Among the many AI-powered travel planning apps, Boop is a new startup looking to change the game by transforming social recommendations into ready-to-book travel plans. Rather than providing users with generic AI-created itineraries, Boop connects them to trip plans crafted by real travelers who have actually visited those destinations.
After someone completes a trip, Boop leverages AI to swiftly convert their journey into a shareable itinerary, which others can duplicate and tailor to their preferences. This is mainly achieved by analyzing location information and photo metadata shared with the app. The platform’s goal is to create a community of shared itineraries that users can profit from, offering travel creators a new way to monetize their advice.
Boop was established in February by Nancy Li Smith, who previously headed AR/VR innovation at Meta and Microsoft, and also served as executive vice president of growth and strategy at the physical AI company BrightAI.
Smith was inspired to create Boop after realizing there wasn’t an efficient way for her to keep track of or share her own travel tips and experiences.
She also wanted to tackle the stress and emotional effort that often come with organizing trips, especially since women are responsible for about 80% of travel choices and frequently feel the need to make every journey flawless.
“Most of the time, women are the ones planning trips for their partners, families, and friends,” Smith explained in an interview with TechCrunch. “There’s always this expectation to make every vacation perfect—not just for yourself, but for everyone else. For years, all this emotional and organizational work has been unpaid. Boop is here to make it easy to capture and share this information without extra effort.”
Rather than spending hours searching TikTok for suggestions, reading endless reviews, or saving ideas on Google Maps, users can now find tried-and-true itineraries from trusted creators and friends.
Image Credits:Boop
“Boop is the first AI travel tool built on social trust,” Smith said. “This means that as soon as you start your trip and begin exploring, Boop quietly records your journey—your stops, photos, bookings—and automatically turns it into an attractive, bookable itinerary that your friends can use.”
She added, “So instead of starting from zero—which can take weeks—you can simply copy a friend’s real itinerary for places like Tokyo or Paris. With just one tap, you can chat with the AI and quickly customize the plan to fit your own needs.”
When someone begins “capturing” their trip, the app tracks their location in the background, much like a fitness app logs your steps or running routes, provided the user allows it. Boop’s AI, according to the company, only uses this location data to record trips and suggest activities. For example, if a user is interested in art and happens to be in Paris’s 11th arrondissement, Boop might recommend a visit to Atelier des Lumières.
Looking ahead, Boop intends to sync with users’ calendars—with their consent—to pull in existing reservations and automatically add them to their itineraries.
Smith notes that Boop is also useful during your travels, not just for planning. For instance, if you find yourself in Tokyo late at night and want to do something spontaneous, Boop can suggest activities based on your interests and your friends’ suggestions.
Boop is debuting on mobile this Tuesday and is currently accessible by invitation only. There’s a public waitlist available for those who want to sign up.
Boop is granting early access to select travel creators whose itineraries are already in demand, according to Smith. The company has attracted creators who are eager to share their journeys and earn money from their recommendations. Creators can distribute their trips to followers via a “Boop with me” link, which includes affiliate links.
Image Credits:Boop
“When someone uses the link to book, we automatically connect to affiliate commission APIs in the industry, generating standard commissions of 10 to 25%, and we share half of that with the creators,” Smith explained. “Each time someone copies a trip, that could mean $50 to $100 for the creator. If you’re an influencer with 100,000 followers and 100 people copy your itinerary, that could turn into a five- or six-figure income over time.”
Boop partners with hotel and experience affiliate aggregators and utilizes APIs to access booking inventories from platforms like Expedia, Booking.com, Marriott, and Viator.
Smith shared that Boop is supported by leaders from TripAdvisor, Marriott, and Expedia, who bring deep knowledge of travel and consumer habits. Noteworthy investors include Stephen Kaufer, co-founder and former CEO of Tripadvisor, and Stephanie Linnartz, former president of Marriott International.
On the funding front, Boop secured $3.2 million in pre-seed investment this May, with BBG Ventures and Lynn Capital as co-leads.
Looking forward, Boop aspires to become the primary platform for booking travel, especially as studies indicate that Gen Z travelers are less likely to treat travel as an optional expense.
“Our team’s vision for the next five years is that when someone wants to plan a trip, instead of saying ‘check the reviews,’ they’ll say ‘copy my Boop,’” Smith said. “Every real journey becomes a guide, and every memory turns into a new form of value.”
