There are countless travel sites available on the web that detail the best things to do in every major city on the planet. But with so many options, actually booking a trip is a major hassle: attractions may close on seemingly random days, or may require reservations weeks in advance.
GoPlanit is a travel site that aims to simplify this process by generating your schedule for you. The site features a database of attractions that includes their operating hours as well as an estimate for how much time each will consume.
After specifying a city, users simply click “Plan It!”, and the site will present an iCal-esque calendar filled to the brim with activities, taking operating hours and durations into account. Users are free to customize these schedules by deleting or resizing them, and can click “Plan It” again to have the gaps filled with new activities. The calendar also includes links to reservation and ticketing systems when possible, further streamlining the process (part of the company’s monetization model relies on fees generated from these affiliates).
After planning the trip, the site produces a basic travel guide with information on each activity, which can also be accessed through a mobile iPhone app. It can also generate a photo blog on the fly, tagging each photo with your location (since it knows where you’ll be during your trip).
Other sites in the travel space that offer some similar functionality include Dave Sifry’s OffBeat Guides, which generates travel guides on the fly, and Zicasso.
GoPlanit launched at TechCrunch50 during the Research and Recommendations session. You can watch a video of its presentation here.
Expert Panelists
Loic - I like the idea. What’s the business model?
GoPlanIt - We’ve got 3 revenue streams. Hyper-targeted advertising since we know interests, where you will be at time and date. Also affiliate programs, any time someone books, we get a portion of the revenue. Third, we’re working on whitelabel solutions for some small and medium businesses.
Let’s see what you need to be in a bubble;
#1 - Thousands of start ups with no revenue. Check.
#2 - VC’s as hungry as sharks to invest in anything. Check.
#3 - A way for start ups to share their crap “inventions” with VC’s. Check - TC50
You really are selling shovels for the fools to mine gold, Mike. At the end of all of this you will be rich, the CEO’s of the startups will be working at Walmart and the VC’s will lose a bit of pocket change on 39 out of 40 companies in which they invest.
Ahhhhh, I love bubbles!
Shame about the name. Goplan is an existing project management application. A little research doesn’t do much harm.
Awesome! i thought i recognized the blog design.. way to go webreakstuff :thumbsup:
Interesting idea, but will people really use it? I prefer to plan my own trips and itineraries.
Jason – thanks for the post and mention of Zicasso. While sites like GoPlanIt and OffBeat Guides get into auto-generating itineraries, Zicasso.com is taking the OPPOSITE approach with “handcrafted itineraries.”
Zicasso connects travelers with the industry’s top travel agents who compete for the travelers’ business with personalized, handcrafted itinerary bids. After a traveler fills out a simple form to describe the trip they’d like to take, up to 3 travel specialists (an expert agent with deep local knowledge of the destination) will work with you, giving you full personalized service so you can just sit back and relax.
We’ve spent over a thousand hours interviewing and selecting the industry’s top specialist agents, and we provide a convenient online experience to connect, plan, and book with these agents. Zicasso is ideal for those planning complex trips involving more than one city, or trips that involve complex decisions (e.g. cruises, island vacations when you don’t know which island or resort to go to, etc.)
Brian K.Y. Tan
CEO and Founder
Zicasso.com
Another source of “offbeat” things to do while traveling is http://www.trekexchange.com. It is an online Marketplace for downloadable e-tours.
Downloading a Trek Exchange city guide, audio tour, or GPS-enabled tour onto your smartphone or iPod will provide you with interesting stories, pictures, history and information about what you are sightseeing. Search the site for hundreds of downloads.
lagusempoi.blogspot.com
goplanit is chock full of win
Aha! Great thing! I’ll check this out!
I did a quick search for NYC and found the site more more helpful then I expected. Although I personally can’t stand it when I have to register before being able to use a site even to perform a search (maybe this is a beta thing?), the recommended itineraries were fairly well targeted in a “I swear by CitySearch” kind of way.
I think this could evolve to be helpful for some travel segments, but most travelers would likely use it for research and planning rather than transactions.
I agree with Nathan. As an experienced traveler, I think that half the fun of traveling is creating the plans and deciding where to go. A lot of times that happens on the fly. I could see this better for an older generation who may not have the energy to do the research involved.
Craig
http://www.budgetpulse.com
Hi Nathan and Craig,
I completely agree with you both. In fact, I enjoy planning my own trips as well. And, GoPlanit allows you to do that easily as well.
We have a drag and drop calendar view that no one else does. From there, you can schedule time-sensitive activities such as shows/sporting events, dinner reservations, meetings, etc. You can also search and add things directly from our planning tool. Using this view, you can plan out a detailed itinerary that you can then print out, export, or take with you on your mobile phone.
Our mobile features are also unique. You can continue planning by accessing your trip and finding nearby things to do and see. And, you can remember all your memories by using our travel microblog to write about what you’re doing while you’re still on your trip.
thanks for all your comments!
@craig - part of the beauty of GoPlanit is that we can help both ends of the spectrum (and everyone in between
If we’re a regular - avid planner, GoPlanit can help us easily research and schedule our selections onto our own trip calendar. Here we may not use the recommendation engine at all, or just use it to fill in any gaps that we may have in our schedule.
If we spend very little time planning - then we can just click a button for a recommended itinerary that we can easily edit to suit our interests.
In both cases we would still have complete control over the planning/decision making process as to what finally goes on our itinerary.
I totally agree that lots of things happen on the fly. So with our browser based mobile component (no apps to download), we can also search for things to do and see while we’re on the go!
hope this helps!
steve chen * ceo * GoPlanit
HI Steve,
Congrats on your success.
I read through your 3 streams of business model. You targeted ads make sense.
Despite fuel prices, travel will continue to grow and I think that your site will be “open arms” to busy bodies. I have briefly navigated through your site and the usability is great.
As an avid traveler, whether nibbling on a flaky croissant in Paris or backpacking in Australia, partnering up with travel sites and books may be a great idea.
I find targeting students, who frequently fly at the end of school session a great key, for me at least.
As an entrepreneur, I salute those who have made the attempt and I look forward to more updates.
cheers
Rayfil
Food Writer
http://www.campusfork.com
Being able to pre-plan a trip is a fantastic idea, but I am not that impressed with the implementation. Not enough flexibility is provided and the flexibility that does exist allows travelers to plan a trip that is not feasible (e.g. check-in at 10pm lol) without notifying them.
Anyway, best of luck guys.
Well, I am impressed with the design and the idea. I do not see many activities listing on some areas, like in Florida. f you guys somehow come up with a rewarding system (which I believe you do have some) that rewards members and former clients to help send ideas of fun activities, restaurants, etc. building upon what you have…you should see fast growing information and interaction with potential clients/hits.
Good lucK!!! I will try it out on my next trip!
Kudos for a model which supports mom & pop businesses. In a keep your purse tight economy vendors will sorely need new ideas to get their product out.
thanks for the feedback!
@Jono We’re constantly looking for ways to improve our UE, so we’d love for you to leave some input/comments through our site (feedback links are on every page).
@Nithya- great idea, we’re expanding our current rewards/recognition program - but right now people will get points (or goplanit $, not real unfortunately
for doing things like creating itineraries, writing blog entries, adding content, inviting friends, and more!
@Philip- we greatly appreciate and highly encourage our users to submit content! We’ve seen many people add their fav local stores and businesses to GoPlanit - and now everyone on the Planit will be able to find them
This must be for the people who really love to plan stuff to the nth degree, and don’t know anything about their destination other than that they want to go there.
When I travel, I have an idea of what I want to do and that’s it for me. Tripit.com has served me well, because it compiles critical information (flight times and confirmation numbers) without any work from me.
Maybe this site will encourage people to travel more, by allowing easy discovery of activities at a certain destination before even leaving the couch.
Hi,
Awesome travel resource, thanks a lot for sharing ….
great job guys Steve and Jimmy!