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

Travolution Editor, Kate Harden-England, takes a closer look at the intermediary’s digital offerings 

The Singapore-headquartered OTA scooped a whopping four awards - the most of any company - at our Travolution Awards last year in November, even going on to land one of the biggest of the night - he Brand of the Year.

If we jump back to 2023, Jane Sun, its well-known CEO picked up the most coveted of them all – the Travolution Achievement Award – one that's given to individuals that have excelled in their dedication to the industry progress or for their actions being instrumental in the company’s success over the past 12 months.

Now fast forward again to 2024, where after a rigorous and objective process, the brand was welcomed to the stage to collect the prize for Champions of Customer Experience, Champions of Data and Best use of Artificial Intelligence.

The judges gave critiques such as “it’s amazing what they’re solving with it [AI]” and “it’s got a lot right in there [the app]”, so I thought why not check it out for myself and put its tech to the test as an everyday traveller would.

I say ‘first things first’ as if every holidaymaker in the world has the exact same process when booking their holidays – they don’t – but I like to start my travel planning by searching for flight options in terms of carrier, price and availability so I can suss out how I optimise my time away to its full potential and what that could set me back.

If I’m going away, I like to fly back the latest possible hour to have the most time in whichever destination I’ve chosen (I hasten to add I’m also the same if I’m popping home to mum’s for the weekend, I’ll leave at the last possible minute so I have maximum time with her) while some people like to fly home early to have some time to adjust before going back to work etc.

So, I opened up the Trip.com app and I have to say I did find the UX experience instinctively easy to use with its search functionality at the top, and a Travel Inspiration box underneath which is perfect in case you are quite often like me searching for somewhere to go without a plan.

This section is so handy as you select your origin city or airport and it has a cheap flights section too – perfect for those that pick to explore a new destination based on how great the flight prices are (cough ahem, I’m saying nothing but this may or may not be me); best deals section – ideal for those who love a bargain and perhaps these are lower prices than you normally find them; and finally, trending destinations you can reach from there.

At the bottom you’ll find Dream Destinations, which from travel and hospitality brands’ point of view, this is a top-tier opportunity to captivate a travellers’ interest before they’re too far gone and committed to something else.

I love it from a consumer’s perspective too, as I learnt I could fly to Thailand with Wizz Air on certain dates for £400 odd which certainly spiced up a bleak Tuesday afternoon for me. Am I on my own in not knowing you go could go that far afield with Wizz Air? Anyway, the fact the app offers details like an airport rating, photos from travellers, and tips for transfers including if an Easy Transfer Service is available at this airport, made planning my flights and travel much easier.

Alas, a Thailand deal was not on the cards for me. I was searching for reasonably-priced flights to Australia in the peak of its summer to escape the tugging-at-your-coat-cold-like weather in the UK in January, and if it weren’t solely for this reason, I would have been easily swayed by the Deals of the Week and the inspiration on offer. The ample opportunity for brands to capture the attention of travellers, like myself, was extensive, not to mention the level of range it has for us consumers, already made me want to return to use it again for other parts of my trip, like my best friend’s birthday, but we’ll get to that.

So, set on Brisbane, Queensland in Australia, from London, I set up a price alert to track the best possible prices before I pulled the trigger.

Now, while other operators do have flight alerts functionality like Google Flights and Skyscanner – which is owned by Trip.com’s parent group – it is without a doubt consumer-centric technology that ranks very highly in my books. It served me very well considering I’m trying to go out in the southern hemisphere’s prime.

For my friend’s present, I searched the app for inspiration as to what I could get her for the day. I knew we were going to be in Brisbane for some of my trip, and having spent no time there on previous trips, I didn’t know what the city had to offer. That’s where Trip.com’s technology rose to the challenge. Its AI-curated lists really helped me out. Thanks to the this functionality, known as Trip.Best, I now had the low-down on best things to do, best restaurants in the area, nightlife and top stays.

While I found a host of brilliant activities I would have loved to book as the breadth of products available via the app at a click of a button was fantastic, the Aussie summer had other ideas so I settled on a lavish stay for us while in Brisbane to really spoil her. I'm hardly hard done by in this scenario, I have to say. It would be fair to say my love language is being whisked away to stay at a gorgeous place and being left to soak it all up so I guess it was kind of a present for me too, not just for Jade. And honestly, if I’m staying somewhere nice, I don’t want to have plans that mean I have to leave said place. When I check in, I want to experience everything, I want to enjoy the room and all the facilities on offer so Do Not Disturb immediately goes on the door. Non-negotiable. 

Simply put, I put Trip.Genie to work. “What is the best hotel in Brisbane?” I asked it and up comes Trip.Best’s curated list of hotel stays in Brisbane with a link for me to clickthrough to, too. Top of the list at number one was our winner, Emporium Hotel South Bank. With a score of 4.7 out of 5, with highlights listed as 21^st floor rooftop bar with stunning views and an infinity pool with 27-degree views, I was sold but I wouldn’t work in travel if I didn’t do some more digging.

Looking back and writing this post-trip, I might be forgiven for not remembering every question I asked TripGenie about my in-the-works trip for Jade’s birthday but a feature I really rated was that you can scroll up and see your chat history, so I needn’t worry. Top priority for me? Was there a swim up bar… I was on holiday after all, and cocktails are always on the agenda for me if I’m not driving anywhere. A good answer, I thought: “The Emporium Hotel South Bank in Brisbane does not have a swim-up bar. However, it features a spectacular 23-metre infinity edge pool and a bar on level 21, offering magnificent views over South Bank Parklands, the Brisbane River, and the city.” Captivating copy that made me want to be someone who was enjoying those selling points, so I think TripGenie is a great tool for the OTA's partners.

It doesn’t end there when it comes to AI-first inspiration for planning, though. The 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 gave it the duration of my stay, then I just 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 a 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.

A self-professed planner, I always enjoy this stage with lists galore, but the process was made a lot easier for fellow travellers with the capabilities of its technologies implemented. A credible example of this in action was the checklist functionality under My Trips on the app. It has everything from travel documents and health and wellness including cold medicine and stomach relief medication to toiletries, which it actively recommends to reduce waste.

As an impartial part of the process, I can now concur with the judges; exemplary efforts were put into considerations by the brand of how a user would need it to perform for it to be a one-stop shop, pre-trip and I can’t wait to see how Trip.Genie continues to develop and improve even further, as it continues to learn.

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