5 New Travel Startups That Strive to Make the Trip Process Effortless

This week's startups strive for a fun way to get from trip planning to sharing, making it seemingly effortless for travelers to send a postcard, pay for a trip or organize an event.

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>> Theor is a crowdsourcing travel community where users award one another points for informative or entertaining travel content. The more points that a user collects, the more content, photos, and videos they can put on the site.

SkiftTake: Theor positions itself as a kind of Reddit or Quora for travel, which could work in attracting a loyal community of content creators and readers.

>> Meets is an app that aims to simplify how friends create plans. Users create a plan, invite phone contacts to join via the app, text or Facebook, and guests can discuss the plans within the app. The app also lets users find plans happening around them based on location or user preferences.

SkiftTake: Traveling is one long series of making plans to eat, explore and dance, one after another. This app could be used among a group of friends either on a longer vacation or spread out within a certain destination.

>> Vegas Active Travel Guide is a mobile and nontraditional guide to Las Vegas with more than 200 places and activities for adventure and active travelers in Sin City. The guide includes activities in the area surrounding Vegas, which includes many outdoor options that most travelers don’t associate with the city.

SkiftTake: Vegas is known for its food, shows and parties but the destination itself actually offers several activities for the adventure-minded traveler. This app could be a resource for travelers looking to combine both parts of the destination.

>> Triptive is a hotel booking site that allows users to book up to one year in advance and make low monthly payments. The site currently offers 37 hotels, primarily outside of the U.S., and also offers users the ability to join friends’ trips.

SkiftTake: This is what credit cards are used for.

>> Fizzer is a mobile app that turns photos into physical postcards. Users select a photo, add a message and a signature, and pay for the postcard using credits.

SkiftTake: Everyone shares their travel memories via digital photos today; however, an app like Fizzer makes it convenient for travelers to send a still-appreciated postcard. This app is well-designed for travelers who want service on demand.