PhoCusWright Travel Innovator: TripIt

TripIt is undoubtedly one of the highest profile innovators presenting at PhoCusWright.  TripIt has received alot of press over the last year or so having been featured on TechCrunch and the Webby’s.  TripIt has also received a fair amount of investment, most recently $5.1 Million in April 2008.  Needless to say, it is much easier to be innovative when you have a healthy R&D budget.

The beauty of TripIt is its simplicity.  Unlike its trip organizing competitors like TripChill, TripIt is very simple in its approach.  The site is simple, the interface is clean and uncluttered, and the process of organizing itineraries is also simple.  But don’t mistake simple for easy, there is some powerful programming underlying that very simple interface.

Here are three demo videos from the TripIt website that explain the application in detail:

To view additional videos about what happens after you add a booking to your itinerary, visit the demo video page on the TripIt website.

Once you add your flight and hotel information into TripIt, the system updates your itinerary with weather, restaurant, and event information for items close to your destinations.  In addition, the system allows you to compare your itinerary to your friends’ itineraries to see if there are any overlaps.

Questions:

1. How does TripIt plan on remaining relevant against competitors like TripChill?
2. Besides the investor funds, where is the revenue coming from and when does TripIt expect to make a profit?
3. What other features is TripIt planning for the future?

blog comments powered by Disqus