5 Emerging Travel Startups that Spell Innovation
Remember those days in the not too distant past when your options for planning a business or leisure trip were restricted to either visiting the office of a high street travel agent or calling American Express with their Platinum card in hand? Travel decisions were taken mostly on the basis of recommendations from family and friends, features which appeared in your Sunday paper, or a glitzy travel brochure which arrived in your mailbox as opposed to your inbox.
Those days are a distant glimmer within the folds of our memory because the age of online travel has not only arrived, it is empowering millions of travelers like you with full force to architect the entire travel experience online from start to finish. It is a travel galore out there with hundreds of apps on iPhone and Android platforms, social media, websites and online member-based subscription services which will do everything for you from telling you where to go, how to get there, what to do there when you arrive, and most importantly, how to do it all affordably.
According to Statistic Brain, as many as 49% travelers will not book a hotel room unless they have read an online review first. Moreover, Internet-based travel booking has risen 73% between 2008 and 2012 touching an all time high of $162.4 billion. Let us take a few moments to explore the contributions made by 5 promising travel startups currently operational and active in the travel space and provide you with a glimpse of how you can benefit from them. We even have a sixth bonus travel resource for you!
Jauntful
If there is a latent cartographer in you, Jauntful is your travel startup to watch. The website lets travelers create personalized city maps literally from scratch. Once you pick the city you are planning to visit, you can customize your very own map by inputting the points of attraction that interest you. Create your own personalized travel map complete with descriptions which you can print , email and share with the Jauntful community.
Kid & Coe
There will be times when you need to rent an entire home instead of only a couple of rooms perhaps for a family reunion or a getaway family retreat. Kid & Coe can locate the best vacation rental properties to match your needs right down to location, amenities and overall pricing. To be listed with the company, the vacation rental owner needs to allow parents to bring their children on the trip. Many owners also allow pets. What differentiates this website from other vacation rental portals is the fact that each listing comes with a guide on the things your family or group can do in the local area to stay busy and happy.
Concur
Concur is the perfect answer for business professionals who are always on the go. The app, available both on iPhone and Android platforms, tracks your expenses, organizes receipts and even integrates with your credit card data in an encrypted environment. You can book airfare, hotels and cabs, check flight status, itemize hotel and dining expenses, photograph receipts and edit expenses, all from the comfort of your smartphone without having to jump hoops from one app to another.
DealScoopr
The name says it all. DealScoopr scoops up genuine travel deals from multiple destinations and saves travelers money. Travelers can log into DealScoopr by using their Facebook credentials and locate hot travel deals many of which are unadvertised. While many if not most of the leading online travel portals display attractive travel bargains on their respective home pages, these offers sometimes involve serious restrictions. DealScoopr believes in transparency and travel offers are presented only if they match the company’s strict criteria.
FindMyItin
FindMyItin maybe in beta right now but the service is fully functional. The fact that it has attracted tons of press isn’t really all that surprising. Itineraries are actually crowdsourced from real travelers with comprehensive information about where to stay, what to do and where to eat. The service uses hashtags to guide travelers through scores of travel ideas one destination at a time.
Tripzzle
As a bonus, we have a sixth travel resource for you. Tripzzle is a web-based service which provides free destination and hotel ideas to travelers when they seek recommendations about possible places to visit and hotels in which to stay. The website provides answers in real time based on specific criteria which they get to pre-define. The service uses an innovative algorithm to pinpoint those destinations around the world which match the criteria that tourists predefine. Input parameters include any one of 8 geographical regions as well as 10 preferences such as food, luxury, entertainment and shopping. Tourists can also specify the month of the year in which they wish to travel.
Is there a travel startup which has peaked your interest and curiosity lately? How comfortable are you using a mobile app for travel instead of a website on your desktop? We would love to hear from you through our comments below.