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Travel planning software: The most common bad startup idea (2012)

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Re: Travel planning software: The most common bad startup idea (2012)

#121

Post by monksy »

killion wrote: post #27

I had founded Flights With Friends for group travel planning shortly before this post. I read it when it came out but knew the point about travel being rare wasn't the cause of these product failures. The trouble with trip planning software is that making one that is 10X better than just planning it manually is very, very difficult. People love thinking about their trip and online tools don't make that more fun for t…

Most technology products that we have these days are more about form filling and response returning than empowering the user to succeed.

Want to go to Germany.. ok you're going to have to go and research the current climiate for if you'll be accepted into the country (Covid restictions), visa requirements (depending on your situation), go to google flights fill out a few forms, decide where your flight is going to go, filter out the bad flights (I.e. Spirit like options like Lufthansa), configure the search to include costs of bags, oh wait the flight doesn't exist anymore for that cost, or doesn't exist anymore. Now you have to do research on connecting through the UK.. does this require a PCR test prior?

Google Flight's view of this: Well we provided a few forms and options for the users to select we're done with the mvp.

Re: Travel planning software: The most common bad startup idea (2012)

#122

Post by monksy »

temporalparts wrote: post #99

This might get buried, but I'll put this idea out there. Background: I'm someone who has traveled fairly regularly (> 30 countries), with some trips comprised of solo backpacking across Europe or South-East Asia. I also think I'm really good at planning, which is largely about constraint optimizing and solving some version of TSP (traveling salesman). The idea: You're in a city. You tell the app all the places you wa…

That and identifying how you connect between the places. There is a major cost difference based on where you're flying to and where you're flying out of.

Re: Travel planning software: The most common bad startup idea (2012)

#123

Post by IgorPartola »

killion wrote: post #27

I had founded Flights With Friends for group travel planning shortly before this post. I read it when it came out but knew the point about travel being rare wasn't the cause of these product failures. The trouble with trip planning software is that making one that is 10X better than just planning it manually is very, very difficult. People love thinking about their trip and online tools don't make that more fun for t…

So what I hear you saying is that instead of software that plans a trip people might want fun software to organize the trip they had already planned? Maybe with automating some boring tasks.

Re: Travel planning software: The most common bad startup idea (2012)

#125

Post by savrajsingh »

Misdicorl wrote: post #124

The travel app I want is "on the way". It shows you cool things to do when in transit from point a to point b that's only an X minute detour. Or decent food/coffee. Or... It's frustratingly hard to search google maps/etc with a query like this.

I’ve had the same idea. It’s a good one.

Re: Travel planning software: The most common bad startup idea (2012)

#126

Post by vmception »

killion wrote: post #27

I had founded Flights With Friends for group travel planning shortly before this post. I read it when it came out but knew the point about travel being rare wasn't the cause of these product failures. The trouble with trip planning software is that making one that is 10X better than just planning it manually is very, very difficult. People love thinking about their trip and online tools don't make that more fun for t…

The few times my plans get complicated I just use my OS included notes app

If I’m with someone that wants to make spreadsheets and calendars, I’m letting them do that on their own and either like them enough to go along for the ride, or go my own way completely

Re: Travel planning software: The most common bad startup idea (2012)

#127

Post by selimthegrim »

ghaff wrote: post #116
tomhoward wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TripIt's been a great product for a long time, but not the kind of app he's talking about. The article is referring more to pre-trip planning for leisure travel, which is a very popular product to build but never successful. I've seen new ones pop up each year since I started working in travel 10+ years ago, and none has ever achieved scale. FWIW TripIt was acquired by Concur in 2011 for about $100M, so it was seen a…

Yeah. After I read everything more carefully, TripIt which I use is more in the vein of keeping track of business trips than pre-planning. Which I mostly don’t need software for especially for personal trips.

I’ve used tripit for personal travel but it was a very long 2 week multi leg trip with 10+ flights so really needed the collation.

Re: Travel planning software: The most common bad startup idea (2012)

#128

Post by JKCalhoun »

basch wrote: post #57
munificent wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Said more succinctly: It's hard to make a successful product that reduces the time people spend doing something they love to do. Some ways I could imagine addressing this and the problem the article talks about: * Aim to make travel planning not easier (i.e. less time-consuming) but more fun. Treat the app more like a game or media app where users spend more time planning their trip by using the app in enjoyable ways…

Even more succinctly: establishing consensus should be fun in and of itself. People dont know what they dont know. They dont want to plan. They do want to daydream. Make voting addictive and make the tally results easy to interpret, and aggregated. Not only what restaurants got picked, but a sum of them by type. Popeyes may have gotten 3 votes, but "Mexican Cantinas" may have gotten 4, albeit 4 different restaurants.…

I was thinking "travel", "plan" ... these two words do not go together.

"Travel", "explore". "Travel", "serendipity"....

Re: Travel planning software: The most common bad startup idea (2012)

#129

Post by deserted »

geoduck14 wrote: post #114
killion wrote: post #27

I had founded Flights With Friends for group travel planning shortly before this post. I read it when it came out but knew the point about travel being rare wasn't the cause of these product failures. The trouble with trip planning software is that making one that is 10X better than just planning it manually is very, very difficult. People love thinking about their trip and online tools don't make that more fun for t…

>If someone made a tool that was better than planning your trip in your head it doesn't matter that you aren't taking a trip all the time. Because most people are always planning their next trip in their mind. My wife uses Travelocity's "book a random room" feature. You are told "random 4 star hotel in X area for $x" that is typically $10-20 less than if you use Travelocity to book that same hotel directly. She loves…

They have two versions of that:

One where you can figure out exactly what you are getting if you want. It shows you enough detail about the "mystery hotel" (Example: Free Parking, Gym, At least 3 star, Rating of 8+ out of 10, at least 800 ratings) that quickly referring to the search results from the area makes it clear which is which. Love it and been using for years.

One where it's "One of these 3 specific hotels". I hate this one for the same reason as you because you're rolling the dice, the hotels can be very different and in different neighborhoods.

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