5 New Travel Startups Use Data for Smoother Trip Planning and Sharing

These startups cover the breadth of the travel industry and phases of the travel process, highlighting the many ways in which innovative companies can tackle common obstacles to a seamless process.

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>> TouchStay is a mobile app that gives vacation rental owners the ability to create a digital welcome book. Owners can organize information about practical rental information and local activities and suggestions, integrate Google Places and TripAdvisor reviews, and share the guide via the app or a PDF.

SkiftTake: HomeAway recently launched its hospitality app, which gives hosts a similar tool as well as highlights the growth of a vacation rental-adjacent startup economy. There are enough hosts that Touch Stay can attract users with a well-designed and easy-to-use tool.

>> OpenHotelier is a Maldivian startup that aims to give travel agents direct real-time access to room allocation shared by lodging providers, moving agents’ traditional booking process onto a more efficient booking platform. It currently works with 13 resorts, three city hotels, and 15 guest houses.

SkiftTake: The platform aims to increase agents’ relevance by giving them the same access to information as online booking sites; however, many travelers today prefer to cut out the middle man and do the research themselves.

>> Souvenir is a visualization app that uses GPS data and photos to create visualization of users’ travel itineraries on a customized map. Users can add additional stories and information for trip sharing purposes or print the map as a poster.

SkiftTake: Trip sharing is a vague but common goal for many startups. Souvenir gets the concept by writing offering a specific value proposition for travelers that want daily reminders of their travelers.

>> Flyr is a big data company that aims to take the guess work out of booking airfares. It offers route and flight specific airfare predictions, proactive airfare alerts based on airfare prediction, and protection against fare changes. It also has an API that includes fare forecasts and sellout risk.

SkiftTake: Cracking the science behind airfare is a project that many consumers and companies would love to succeed at, putting Flyr is a difficult market but one that could pay off handsomely for smart, accurate information.

>> RVShare is a peer-to-peer rental platform for RVs in which RV owners can list their vehicles for renters and users can search and find RVs.

SkiftTake: The platform dovetails well with an increase in peer-to-peer networks and RV rentals, creating a niche but high-growth opportunity for a concept that would have fallen flat just a few years ago.