AI travel agent startup Mindtrip on Tuesday released a feature that lets you save places or build an itinerary from several places around the web.
Mindtrip lets you insert a link like a Reddit post or a blog, and ask the AI assistant to build an itinerary based on the places mentioned. You can also see these places on a map and easily save them to favorites or a trip list. You can also use a YouTube, TikTok or Instagram link to populate the list of places mentioned in the video. Currently, the tool can only work with TikTok videos that have text overlays. For YouTube videos, the tool uses transcripts to show suggested places.
You can even upload a screenshot of a ticket, or a list of cities you are visiting and ask Mindtrip’s assistant to suggest places to visit, bars and restaurants.
“People don’t plan travel in a linear fashion, yet the travel industry continues to offer only platforms that do just that,” CEO of Mindtrip, Andy Moss, said in a statement.
“We’ve developed Start Anywhere to enable people everywhere to turn all of the incredible travel content online into something actionable.” Now you have it. With reports showing that 75 percent of people find travel inspiration on social sites or online, we are excited to see what travelers do with this game-changing technology and how it will transform the way we all approach planning vacations.”
With this feature, Mindtrip is also starting a creator program, where creators can generate their own Mindtrip link and post it in their bios or along with their content. When someone clicks on that link, Mindtrip generates an itinerary based on the creator’s content.
Creators can also add their photos, videos, and recommendations directly to Mindtrip to better customize AI-generated itineraries. Mindtrip pays creators an unspecified amount for each registered user. The company said that creators can generate up to $10,000 per month through this program.
The company said later this year, it plans to introduce a revenue-sharing program where creators will get a cut when a user places bookings through travel plans made by creators.
Mindtrip, which has 12 experienced founders, raised $7 million from Costanoa Ventures last year. The company was one of the apps that OpenAI showed off on its dev day. While the product has been in beta testing for a while, Mindtrip made it available to users in May.
The company said it uses proprietary knowledge of more than 6.5 million places mixed with OpenAI’s tech for itinerary building. The company said it uses map, link, and picture overlays to provide better context for results.
This year, the company will introduce a group chat feature for trip planning with family and friends and an iOS app.
Mindtrip isn’t alone. Startups such as Layla — which acquired itinerary building bot Roam Around — Pilot, Byway and Sēkr, have all put AI in the center to help travelers plan their trips with different parameters. Google, too, is experimenting with an AI-powered travel plan builder.
