October 18, 2007

If You Are A Frequent Traveler, You Are Going To Love Tripit

Michael Arrington

43 comments »

Tripit, one of the companies that launched at TechCrunch40 is an extremely useful application for frequent travelers.

It’s dead simple to use and it keeps you organized - all you have to do is forward confirmation emails to them when you purchase airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, etc. Tripit pulls the relevant information out of the emails and builds an organized itinerary for you. You can send emails in any order, for multiple trips, whatever. It just figures everything out and organizes it.

The best part is you don’t even need to register to start using it. Just take an email and forward it to plans@tripit.com. Within seconds you’ll get a confirmation email back and you go from there. If it doesn’t recognize the email format from the seventy travel companies they currently support (orbitz, united airlines, marriott, etc.), you can add the information in directly on the website.

Today at the Web 2.0 Summit CEO Greg Brockway is launching a new feature that makes the service even more useful, particularly on a mobile device (what you have with you when you travel). You email a basic command to the service and it responds with relevant information. “Get Flight Today” will return today’s flight information, for example. Or just “Get Trip” to get full details of your most current trip. Or just email “Help” to get a list of possible commands and modifiers.

San Francisco-based TripIt has raised $1 million from O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures.

Sphere It

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till

October 18th, 2007 at 5:12 pm

Dopplr doesn’t have “email in”, but IMO it’s still #1 in the dead simple category.
Chris

October 18th, 2007 at 5:16 pm

Sounds pretty useful. I’ll definitely have to try this service out…
Joe

October 18th, 2007 at 5:18 pm

If it works as promised, that would actually be extremely useful! Very simple idea but very clever too.
Brett

October 18th, 2007 at 5:26 pm

Wow. Just used for an upcoming trip. Incredible response time and very clean UI. This should be a great tool.
Daniel Swartz

October 18th, 2007 at 5:34 pm

I wonder how it plans to handle e-mail spoofing/spam if it grows big?

Without some kind of password on e-mail submissions, spammers could flood account holders with tons of bogus submissions.
trevo

October 18th, 2007 at 5:37 pm

Every so often I come across a startup and say “dang! why didn’t I think of this?”… and this is one of it.

With a deluge of me.. too.. mashup/widget/social network crap, this is something that stands out from the crowd.
Jessica Mah

October 18th, 2007 at 5:37 pm

Geesh! So many freaking sites dedicated to assisting people with travel!

However, this does look cool. I’ll probably use it.
Automatt

October 18th, 2007 at 5:58 pm

Wow! I! Can’t! Wait!
for uncov to publish another article instead of this pap
Deals and Coupons

October 18th, 2007 at 6:30 pm

very cool!
iHero

October 18th, 2007 at 6:40 pm

They better use the Devo song “Whip it” for their commercials.
airj1012

October 18th, 2007 at 6:44 pm

I just used it and it looks GREAT. I don’t travel a lot now but I would use this if I did, or do in the future. I didn’t add my trip by email (plans@tripit.com) because I was afraid it wasn’t going to recognize the format (since my confirmations weren’t from the airlines themselves - but another 3rd party). However I entered the information manually and even that was a breeze. It had a great auto search and well, the site was done great. I really like it, check it out.
Jessica

October 18th, 2007 at 6:59 pm

I am using this site at the moment and it’s really good - especially if you have a very detailed itinerary. The only bummer about it is that it didn’t recognise a hotel booking I had made so I decided to manually insert the information as it doesn’t come up correctly if you just add it in as a note. I love this service and looking forward to it growing!
Blake Brannon

October 18th, 2007 at 7:15 pm

Great! I hate what you get from travel agencies. Mostly crap and you have to dig to find what you are looking for.
Air Dig

October 18th, 2007 at 7:22 pm

Too many new travel websites coming out
Frank

October 18th, 2007 at 7:25 pm

This sounds like a useful service — and even better one if you combine it with Yapta!
prison break 3

October 18th, 2007 at 7:33 pm

thanks ,

i love this website.
Zoli Erdos

October 18th, 2007 at 7:34 pm

“We received your email (Subject Line: Fwd: TRAVEL ITINERARY FOR …) but had a problem processing it. This typically happens when your email is not from one of our currently supported booking sites or when your TripIt To Me text isn’t in the right format (for help with TripIt To Me, send an email with a blank subject line and the word “help” in the body to plans@tripit.com and we’ll respond with a list of available commands).”

Oops… that’s my first attempt. Admittedly I used a recent trip, perhaps that was the problem (dates in the past). Not a very encouraging start though…
Josh Walsh

October 18th, 2007 at 7:53 pm

Definitely an interesting and innovative idea. However, the margin for error is pretty large. Thankfully, manual changes seem to be rather simple.
steve ballmer

October 18th, 2007 at 8:09 pm

It’s easier if you just have your own jet and crew!
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
Paul

October 18th, 2007 at 8:50 pm

Or, you could; not be freaking lazy and know your itinerary. It’s not Rocket Science… I have a flight on Wednesday at 7.00pm, be at lounge 2 hrs early to have as many free beers as possible; wake up in new city; tell cab driver which hotel and find the bar… simple. Meeting, what meeting?
Gabe

October 18th, 2007 at 8:52 pm

Seriously, dude - I travel a lot (150K miles/year) and I can’t imagine needing this service. If you are a *real* frequent traveler, and not yet senile, you don’t forget your favorite airlines, hotels or car rental companies. When was the last time you almost forgot a flight or trip entirely? It’s really not that tough.

And, most travel sites today allow you to download a vCal right to your PC, so you can have it all on your calendar…immediately after booking.

Not sure I get the enthusiasm about this one…
ashwin

October 18th, 2007 at 9:06 pm

Then how can our own minds work buddy …Just chill out… Do u mean it ?Any how its useful …Fine thanks for the site
Paul

October 18th, 2007 at 9:13 pm

Gabe - my point exactly. I travel as much as you, up to Seven months out of the year is O.S… Arrrgh Me and my PC!
Dan Ackerman Greenberg

October 18th, 2007 at 9:41 pm

Hey, you guys should do a round-up of all the companies who presented at TC40 and have since been funded…

Dan
http://www.ackermangreenberg.com
Tom

October 18th, 2007 at 9:51 pm

Gabe - right on, I don’t need to send my iteneraries to a website to be told what I already know. how is this better then printing out my confirmation emails and putting them in my carry on? Same information, same amount of paper or PDA space.

I think I should start a service where a forward all my emails to a website so they can show me a list of my emails on a single window because looking at them on my email program is too hard. I’ll call it Inbox.com

seriously, someone put $1M into this?
MC

October 18th, 2007 at 10:26 pm

Ok, I am yet another heavy traveller, and I didn’t see the value in this. I actually was getting a bit concerned at Web 2.0 when they demo’d. They are adding a whole load of wiz bang into this, and I sat there thinking “Boy, all things considered, I think I’d prefer just having a piece of paper instead.”
Wes

October 18th, 2007 at 10:29 pm

This looks cool and I will try to use it when I next travel.
airj1012

October 18th, 2007 at 11:05 pm

Well this says a lot from the people that travel a lot. It seems as its not needed. I understand where they are coming from but from briefly looking around I might have found ONE feature that could be good. I think I saw a share feature. This would be good for people going out of town on vacation and being able to give out their itinerary for emergency purposes etc. Of course that doesn’t make the application very valuable for one feature but thought I’d share that.
airj1012

October 18th, 2007 at 11:22 pm

Found a demo tucked away on the website. Sorry for all the comments, hopefully this will be the last one.

http://www.tripit.com/uhp/demo
Tom

October 19th, 2007 at 5:47 am

@28 - I see what your saying, but that’s what the “Forward” button on the email program is for. I don’t need to sign up for a service to use it.

It may seem cool, but the slight marginal increase in value does not overcome the pain of trying something new and having to go to another website to forward emails (itneraries) to other people. Because of that it won’t achieve mass adaption.
Ben Saren

October 19th, 2007 at 7:29 am

I’ve been using TripIt for a few weeks now and I’ve used it for 2 different trips. I love it. I love the fact that my wife and colleagues can have accounts and look at my itineraries instead of asking me times/locations etc. I’m a big fan. Their email-in-your-itinerary functionality is improving all the time too.
sam

October 19th, 2007 at 8:04 am

I think I should start a service where a forward all my emails to a website so they can show me a list of my emails on a single window because looking at them on my email program is too hard. I’ll call it Inbox.com
Rob

October 19th, 2007 at 8:07 am

Are people seriously saying paper is a better way to go? Do you still write down your appointments in a paper organizer, or are you storing them electronically in Outlook or a PDA? What happens if you lose that piece of paper in your briefcase?

Having everything in one place is really cool, especially if you book on multiple websites. Before a trip, I often have to search through my Outlook to find all those confirms and print them out… which can be a challenge, especially when my flight is only 2 hours away. Then I forget to print maps and directions, forget to send my plans to my wife, etc. I think Tripit is terrific because it automates all of this. If you travel a lot, I think you’d recognize how much efficiency and value can come from this site.
Jimmy Hat

October 19th, 2007 at 8:33 am

wow - a travel website that can assemble an itinerary. Woo Hoo…..Tis has to be the most ridiculous bullshit ever funded…..

1. Online agency already does this.
2. Travel Agency already does this
3. Even if you book yourself the airline sends you an itinerary online…..how often do you book single trips with multiple different airlines for the same itin.
4. even if you book air and hotel directly with airline or hotel the wost you get is one print out with air and one print out with hotel - actually a bit more convient this way anyway.

$1M for parsing itin from suppilers….what a joke….kudos to the thripit guys for securing funding….the real questions is what were the guys at O’Reilly AlphaTech smoking?
RaoLin

October 19th, 2007 at 9:12 am

I liked the Y! Travel Trip Planner better
gilltots

October 19th, 2007 at 9:43 am

This would have been super useful for a recent trip I took to Fiji and the Cook Islands. Lots of different flights, staying at tons of different places, moving through lots of timezones (and crossing the International dateline)…the notepad itinerary i made was a piece of crap.

So as far as vacations go, I’d say this is a great idea. I have no idea how well they executed it, or how necessary it is for the average traveling business goober.

Look for an acquisition by tripadvisor in the next 6-12 months (
Rob

October 19th, 2007 at 9:50 am

Jimmy — have you actually tried Tripit? I sent in a flight and a hotel and it automatically gave me driving directions from the airport to the hotel. And I can access all this info even if my printouts aren’t with me. The ical feature is cool too, as it tells me where my friends will be at any given time. I wish it included detailed schedule info in the ical feed, but I have to imagine they are working on this.
Tom

October 19th, 2007 at 10:24 am

@Jimmy Hat - Right on
@ Rob - You must not travel much huh? Yes, in this case paper IS the way to go, because when I’m getting off the plane and racing to the rent-a-car desk or to catch the bus to the hotel, I don’t have time to boot up my computer to get my reservation number, I pull a piece of paper out of my carry on and I’m all set. Simple yet effective.

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
Yen

October 19th, 2007 at 11:45 am

I like their business model given the vast majority of the online travel industry’s profitability comes from selling hotels. So, presumably we all send Tripit our flight dets and give Gregg the ability to merchandise hotels to us. Sounds like a mutually-beneficial Trojan horse (did I just manage to butcher an age old metaphor?)

I haven’t used Tripit yet as I’m not big on flying, can anyone tell me if they have real time alerts for flight and gate changes like Orbitz? I love that functionality on Orbitz.

@raolin - I’m biased toward Yahoo! Trip Planner too, but it seems to me that YTP is focused on organizing land-based trips while Gregg is solving the problem of organizing flight-based trips

@ Jessica Mah – I guess there are so many online travel companies because they are trying to grab a slice of the $679B spent in the US on travel in 2006 (TIA). “only” ~$80-85B of that was spent online.

At http://www.kango.com, we are targeting the start of trip planning, helping you make decisions about where to go etc. so you know what to book (i.e. then go off to your favorite booking site or price meta-search engine). We are pre-beta, but I’d welcome your feedback if you can sign up for private beta, which is coming soon - http://www.kango.com/TechCrunch
KEHT

October 19th, 2007 at 1:09 pm

I just tried TripIt with my Christmas trip overseas with layover through Amsterdam bought through Travelocity. It completely couldn’t parse the first leg of a trip. Sucks ass!!!
Sam Daams

October 19th, 2007 at 1:56 pm

I actually did a pretty lengthy review of the service when it was first launched at TC40. Details in link above - even caught your site offline when posting The results were disappointing for me, although I like the idea and being in the industry I’d say it has potential IF it works in 90% + of the cases. With the number of affiliates, sub sites etc. out there, I just doubt that will ever happen. But I still like the idea….
Marc

October 19th, 2007 at 7:03 pm

I always thought email forwarding like this would be ideal. The problem is creating a smart parser. A slight change in the emails ruins (temporarily) the system.