Tried and Tested: Putting Trip.com’s award-winning technology to the test for on-trip planning

We put the OTA’s in destination offerings through the ringer

A hugely successful Singapore-headquartered OTA, Trip.com is going from strength to strength. In 2024 it bagged four awards at our Travolution Awards, the most of any brand, and saw revenues upward of £1.3 billion in Q4 of last year alone, a year-on-year growth of 23%.

After its show-stopper clean-up at the 2024 awards, I wanted to see how well the judges really did in awarding Trip.com Champions of Customer Experience and Best Use of AI, alongside its other wins for Brand of the Year and Champions of Data.

Can it really deliver on everything a traveller needs from a brand’s technology capabilities? And should it really be victorious over the others shortlisted? I’ve already put its award-winning technology for pre-trip to the test, and it came up top, so can it measure up again?

On trip, my flying experience was was faultless thanks to the many notifications I got to guide me through my roughly 25-hour journey.

Yes, it’s not that hard to arrive at the airport and look at the board for the right check in desk but the fact that every time I got a flight, for which I took six in total for my Australian roundtrip, the app had all my booking desk details and even the boarding gate ahead of time, mean travel was simply seamless. When the flight boarding opened, I got a notification from the app. This was ideal for a shopaholic who wants maximum bargain-hunting time in Duty Free. Then, when you’ve made it to the other side and looking for your luggage for a swift exit? Easy, the app updates you with the luggage carousel number too before you’ve had time to think. I mean, it was as slick as could be and took all the faffing out of travelling to become a smooth operation gliding through the airport without a single worry other than has my suitcase made it to my destination – I have multiple air tags for this very reason, though – and will they have a yummy in-flight meal for me to enjoy vs do I have enough snacks to sustain me a 15 hour flight if not?

I explored AI-first technology benefits for pre-trip planning, but it doesn’t end there, and I used it on trip for my next stop. Trip.com’s app has an AI-powered itinerary planner which when I was planning my Sydney stint - having lived there before - was a fun little challenge for the planner that I wanted to see how it would fair against, having done most popular touristy things to do in the city.

I picked a few things from the options it proposed to me and input the duration of my stay to let it come up with the most optimal schedule for visiting my new targets. As a methodical planner for my multi-stop trips, to ensure I can do absolutely everything I usually oversubscribe myself to for fear of missing out, this was a huge tick.

Through the B2B lense, I also liked that this was yet another place for Trip.com to work with its partners to provide more opportunities for them to deliver the best variety of experiences to its customers.

The combination of features I’d used pre-trip, came in handy too when on-trip as the Austrian-fool-proof summer, well, wasn’t fool-proof after all. In fact, the weather let us down pretty much everyday which meant re-thinking a lot of our activities and plans. This is where I jumped the app and cheekily used it to appear like the hero to save the day with alternate suggestions.

I also loved the in-app currency converter which became my best friend as I meticulously budgeted for everything to ensure I didn’t blow my allocated spending money in the first couple of weeks of my month-long adventure. This feature really made spending decisions quick and easy.

While not an on-trip capability of its tech, I loved the travel log offering under the My Trips function within the app. With gamification being a huge part of winning over users and adding to the continuously sought after better experience, this was a welcome addition. This is beautiful example where the data piece harmoniously comes into play with the customer experience composition, something I was particularly keen to see for myself. Executed well with a neatly illustrated graphic makes it easier for avid travellers to share with close ones what they’ve been up to. It even has a share functionality for it which is supported by Facebook, Whatsapp, and WeChat, as well as text message and email. For me, personally, I have no need to share but as a data buff, I loved the stats how long I’ve been up in the air during all my flights booked via Trip.com and my distance which so far equates to orbiting the Earth 0.9 times apparently.

Hats off to the growing online travel agency, its technology offering delivers, and its kudos by the judges were well founded and well earned.

*The author’s trip was paid for by Trip.com as an opportunity to put the technology to the test.