Let’s say that you made your airline booking on United’s Web site, hotel reservations on Hilton.com, and your car rental on Orbitz. Normally you would get three different printouts, each with multiple pages. However, a new site started by Hotwire co-founder Gregg Brockway simplifies that.
Launched in 2007, TripIt puts those three itineraries together into a single document. It even adds local information such as the weather and maps of the local area. You can also share your itinerary with others and lets those people add comments and suggestions. There’s no cost to use the service.
Brockway tells Travel Weekly that TripIt is “part travel organizer and part social network.” He says that the social networking component is the chief attraction because it “enables participants to keep track of each other’s travels.”
How does it work? The first step is to register for an account. After that, the best way is to e-mail your itineraries to TripIt. It’s quick and easy. After that, you can add trips if you want. You can share your plans with almost anyone. Note that if you don’t register first, you can still e-mail your itinerary to them. They will create an account for you.
Also available is the Trip Clipper, a browser toolbar application that allows you to collect information from the Web and attach it to your travel plans.
For example, let’s say you have a plan to go to Las Vegas and you’re researching things to do there. If you find something of interest, you can add it to the Trip Clipper then, once you return to TripIt, attach it to your travel plans.
I tried it myself and it works wonderfully. I just e-mailed them my three separate itineraries (airline, hotel, and car) to plans@tripit.com and, within a few minutes, I received an e-mail that my itinerary was ready. I clicked on the link and it showed me a detailed view, day-by-day, of my trip.
For my first night, it showed me my flight with an option to check in and check flight status, my car rental right below that, a map of the Las Vegas area, directions from the airport to the hotel, directions from the car rental center to the hotel, the hotel reservations info, as well as a map of the hotel.
For the next day, since I didn’t tell it I was going anywhere, it showed me the weather. I do have the option to add a plan, such as restaurants, cruises or other attractions.
For my final day, it showed me information about check-out time at my hotel, my car rental return, and my flight home.
A Travel Guide is also attached to my itinerary telling me about Las Vegas and things to do.
I’m not the only one who thinks this is an awesome product.
Joel Spolsky, a software developer based in New York City and a writer, thinks that, in his own words, “TripIt is awesome.”
The site has been featured in several different sites including LifeHacker and TechCrunch, among others.
Michael Arrington of TechCrunch names TripIt as one of the companies he can’t live without.
One of our readers, in June 2008, also commented that TripIt is “easy to use.” He also likes the fact that he “can share them with [his] family so they know what hotel [he's] at, for example.”
The service is still in Beta. Brockway says he wants some more feedback from users before he will launch it formally.
From what I have seen, TripIt will definitely be a success — if it isn’t already.
