13 startups you should know about before planning your next trip

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We are all familiar with start-ups like Airbnb or old players like Expedia when it comes to traveling. But there are much more companies on the rise that can help you a lot in all aspects of traveling and make everything a bit more convenient. From planning and booking your trip to help you out in case of flight cancellation, there seems to be a great start-up for everything nowadays. If you’re about to plan your next trip, feel free to get some new inspiration on which apps to use from this list. Also, if you had great experiences with apps that are not included in this list, feel free to add them to the comment section below.

 

Planning your trip:

Flights:

Hopper – For finding the right dates to fly and the right date to book

Hopper is a flight-search engine that relies on data of trillions of flights they’ve collected and analyzed in the past. It lets you search for your itinerary and then tells you some useful information such as what a good deal on this particular route usually is and at what dates you are able to get the best deal. With all their analyzed data the app will also tell you if you should book right now or wait for a later date when the flight will be cheaper. They claim to have 95% accuracy in predicting flight prices, so it is definitely worth to check it out.

Hipmunk – Use chat bots to book your travel

Do you miss the old times when you would just walk into the next travel agency and discuss your plans with a travel agent? Good news, with the rise of AI and chat bots you can now chat with a computer about your travel plans. If you are curious and want to give it a try, head over to Hipmunk and try it out.

 

GoEuro – Multi-modal travel search engine

If you are traveling on a budget or you just want the quickest option to go from A to B then GoEuro might be the right choice for you. The platform is a multi-modal travel search engine, which means you only need to specify your Destination and GoEuro will give you an overview about all means of public transportation to get there. It compares prices as well as total travel time for train rides, bus rides, and flights. The platform automatically includes transit time to get to the airport and gives you the option to sort all options based on your preferences. They are pretty successful and just scored $70m for their series C funding from investors to expand their services further. You can check them out here.

 

Accommodations:

TalkTalkBnb – a social network for traveling and learning languages

During my research for this post, I found TalkTalkBnb, which I think is fantastic. The service is a mixture between AirBnb and Couchsurfing. Travelers can sign-up, list their native language and where they’d like to travel. Hosts also create a profile, which lists the language they’d like to learn. Travelers are offered free accommodation in exchange for only speaking their native language throughout their stay so their hosts can really practice without with pricey language lessons. I think the concept is a great way to get in touch with local people and to travel on a budget. If you’re as eager as me to try it out, head over to www.talktalkbnb.com.

 

Plan the whole trip:

tripl – big data startup that predicts your next travel destination

tripl is a German start-up that will suggest you travel destinations based on your profile on facebook. They will analyze your likes and your posts from the pasts to find the right vacation for you. Their website definitely looks very appealing and I liked the recommendations they gave me. If you want to check it out head over to www.tripl.de

 

Travelcircus.com – full-service booking platform for exclusive weekend short-trip packages

Travelcircus gives you handpicked weekend getaways and I had to include this because the co-founder is indeed a former BIMer! He graduated two years ago here at RSM and is currently the Head of Operations of travelcircus in Berlin. The concept is pretty unique, you can just pick a city and the website will suggest you places (and nice hotels) where you could go for a weekend. You can find it here.

 

Activities:

Rungoapp – running app with offline turn-by-turn voice directions

Have you ever been in a foreign city and wanted go for a run without getting lost? With rungoapp, you can just pick a route and you will get turn-by-turn voice directions so you don’t get lost. The app works even offline so you don’t have to worry about your phone bill at the end of the month. You can check it out here.

 

bimbimbikes – online search engine for bike rentals

Bimbimbikes lets you compare prices for local bike rentals and you can even reserve your bike and pay in advance. So if you’re used to biking everywhere you go and you don’t want to change this habit when you’re on vacation, this is a must have for you!

 

Komoot – plan you next hike or bike tour

Komoot is a great app if you want to go outside and be active during your vacation. It doesn’t matter if you’re into hiking, running or biking, with this app you have access to great routes wherever you are. They have very detailed maps that have information that Google or Apple Maps not have so that they can always come up with bike-friendly streets for example. If you want to read a detailed review follow this link, otherwise you can download the app here.

 

 

Photography:

Fripito – photography guides by locals

If you are into photography and also like to travel a lot, then Fripito might be for you. Fripito is a mobile app that gives you photo guides made by locals from hundreds of destinations around the world. These guides include tips on where to find interesting spots, local light conditions, recommended equipment and camera settings. If this sounds interesting to you, head over to Fripito to read more about it.

 

The roll – organise your photos smarter
Not sure which picture you want to instagram? Or do you want to show your friends the photos you took on vacation but exclude all the embarrassing selfies and photos of your food? Then “The Roll” might be the right app for you. The app uses image recognition technology and machine learning that not only group photos based on their content but can also highlight the best ones. Photos are automatically tagged and displayed in categories so you can search and share without clutter. I’ve used this app for quite some time now and the algorithm works really well, I definitely recommend you to check it out. As of now they only offer an iOS app, that you can download here.

 

Save money when traveling abroad:

There is already a post about this topic so if you think your bank asks a little too much as soon as you leave the country, check out this blog post

 

Back home:

Get refund for delayed or cancelled flights

There is this one thing when traveling, that has the potential to ruin basically every trip: delays and flight cancellations. But especially for somebody that is flying on a budget, delays and cancellations don’t necessarily mean only bad news. There is a EU regulation in place that can make you entitled for up to 600€ in case your flight was canceled or delayed. But airlines are systematically fighting this regulation and as long as you don’t get yourself a lawyer you probably will never see a penny. However, I wouldn’t bring this issue up here, if there is not a startup that proposes to solve the problem. Basically, there are two different ways you can cope with this issue. You can go to Flightright and they will use their lawyers to fight for your compensation. If they are successful and the airline finally pays out the refund, they will keep 25% of the sum and you get the rest.

In case you don’t want to wait that long you can just head over to WebuyyourFlight.com. They will check your claim within 48 hours and immediately send you up to 400€ for your flight if your claim was valid. You don’t have to wait for their legal team to get active, instead you will get the money right away. Bear in mind though, that you would get more money from Flightright, as their fees are lower than the fees of webuyyourflight.com.

 

I hope this list will help you for your next trip and you will try out some of the apps or services. Please feel free to add more start-ups to the comments that you think should be in this list !

 

 

References:

GoEuro banks another $70M to keep building out its travel planner platform