fresh values coming from another app in the Zap.

When to use it
your CRM is where sales keeps addresses and phone numbers current, and Lato should reflect each change without a second round of typing.
Watch out
the contact has to exist already, and there is no Lato search to find it first, so the identifier must come from an earlier step.
When it breaks

When the Zap breaks

Zapier attaches no help article to Lato and lists no limit specific to it. What breaks comes from how Zaps behave in general, and contact syncing exposes it quickly.

Read these four cases before switching the Zap on, and look at the run history whenever a traveler is missing on one side. For repairs, see our Zapier troubleshooting page.

  • Existing travelers are not picked up

    A Zap only reacts to what happens after it is published. Contacts already in Lato never start it, and moving that backlog is a separate job.

  • Updated Contact plus Update Contact loops

    A Zap that writes back into the Lato contact its own trigger watches sets itself off again and again, and drains the task count fast.

  • A bulk import gets held back

    Import a whole season of travelers into Lato at once and the trigger sends a huge batch. Zapier's flood protection can hold it back.

  • Missing name fields stop Create Contact

    A source that sends only a full name, or no last name, leaves a required field empty, and the Lato step fails for that record.
Need help

Need help automating Lato with Zapier?

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FAQ

Lato Zapier integration: frequent questions

01Is the Lato Zapier integration free?
Yes, for simple Zaps. Lato is not a premium app, so it works on the free plan, which includes 100 tasks a month. The limit nobody mentions is the size of the Zap: the free plan allows one trigger and one action, nothing more. As soon as you add a filter or a second action, the Zap becomes multi-step and needs a paid plan. Check the current plan grid on Zapier, because prices change often.
02How many tasks does it use?
One task for each action that completes, and nothing for the trigger. A new or edited Lato contact starting the Zap costs nothing. If the Zap then adds a row to a sheet, that row is one task. Create Contact or Update Contact in Lato count the same way. An action that fails, because a required name is missing for instance, is not billed. A Zap with three actions would use three tasks per traveler, so keep the chain short on a tight plan.
03Does it run in real time?
Yes for the Lato side. Both Lato triggers, New Contact and Updated Contact, are instant: Lato tells Zapier the moment the contact is saved, so the Zap starts right away whatever your plan. The polling interval of your plan, 15 minutes on Free, only matters when the Zap starts in another app that works by polling and then writes into Lato. In the Zapier editor, a lightning bolt on the Zap confirms it is built on an instant trigger.
04What is needed to connect a Lato account?
A Lato account and three short steps. Open Apps in Zapier, click + Add connection, search for Lato and confirm with Add connection, then sign in to Lato in the tab that opens and grant access. The account you connect should be able to read and edit every contact the Zap will handle, including those created by teammates. Once saved, the connection is reused by every Zap that works with Lato, so you only do this once.
05Why does a Zap with Updated Contact keep running?
Because it is probably feeding itself. If a Zap starts on Updated Contact and then uses Update Contact on that same Lato contact, the edit it makes counts as a new update, which starts the Zap again. Each loop consumes a task, so the monthly allowance can disappear quickly. Break the loop by writing the change into another app instead, or by adding a filter that lets the Zap through only when the field you care about actually changed.
06What if the Lato operation you want is not available?
The integration only covers contacts: two triggers, New Contact and Updated Contact, and two actions, Create Contact and Update Contact. Nothing on Zapier reaches itineraries, bookings or payments, and there is no search step to look a traveler up. If the workflow depends on those, the realistic options are to ask Lato whether more operations are planned, or to compare what the other automation platforms expose for Lato before building anything.
07Zapier, Make or n8n for Lato?
It depends on criteria rather than on a winner. On Zapier, Lato offers two instant contact triggers and two contact actions, works on the free plan for two-step Zaps, and connects in three steps without code. Compare the operations each platform exposes for Lato, how each one bills a run, whether the triggers are instant there too, and who on your team will maintain the workflow. No option wins in the abstract: the right one is the one that covers your steps.
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