October 23, 2025

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Ivan Verkalets

CTO, Co-Founder COAX Software

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Travel

AI trip planning apps: System design, data sources, and monetization

People are increasingly using AI to plan their perfect travel experiences. By 2033, the market for AI trip planning tools is expected to reach $15.2 billion, so now is the best time to implement such a tool for your tourism business. The successful industry adoption and benefits for businesses are caused by such factors of AI travel planning apps:

  • The key market trends, like the growing reliance on AI and traveler autonomy that drive an increasing use of this technology in travel businesses.
  • The major components of AI trip planning tools, such as data ingestion, processing, and recommendation layers, provide a framework for personalized, nuanced recommendations and itinerary planning.
  • Main data sources for AI tools for travel planning, which include GDSs, OTAs, POI databases, and reviews/USG, enable real-time information access and dynamic plans.
  • An ability of AI models' capabilities to provide data accuracy and freshness allows for a precise and efficient itinerary built by AI planners.
  • Diverse options for choosing or building the best solution, with a cost depending on features and scaling plans, and monetization models including freemium plans, commissions, and paid advertising by partner providers.
AI for planning trip

By the end of this guide, you will have an actionable plan for creating your own AI travel planner, with a breakdown of technical stack details, APIs, and integrations.

What is an AI travel planning app? 

An AI travel planning app is an application that leverages artificial intelligence to give users travel itineraries more tailored to their preferences. The research by De Silva outlines that these apps analyze a user's preferences, budget restraints, and travel dates to recommend the best airlines, accommodations, and attractions for the traveler based on travel experiences. 

Essentially, it streamlines and condenses an otherwise labor-intensive part of trip preparation, leaving more space for AN excited anticipation (and for more upselling and revenue streams for providers). The models are based on large stores of travel data that provide recommendations tailored to the user, so they don’t have to visit and choose travel from a vast variety of websites.

What market trends show that AI travel planning is on the rise?

As reported by Statista, AI and machine learning accounted for about two-thirds of technology investments made by global travel companies over the past five years. Over half of companies now use AI-powered digital agents for booking, and almost 50% use AI to suggest activities. 

McKinsey's research points out that 90% of travel executives now utilize generative AI. There are, however, generational differences: according to Phocuswright research, 35% of Gen X and baby boomers and 62% of millennials and younger travelers used generative AI trip planning activities in the previous year.

AI trip planning

This leads us to a conclusion: you should act now, as the demand is higher than ever before. 

According to an analysis by Melvin Hipolito, AI activity on US travel websites was up 3,500 percent year-over-year as of July 2025, with nearly one-third of US consumers already using AI for trip planning purposes.

So, AI is adopting a high speed on this highway — warmly accepted not just by businesses, but by your potential clients, too. It’s not an emerging technology piece from now on, but something necessary to succeed. But what should your app have to attract users?

What do users expect to see in AI trip planning apps?

Your potential users don’t want just any AI travel planning tools that they might encounter. They want something that truly satisfies their deepest needs. These are the needs for accuracy that build trust, adherence to their preferences, and respect and understanding of their budget. And some other aspects — so let’s examine these requirements:

  • Matching based on interests is when AI tools offer suggestions for destinations and activities based on user preferences. Ivasciuc et al.'s research, however, raises serious issues. Their research revealed that AI frequently overlooks regional factors, with only 43.75% of results matching actual traveler preferences. Ideally, AI trip planners should suggest galleries to art lovers and festivals for music enthusiasts, so you should strive for this.
  • Factual correctness is the most critical demand for an AI tool for trip planning. This allows them to provide accurate, real-world suggestions. There is a troubling gap in this area sometimes. Which is more concerning, journalist Lynn Brown documented actual cases in which artificial intelligence completely fabricated attractions, such as a fictitious "Sacred Canyon of Humantay" in Peru that put visitors in danger. Before departing, users must carefully confirm every direction and suggestion they get from AI.
  • Configurable plans are important, as users want the ability to enter budget, travel companions, and pace of travel, so the plan that is generated is more customized to their preferences. Manideep, et al. highlight that AI trip planners can create optimized travel itineraries using complex algorithms to minimize travel time and maximize travel experience, given user preferences and constraints.
  • Budget optimization means that AI tools for travel planning should evaluate price patterns, suggest the best times to book, and find accommodations within a budget. Plus, points and rewards maximization features can be integrated into the application through loyalty accounts to find cost-effective opportunities.
  • Dynamic adaptation is another requirement — AI needs to be able to dynamically adjust itineraries using real-time data on weather, traffic, and events. Manideep, et al. state that newly integrated real-time data and predictive analytics allow for better decision-making and adaptability that stationary applications currently cannot meet. 
  • Offline functionality is important as users don’t always have a good network connection. It allows users to view itineraries, while integration with navigation tools such as Google Maps or real-time translation with foreign language support enables associated travel functions.

There can be more features that your users expect to see, so remember to always start with your target audience research. We’ll get to the implementation later, but now, let’s focus on the core components of AI solutions.

Core architecture of AI trip planning systems

No matter if we talk about the best AI tool for travel planning with robust feature sets or very basic software, they have similar core components. In essence, there lies a dynamic pricing module that pulls real-time data from travel APIs to optimize costs, generative models to suggest creative destinations, and smart scheduling that takes into account local events, weather forecasts, and crowd density data. Now, let’s get to the architecture layers it implies.

High-level system design

The layers that form any AI travel planning app are interrelated. They consist of data ingestion, processing, and recommendation, each of which is responsible for its own function.

The data ingestion layer defines the process of aggregating travel-related data from various sources. As noted by Shekhar S, it’s where data is collected from databases, APIs, sensors, logs, and files to aggregate data into a single storage or processing environment to facilitate reporting and analysis. Data ingestion not only centralizes travel-related information but, according to Thirupurasundari et al., also provides a mechanism for recommendation systems to utilize a comprehensive travel-related attribute set.

The data represents information from different contexts (booking platforms, weather data providers, social media). It also provides operational real-time processing such that travelers immediately see flight prices or are informed of real-time weather considerations. At this stage, several sensors are connected to devices that provide real-time information, APIs are connected to airline and hotel databases, and logs capture evidence of user behavior — and this feeds AI systems’ processing capabilities.

data ingestion

Data processing is another subsequent stage. Once ingested, raw travel data must be transformed to be useful.  Data processing workflow proceeds through six stages: 

  • Collection (where user preferences and travel history are collected)
  • Preparation (the data is cleaned and normalized)
  • Input (converted to a machine-readable format)
  • Processing (machine learning algorithms are applied)
  • Output (data is converted to a recommendation)
  • Storage (where results are saved for future use).

Thirupurasundari et al. explain that preprocessing is often done with MapReduce frameworks in response to scaling, particularly when dealing with stories of user ratings and location preferences for an AI for travel itinerary planning.

Data processing

The recommendation layer produces customized travel suggestions from the processed data. It sends the preferences to a database, and the recommendation engine queries the database to formulate top recommendations. 

Thirupurasundari et al. write that successful recommendation engine systems leverage collaborative filtering, coupled with content-based filtering, into a hybrid approach. Their Temple Recommendation Engine’s performance utilizing TPS (Time, Place, Service) clustering generated an accuracy rate of 78% which matched users' preferences to locations. It shows how systems with past user data combined with location-based collaborative filtering exceed a single-method approach.

recommendation engine system

The three layers function in a sequence: Data Ingestion supplies raw travel data to a centralized data store, Data Processing creates an HTTP request, which sends the structured, clean datasets that follow best practices for analysis, and the Recommendation Engine leverages machine learning to produce personalized trip itineraries for business travelers. The architecture performs well when each layer maintains data quality, security, and real-time responsiveness as the data travels through the pipeline.

Components of AI trip planning tools

When you see AI planning trips, there are several key elements that perform certain tasks to make it possible. Let’s break them down. 

  • The data aggregation engine acts as the core element of the system that gathers and processes information from multiple sources. Roy et al.’s research indicated that it collects structured data like flight schedules and hotel availability via APIs, and unstructured data (customer reviews and social media). The engine ingests real-time information like weather, traffic, and geolocation to provide up-to-date recommendations.
  • The personalization module examines and processes user preferences to generate recommendations for each traveler. According to Deshmukh et al.’s study, machine learning methods analyze user behaviours and interests in a meaningful way. Considerations for recommendations include monetary constraints, travel style, personal interest, and previous booking behaviour. With the incorporation of real-time context, including location and time of day, travel itineraries provide hyper-personalized, up-to-date travel suggestions.
  • The itinerary generator provides optimized travel itineraries based on pooled data and users' preferences. As per Deshmukh and colleagues, this system develops finalized itineraries that reflect a sequence of activities that relate to the travelers' objectives. It modifies the itineraries dynamically when there are interruptions. The generator in trip planning AI tools also tests multiple transportation modes (i.e., flight, train, bus, and ride-share) to identify the most efficient routing method.
  • The interface is a means of interaction by users with the system and provides users with access to their planning. The ALADDINGO study noted that these systems display itineraries, bookings, and travel documents using various formats to ensure clarity and access.

Another important aspect to understand is the influence of the AI models you choose on the trip recommendations.

Role of AI models in understanding user intent and optimizing trip suggestions

If your whole trip planning app is an intricate play, then AI models are the key actors interpreting user needs and providing tailored travel recommendations. They do it through the analysis of contextual data and behavioral patterns. With their help, these systems predict future actions and preferences by interpreting the underlying meaning of user requests, as opposed to just matching keywords.

Orden-Mejía claims that AI-powered chatbots show their comprehension through informativeness, empathy, and interactivity, which are qualities that have a big impact on user satisfaction and plans to visit a destination. Large volumes of data are processed by the systems, including search history, historical behavior, and real-time context such as the time of day and current location.  This enables AI to understand users' true needs before they can fully express them.

AI models also design customized experiences by matching the user's preferences against options available along multiple dimensions. As described by Baptista and Pereira, it will consider options such as road conditions, safety elements, scenic preference, and style of travel in order to suggest the most optimized route or suggestion. In some cases, 

AI travel planning tools even create images that provide a preview of what travelers may encounter on a journey. Thus, AI can anticipate users' needs by providing suggestions at the appropriate time, using algorithms that enhance travel satisfaction.

Data sources and integration

There is one essential thing we can’t imagine an AI for planning trips: the right data. There are specific data sources that these tools take information from, and each brings its own value.

  • GDS and NDC that allow for the availability of flights and fares. Global distribution systems, such as Sabre, Amadeus, or Travelport, provide the framework by which airline ticket inventory and other products in travel and possible services can be accessed. Per Chakravarti, these systems have dominated the market for years, but there are some drawbacks in flexibility and cost. They are solved by the New Distribution Capability (NDC), which, as noted by Jubair, represents an open-source, XML-based standard to allow airlines to distribute more products and dynamic pricing offerings to travel agents and distributors. What you get is a better and more customizable user experience.
  • OTAs that provide data on accommodation and packages. OTAs (including Expedia, Booking.com, and many other options) aggregate travel products from many suppliers and give the AI trip planning app numerous options for accommodations, packages, and different bundled offerings. In this case, OTAs serve as intermediaries. They provide a standardized approach to accessing inventory and can be queried by AI conveniently.
  • POI databases that offer data on the local experiences and attractions. One more source is the Point of Interest databases. They are represented by Foursquare and Google Places, which provide comprehensive details about landmarks, dining establishments, museums, and nearby attractions. Why is it important? Chen and colleagues showed how to build dynamic POI networks using Foursquare check-in data and taxi GPS traces improves trip planning speed and accuracy.
  • User-generated content and reviews. In addition to quantitative booking data, user reviews from OTA websites, social media platforms, and specialized review sites offer qualitative insights. Ranga and Nagpal showed how social media content from YouTube, TripAdvisor, and Twitter can be analyzed using big data analytics and BERT deep learning models to extract sentiment and destination quality scores. This user-generated content also captures slang, regional expressions, and authentic experiences that formal databases might miss.

Even with the Booking.com problems and the nuances of each different data source type, they are extremely valuable for AI travel planning tools. They access the data from these vast knowledge bases in real-time and provide you with a variety of building blocks to give fresh, accurate recommendations.

Importance of data freshness, accuracy, and multi-source aggregation.

The quality of data is the essential determinant of efficacy in all AI systems, including AI tools for trip planning that we’re discussing.

Wang et al. found that trip planner data that is refreshed in near time is much more effective than using a lagged data source. When these were used in combination with smart card data, accuracy improvements were as high as 21.7%. The timeliness of the data is even more crucial — trip requests sent 10 — 30 min before departure had the highest predictive power. 

Multi-source data aggregation can improve reliabilityChen found that mobile social networking (MSN) data in combination with GPS traces created a stronger POI network than any single one alone.

Accuracy is equally important. Jubair noted that traditional GDS systems were dependent on fairly lagged fare updates, while an API approach was able to provide more accurate, real-time pricing and improve accuracy in booking/estimating.

What are the main travel app types?

If you’re planning to use AI for planning a trip, you need to understand the different types of applications in the market. The thing is, you can integrate AI into any of these, but differently.

AI trip planners

This is the general type we’re discussing. AI trip planning systems represent a new development in the world of travel planning and arrangement. They replace manual research and planning and are suitable for many businesses. Anitha .S. et al. explain that these systems completely reconfigure the travel itinerary creation process by personalizing to each individual's preferences, budget, and travel history. 

The AI systems analyze large amounts of data extracted from various sources to provide personalized, appropriate destination, accommodations, and activities recommendations, even if the data sources are varied and dispersed. AI systems also typically learn continuously through user interactions, which leads to improvements over time. This allows the AI systems to adapt and respond to live-time developments in travel, such as weather issues or a flight delay decision. This adaptation to unforeseen changes is another great benefit compared to manual planning.

Such AI planners can become an integral part of many other travel products — like travel buddy apps, tools for itinerary management, solutions for real-time navigation, and travel alert systems catered to each traveler.

Booking platforms

Travelers' decisions about lodging and travel services have been in the hands of online booking platforms for years. Pănoiu and Foris assert that the availability of booking platforms and online reviews is the final point in decision-making. Prominent websites include Expedia, which combines hotels, flights, and rental cars, and Booking.com, which is known for its large property listings, competitive pricing, and real-time updates. Also, Rome2Rio focuses on multimodal transportation options and itinerary planning.

User-generated content is a crucial component of final booking decisions because modern tourists are increasingly depending on reviews left by prior visitors. The research shows that up to 75% of travelers look at online reviews and social media when making travel decisions.

These platforms allow for the easy integration of AI trip planning solutions, which utilize user preferences and current data to determine appropriate lodging and travel services, and then present them at the moment of booking. Decision-making can be improved with context-aware information and predictive suggestions based on previous reviews and user actions.

Local experience apps

A keystone of modern travel is the chance to experience something authentic and to engage with locals who offer such experiences. Local experience apps allow for it. The most well-known apps include Withlocals, GetYourGuide, and Showaround. They offer options to book private tours created by local guides. For social connections, Meetup helps travelers find groups and events based on mutual interests, and Travello provides a social platform with booking abilities. 

Additionally, there are many consistent options like Viator that encourage you to try fun activities with local immersion. Such solutions promote substantive connection, interaction, and experiences by embracing the local or regional culture.

By intelligently suggesting customized tours, activities, and social events based on travelers' interests, local trends, and current availability, best AI trip planners improve local experience apps.

Corporate travel tools

Businesses that have employees traveling have specific corporate travel apps that focus on the booking process, managing expenses, and ensuring travelers follow corporate policies. These include all-in-one travel management tools, such as SAP Concur, Egencia, or TravelPerk, expense tracking solutions, like Pleo and TravelBank, and policy compliance tools such as Tripkicks.

How can they be connected to AI as well? Semaladhari explains, "Solutions, such as Navan, are a great example of combining AI to improve the quality of corporate travel management and efficiency to reduce costs and improve employee satisfaction. An integrated approach across travel and destination management software with AI helps drive predictive analytics, categorize travel expenses automatically, and make personalized recommendations.”

As you see, whether you are creating a business travel tool with AI capabilities or a vacation trip planner with a booking platform integration, there is a beneficial use of modern ML technologies. But how to really implement them correctly?

How to actually build an AI travel planning app

In developing an operational and efficient AI trip planning tool, the work should be methodical. In De Silva's study of AI-powered travel planning systems, the authors indicate that the success of a travel planning system depends on a modular approach to implementation. They suggested the following four steps. 

  • In phase one, you need to identify user needs. Travelers often struggle with spending too much time researching on accommodation, dining options, and transportation, so discovery and booking processes are typically disjointed. It’s a good idea to incorporate a user-centered design process to think through some of these issues by designing a user interface and experience that helps solve these pain points. 
  • In phase two, you are ready to add core features. Start by building a natural language processing engine to interpret user requests. Then, build a framework for personalizing destinations and activities, and a dynamic itinerary builder that helps automatically sequence the plans into a sensible order. Finally, establish data ingestion pipelines from weather services and points of interest databases.
  • Third-party services are integrated into your AI app for travel planning in phase three.  Add language translation and currency conversion tools, integrate a suitable OTA and Skyscanner APIs for flight and hotel availability. Finally, connect Google Maps Platform for location visualization. 
  • The focus of phase four is on launch and refinement. Put in place analytics and feedback loops, deploy with ongoing monitoring, test extensively across devices and use cases, and implement the personalization layer. 

With sufficient team resources, this structured approach lowers risk and permits iterative improvements based on actual user feedback. You don’t guess your user experience, you build it logically and based on real data.

Technical stack deep dive

At COAX, we also have experience in choosing and applying a reliable stack for our web and mobile application development services for travel. Here’s our shortlist of the best technologies for creating your AI trip planner app.

  • The frontend layer does away with the need for distinct iOS and Android teams by using React Native or Flutter for cross-platform mobile development. 
  • Web interfaces are handled by Vue.js or React. 
  • Node.js and Express.js are needed for lightweight API management.
  • Python with FastAPI or Django is needed for AI processing and machine learning integration in the backend.  
  • The main relational database for structured user data and itinerary history is PostgreSQL, while unstructured content, such as user reviews and activity descriptions, is supplemented by MongoDB.

And what about the core technology — the AI itself? Certain technologies are suggested by De Silva and related industry research because they are dependable, scalable, and productive for developers. In their work, the AI layer implements GPT-4 Turbo to generate travel itineraries and produce content. Their NLP engine uses spaCy for extracting information from user queries and TensorFlow to build personalization algorithms that analyze user behavior patterns. 

The infrastructure is deployed using Docker for containerization, Kubernetes for orchestration with microservices architecture, and AWS Lambda for serverless processing. Finally, Firebase Authentication is used for user management, and Datadog is used for monitoring and tracking.

API integration

APIs are key to exploring sophisticated AI trip planning tools, allowing access to external travel, transportation, and local experience providers. They typically aggregate API sources like Google Maps for location and navigation data, booking sources like Expedia and Booking.com, as well as weather sources like OpenWeatherMap for current weather-related information, to ensure that the AI trip planners can retrieve and provide customizable information for travelers. 

On the other hand, APIs for payment processing, notifications, and calendars improve the user experience by enabling simple booking, providing timely alerts, and organizing trip information and details across platforms. Together, the API facilitates the AI trip planners to provide personalized and relevant recommendations.

Maintenance and scaling

After launching an AI tool for travel planning, there is always an ongoing need to monitor its functioning and plan for strategic scaling. 

Maintenance refers to the ongoing task of keeping track of operational processes. It includes monitoring API usage fees (for instance, Google Generative AI charges a fee for each token used). This also means tracking hosting on a cloud infrastructure like AWS or Google Cloud, database operations, and software upgrades. Routine tasks include monitoring system performance using logging tools and patching security vulnerabilities. You should also retrain AI models with new travel data and fix bugs reported by users. As user volume increases, you need to put in place caching systems (such as Redis) to prevent performance degradation

Expansion of features will support scaling as well. It includes real-time re-optimization of itineraries when flight prices change, predictive pricing alerts, multi-user collaborative planning features, and push notifications to mobile for deals. These feature expansions typically require expansion of the back end, AI model training capacity, and better indexing of data in the database. 

API integration and maintenance or scaling support are complex tasks, but COAX takes this complexity and turns it into success. Our AI integration services integrate numerous APIs through a combination of pre-built connectors and simple-to-use tools. We also provide scalable infrastructure and monitoring solutions that can effortlessly integrate additional costs, enable rapid adjustments as the app scales, and enhance operational capacity when new features are added.

Monetization and cost breakdown

You don’t just want to build the best AI tool for planning a trip — you also want to make sure you will make it profitable and get a stable return on the investment you make. To do it, you need to have a clear vision of how to actually monetize your product.

Monetization 

To build a successful AI for travel itinerary planning, it’s essential to have a clear revenue model. 

  • The most common and effective revenue strategy is commission-based earnings, in which you receive a commission each time a user books a flight, a hotel, or a tour in the app. It's a win-win for users because they get a convenient booking experience, and you earn a commission with no charge to the user. 
  • The freemium model is another popular option. To attract users, you could offer a basic level of trip planning services for free. Later, you could charge users for premium features, such as detailed itineraries, offline access, or exclusive member rates etc. This model also typically works best with a predictable stream of revenue, such as a monthly menu or yearly subscription. 
  • Affiliate partnerships with travel providers can also supplement your income. You could partner with airlines, hotels, and tour operators, for example, and receive income from these partners simply for referring users. 
  • For your app, you could also show targeted ads from travel brands and then earn an income from those ads based on user clicks or other user actions. Some apps charge travel service providers very small listing fees to have the provider positioned close to the top of user search lists.

These are common and efficient ways to make money from your app. However, your profit also depends on the investment you make initially and the ongoing support and growth plans.

Cost breakdown

Depending on your goals, development costs can vary significantly. Generally speaking, a basic MVP with the essential features of maps, AI itinerary planning, and basic search is far less expensive than a full-featured app. Significantly more money is needed for the more sophisticated version, which includes voice assistance, real-time integrations, and predictive budgeting.

What influences the price? The most important factor is feature complexity. Costs are raised by real-time data integrations and advanced AI personalization. Selecting a platform for AI trip planning tools is also important because it costs more to develop for both iOS and Android than for just one.

The makeup of the team also matters.  A lean team is necessary for an MVP, but backend developers, DevOps specialists, and AI specialists are needed for a full-scale AI application.  Your investment will increase with the level of specialized skills required.

ROI

Measuring ROI for an AI app for travel planning is not a straightforward calculation, like comparing costs to benefits. Unlike traditional software products, AI continues to improve over time, learning from how users behave and refining recommendations, gaining increasing value. 

The value will come in 3 main areas. 

  • Efficiency gains can come from automating itinerary writing, customer service, and scheduling. What it takes a human travel agent hours to do, it can now take AI seconds. 
  • Revenue generation comes from more direct bookings, higher conversion rates, and upselling users recommendations that match their personal interests and preferences. 
  • Retaining users and improving loyalty comes from consistently excellent recommendations and significantly higher user experience that travelers will go for or when other users tell each other about the app, leading to word of mouth. 

Measuring return on investment will also be dependent on the scale and volume of usage. Higher usage generally means greater intelligence and better data, which will create better recommendations, leading to higher bookings, and so on, creating a virtuous cycle. 

Return can be impacted by the learning curve. The first few months of use will be spent optimizing and training the AI model and algorithm, and the full value will come once the system is used for a longer period of time. Market positioning will be another important factor, as applications that target premium travellers, or niche experiences, are typically more prone to higher returns faster due to volume and higher value transactions per user.

Best AI travel planning apps 

If you decide to stop at an off-the-shelf solution, there are some efficient options in the market. We compiled the shortlist of the best AI travel planning tools 2025 and probably beyond, so you can make an informed decision.

  • A trip planner from Build AI is capable of designing detailed itineraries, including flights, and a step-by-step day plan for meals, attractions, and hotels, based on the place, trip type, and duration. Its strength is in helping facilitate travel for varied interests and integrating with Google Maps to assist tour operators in delivering itineraries to multiple clients at the same time. However, it lacks an element for actual bookings, which means a business may still have a separate system to manage bookings and payments. 
Build AI
  • Wonderplan has a visual, collaborative interface for users to drag and drop elements to build an itinerary and track the budget in real time. It is regularly updated as you build an itinerary. Wonderplan is the best AI for trip planning for travel agencies that are working with groups because of its effective multi-user planning features and the ability to export a PDF for their clients offline. Still, it doesn’t have direct booking capabilities and is only partly optimized for mobile devices, making it more of a planning tool than an end-to-end solution. 
Wonderplan
  • A ChatGPT trip planner is represented by plugins like Expedia, Kayak, and TripAdvisor. It allows queries to be generated in conversational language, is flexible in the research it will provide, and is good at providing comparisons and answers to questions. It requires the user to manage and switch between multiple plug-in programs, though, and does not have a native itinerary builder. It is an effective tool for a travel consultant when the user is doing research first.
Kayak
  • Layla AI generates quick itineraries and provides a video from travel creators, though some reviewers have found it to be limited in its depth compared to other websites. Layla AI is probably best utilized by travel-related businesses looking for basic planning functions, or simple inspiration, rather than a full itinerary named itinerary creator. The program works the most as a point of departure.
Layla AI
  • Magic AI trip planner (now Axel) tracks bookings after they are purchased and will automatically refund the consumer when there is a price drop, creating a unique value to business travelers who are cost-conscious. The use of WhatsApp and a 30-day refund period make the firm an attractive tool for travel managers or travel agencies focused on travel cost management. Currently, it only caters to hotels and flights and has limited functionality for other travel elements, such as car rentals or experiences. 
Ascend Travel

The thing is, even the best AI trip planner you can find as a ready-made option won’t have absolutely every feature that you need. Additionally, by sticking to one of these systems, you might lock yourself in its specific integration pool and potentially growing usage limits. 

Meanwhile, custom AI-based travel mobile app development with COAX helps you create your truly best AI tools for travel planning, connected to your necessary data sources, and integrating payment processing and booking capabilities, as well as reporting and analytics capabilities to keep track of your app’s efficiency and revenues.

With us, you avoid vendor lock-in, as you integrate with multiple data and booking providers, so you can easily swap out or add in services if needed. Need advanced multi-user collaboration or mobile optimization? We cover anything you need to give you an effective, market-ready tool.

FAQ

What benefits can my travel business get if my customers use AI to plan a trip?

Your AI trip planner provides individualized suggestions that enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. AI automates the booking process, allowing staff to concentrate on other duties. Implement dynamic pricing to maximize revenue in real-time. AI chatbots answer your customers' queries 24/7 and are more affordable. You will gain access to data to inform your marketing decisions and improve fraud detection for increased security.

How to use AI to plan a trip as a travel agent?

Use AI to produce the initial itinerary based on client preferences and build upon that based on your professional expertise. You can assign specific responsibilities, such as flights, hotels, and attractions, to AI tools that are designed to improve efficiency in those areas. Also, you can connect the AI tool to the company's booking system to ensure accuracy. As a best practice, you may also want to check critical information, such as flight time, on a more authoritative website prior to booking the trip for your clients, as AI is not always reliable.

How to use AI for travel planning securely? I'm concerned about my clients' private data. 

Carla Vianna advises companies to embed data minimization policies—only capture what you need. Use encryption for sensitive data and SSL/TLS for websites. Set employee-access limits based on job responsibilities. Review any third-party integration before use and make sure to monitor updates and deploy them by a careful checklist. Also, train employees in your security process and perform scheduled assessments of any third-party integrations.

What are the challenges of planning a trip with AI?

AI-generated hallucinatory content creates a considerable amount of dangerous misinformation. A BBC report indicated 37% of users of AI received "insufficient information," and 33% received "wrong information completely." In many cases, AI cannot differentiate between a real place and a made-up place it has information about, and presents the information equally as accurately.

How does COAX ensure efficiency and security of custom AI trip planning tools?

COAX is certified to ISO 9001 for quality processes and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 for comprehensive security management. We use frequent security audits, stringent data encryption, and access controls. In general, verification systems to detect AI hallucinations, human oversight for important data, and ongoing monitoring to handle changing threats are all part of our development processes.

Go to author page
Ivan Verkalets

CTO, Co-Founder COAX Software

on

Travel

Published

October 23, 2025

Last updated

October 23, 2025

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Order management in airline retailing

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Major guide to hotel housekeeping software

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LLM integration guide: Paid & free LLM API comparison

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Influencer trends that convert in 2025: Short vs long form content

April 16, 2025

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Specialized AI: How vertical AI makes a difference

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How to start an online travel agency: 10 key steps

July 20, 2023

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How carbon reporting software helps navigate carbon taxes

October 10, 2024

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Golf club software: Everything you need to know

June 19, 2025

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Hotel dynamic pricing: Strategy, types, dynamic pricing software

December 27, 2024

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Global hotel groups and chains: Every hotel model explained

February 5, 2025

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How Artificial Intelligence is changing the travel industry: 10 examples

November 20, 2023

AI

What is generative engine optimization (GEO) and how to adapt to the new reality?

August 29, 2025

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Travel buddy app: a full guide to build one

July 28, 2025

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January 12, 2024

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End-to-end guide to destination management software

September 10, 2025

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Essential features for user-centric travel apps: prioritizing the traveler’s experience

November 18, 2023

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Booking software for guided tours: From idea to implementation

May 26, 2025

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Booking.com problems: How to solve them with custom software

July 15, 2024

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10 award-winning travel tech startups to watch in 2025

August 7, 2024

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10 Best cloud solutions for travel agencies: 2024 сomprehensive guide

January 25, 2024

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Best channel managers for vacation rentals and hotels

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Best carbon offset companies and projects

October 21, 2024

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B2B travel app: Corporate travel management at its best

November 14, 2024

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GDS system comparison: Amadeus vs Sabre vs Travelport

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Airline industry digital transformation: Digital aviation

December 19, 2024

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Airline reservation system & passenger service system explained

January 31, 2025

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Airline flight booking APIs

May 21, 2025

Travel

AI in aviation: The future of air travel is here

September 11, 2024

Travel

Accessibility in travel: How to make your hotel accessible

June 20, 2024

Travel

A complete guide to white label travel portals & clubs

July 7, 2025

All

Perspective on agile software development: team structure and dynamics

December 7, 2023

Travel

10 key technology trends in the travel and hospitality industry

March 7, 2023

AI

10 best large language model use cases for business

February 5, 2024

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