Should I Build It Should I Build It
24 May 2025
Travel

A travel itinerary platform where users can create and share their ...

...itinerary with hotel links, eateries etc etc

Confidence
Engagement
Net use signal
Net buy signal

Idea type: Freemium

People love using similar products but resist paying. You’ll need to either find who will pay or create additional value that’s worth paying for.

Should You Build It?

Build but think about differentiation and monetization.

Your are here

Creating a travel itinerary platform puts you in a competitive space, with 30 similar products already out there. This suggests a proven demand, but also highlights the need for differentiation. The good news is that the average number of comments on these similar products is around 7, indicating medium engagement from users; this shows that people are interested in such platforms. However, since it falls under the 'Freemium' category, users are generally hesitant to pay for these tools. You will need to carefully consider your monetization strategy and unique value proposition to stand out and convince users to upgrade to a paid version or find users who will be willing to pay for the platform. Focus on identifying what makes your platform uniquely valuable to travelers.

Recommendations

  1. Given the freemium nature of this space, focus on identifying the core user base that gets the most value from the free version of your platform. Understand their pain points and usage patterns to inform your premium feature development. Look at forums, travel communities, and even analyze user behavior within your platform (once launched) to identify these power users.
  2. Develop premium features that cater specifically to the needs of your power users. For example, if you notice that users planning group trips heavily utilize the platform, consider offering advanced collaboration tools, split-payment options, or group discount finders as a paid feature. Remember the criticism for similar products: the more features you add, the higher the chance to get the user distracted.
  3. Explore charging teams or groups rather than individual users. Target travel agencies, corporate travel departments, or even large families who frequently travel together. Offer them customized solutions or dedicated support for a subscription fee. This will make the pricing simpler for the users.
  4. Consider offering personalized travel planning assistance or consulting services as a premium offering. This could involve expert travel advisors curating itineraries based on user preferences and budget, providing a higher level of service beyond the platform's automated features. Be aware of limitations with logical reasoning as this was the main criticism for similar products.
  5. Experiment with different pricing strategies with small groups of users. Offer various tiers with different features and price points to see what resonates best with your target audience. Pay close attention to user feedback and conversion rates to optimize your pricing model. You could use feedback from public launches to guide you through this process.
  6. Address common criticisms of similar platforms by focusing on user experience. Ensure a clean and intuitive interface, avoid requiring sign-ups for basic functionality, and provide clear pricing information. Resolve search result errors like location mismatches as similar products received negative feedback on this front.
  7. Since many users appreciate the collaborative aspect of travel planning, make it easy for users to share their itineraries with friends and family, even if they are not registered users of your platform. Allow for easy exporting and sharing of itineraries in various formats (PDF, link, etc.).
  8. Incorporate user feedback from similar products by prioritizing features like map views, integration with booking platforms, and the ability to add tags for different trip types (e.g., adventure, romantic, family). Focus on delivering features that are useful and easy to use.
  9. Pay attention to the negative feedback about the outdated UI and confusing sign-up process. Invest in a modern and user-friendly design, and make the signup process as simple and straightforward as possible. Consider offering demo access without requiring account creation, as requested by users of similar platforms.

Questions

  1. Given the freemium model, what unique data or insights can you collect from free users to personalize premium offerings and demonstrate the value of upgrading?
  2. How can you leverage AI to not only generate itineraries but also learn from user behavior and feedback to continuously improve the quality and relevance of recommendations, especially since many similar products are starting to do this?
  3. With so many similar platforms already available, what specific niche or underserved traveler segment will you target to differentiate your platform and gain a competitive advantage?

Your are here

Creating a travel itinerary platform puts you in a competitive space, with 30 similar products already out there. This suggests a proven demand, but also highlights the need for differentiation. The good news is that the average number of comments on these similar products is around 7, indicating medium engagement from users; this shows that people are interested in such platforms. However, since it falls under the 'Freemium' category, users are generally hesitant to pay for these tools. You will need to carefully consider your monetization strategy and unique value proposition to stand out and convince users to upgrade to a paid version or find users who will be willing to pay for the platform. Focus on identifying what makes your platform uniquely valuable to travelers.

Recommendations

  1. Given the freemium nature of this space, focus on identifying the core user base that gets the most value from the free version of your platform. Understand their pain points and usage patterns to inform your premium feature development. Look at forums, travel communities, and even analyze user behavior within your platform (once launched) to identify these power users.
  2. Develop premium features that cater specifically to the needs of your power users. For example, if you notice that users planning group trips heavily utilize the platform, consider offering advanced collaboration tools, split-payment options, or group discount finders as a paid feature. Remember the criticism for similar products: the more features you add, the higher the chance to get the user distracted.
  3. Explore charging teams or groups rather than individual users. Target travel agencies, corporate travel departments, or even large families who frequently travel together. Offer them customized solutions or dedicated support for a subscription fee. This will make the pricing simpler for the users.
  4. Consider offering personalized travel planning assistance or consulting services as a premium offering. This could involve expert travel advisors curating itineraries based on user preferences and budget, providing a higher level of service beyond the platform's automated features. Be aware of limitations with logical reasoning as this was the main criticism for similar products.
  5. Experiment with different pricing strategies with small groups of users. Offer various tiers with different features and price points to see what resonates best with your target audience. Pay close attention to user feedback and conversion rates to optimize your pricing model. You could use feedback from public launches to guide you through this process.
  6. Address common criticisms of similar platforms by focusing on user experience. Ensure a clean and intuitive interface, avoid requiring sign-ups for basic functionality, and provide clear pricing information. Resolve search result errors like location mismatches as similar products received negative feedback on this front.
  7. Since many users appreciate the collaborative aspect of travel planning, make it easy for users to share their itineraries with friends and family, even if they are not registered users of your platform. Allow for easy exporting and sharing of itineraries in various formats (PDF, link, etc.).
  8. Incorporate user feedback from similar products by prioritizing features like map views, integration with booking platforms, and the ability to add tags for different trip types (e.g., adventure, romantic, family). Focus on delivering features that are useful and easy to use.
  9. Pay attention to the negative feedback about the outdated UI and confusing sign-up process. Invest in a modern and user-friendly design, and make the signup process as simple and straightforward as possible. Consider offering demo access without requiring account creation, as requested by users of similar platforms.

Questions

  1. Given the freemium model, what unique data or insights can you collect from free users to personalize premium offerings and demonstrate the value of upgrading?
  2. How can you leverage AI to not only generate itineraries but also learn from user behavior and feedback to continuously improve the quality and relevance of recommendations, especially since many similar products are starting to do this?
  3. With so many similar platforms already available, what specific niche or underserved traveler segment will you target to differentiate your platform and gain a competitive advantage?

  • Confidence: High
    • Number of similar products: 30
  • Engagement: Medium
    • Average number of comments: 7
  • Net use signal: 23.4%
    • Positive use signal: 33.5%
    • Negative use signal: 10.0%
  • Net buy signal: -5.3%
    • Positive buy signal: 1.4%
    • Negative buy signal: 6.7%

This chart summarizes all the similar products we found for your idea in a single plot.

The x-axis represents the overall feedback each product received. This is calculated from the net use and buy signals that were expressed in the comments. The maximum is +1, which means all comments (across all similar products) were positive, expressed a willingness to use & buy said product. The minimum is -1 and it means the exact opposite.

The y-axis captures the strength of the signal, i.e. how many people commented and how does this rank against other products in this category. The maximum is +1, which means these products were the most liked, upvoted and talked about launches recently. The minimum is 0, meaning zero engagement or feedback was received.

The sizes of the product dots are determined by the relevance to your idea, where 10 is the maximum.

Your idea is the big blueish dot, which should lie somewhere in the polygon defined by these products. It can be off-center because we use custom weighting to summarize these metrics.

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