How a Travel-Planning App Changed During The Pandemic
TripIt is not your average travel planning app. It’s not a search engine for finding hotels, tours or the best flights. Instead, it helps create customized itineraries from the hotels, tours and flights that you book to create a seamless, easy itinerary that you can use even when there isn’t any Wi-Fi, like on a plane.
The website and app offers tools to help travelers throughout the travel process, from Interactive Airport Maps that act like a GPS for when you’re stuck in one of the 103 participating airports across the globe to Neighborhood Safety Scores, which rate both daytime and nighttime safety and also offer women’s- and LGBTQ-safety scores for the areas you visit. The app also offers a TripIt Pro service, which offers premium features for frequent travelers, like notifying you about how long you’ll have to wait to go through security lines at the airport.
The pandemic has shifted the way TripIt views the travel process, and it’s brought the planning phases to the forefront.
Jen Moyse, the Senior Director of Product at TripIt, said: “When everything hit and lockdowns started, we immediately realized that we had a lot of travelers who were not traveling anymore for a purpose other than to get home and get back to their families. One of the things we did immediately was open up our TripIt Pro service to all travelers…For us, this was in line with what our mission is, which is to make every trip a little easier and to reduce stress.”
Later, as countries began reopening, TripIt created its Traveler Resource Center, which features links to reputable websites like the Centers for Disease Control, Riskline and Our World in Data. The page also provides helpful guidelines on how the pandemic has changed booking policies on everything from flights to car rentals and more, including cancellation information.
The app and website now feature country, region and state-specific COVID-19 health and safety information, helping its users to navigate everything from entry requirements to the health and safety of certain regions or neighborhoods to help the planning process become easier and less confusing.
“We traditionally have focused on the in-trip experience, and this was a little bit of an extension into the planning phase, and I think it’s shown us that the planning, that ‘what do I need before I leave town’ part of the trip is really important, and it is so critical to removing the stress during your trip,” said Moyse. “Health and safety will, I think, be on top-of-mind for travelers moving forward.”
For more information, please visit TripIt.