Google launches travel-planning tools for desktop users

The desktop solution was designed to help users simplify travel planning across Google Flights, Hotels and Trips. Google Trips makes planning and organizing your trips easier than ever. It automatically maps with suggestions for things to see and do a half day or a full day. Don’t like what you see? Tap the “magic wand” to see more nearby sights. Every wand tap provides you a new set of attractions nearby. It will organize Google Trips research and reservations. Travel information is available to users logged into their Google accounts at google.com/travel, as well as in Google Searches and Google Maps.

Based on confirmation messages obtained in Gmail, consumers will discover timelines for upcoming journeys on google trips. Now, users can edit those timelines directly. Users will be able to enter fresh reservations manually within a few weeks. Now, google.com/travel will integrate weather forecasts for upcoming trips.

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Travel Planning

A user’s trip research will be tracked across Google. Searches and saved places and flights will automatically be added to trips, Google said. Viewed hotels will quickly be incorporated as well as stuff to do. Users can always opt out of the service. When a user is traveling, Google Maps will display popular neighborhoods, including blurbs on what they’re known for. Trips (including reservations) will be accessible via Google Maps “in the next few months,” Google said.  The goal is to simplify trip planning by helping you quickly find the most useful information and pick up where you left off on any device. Last year, Google also launched comparable tools for mobile devices.

Google last fall introduced its own travel planning application, Google Trips, a competitor to TripIt and others, which combines tools to manage your air and hotel reservations with suggestions of places to visit and things to do at your destination. Google Trips is currently receiving its first major update since its fall debut, adding a few fresh characteristics to help customers better organize their travel plans.

Before now, one of the most remarkable characteristics of the app is that it is linked to Gmail, allowing you to automatically import your travel plans – such as air and hotel bookings. These will then be put within the app in the suitable journeys. The app expands its inbox parsing capacities with the update to discover your bus and train reservations as well. These will also appear between your multiple hotel stays in the reservations section of the app, enabling you to better see how you move from one place to the next – even if not by air.

Additionally, the app now allows you to enter in reservations by hand, in those cases that you don’t have an email confirmation (or perhaps one sent to a different email address.) You can press the “+” sign in the app to add either a restaurant, car rental, hotel or flight manually. However, even those these details are being typed in, Google can still help by auto-completing the information. For example, if you enter in the airline and flight number or just the hotel name, Google Trips will fill out the rest of the information.

There is also a room for free-form notes that allows you to add other kinds of tracking reservations that do not fit into one of these high-level travel categories.This could be where you add to an evening show information of a trip you’re taking or your tickets.Travelers using Google Trips are now able to share their reservations with other parties, too – another feature rival travel companion apps today offer. You can tap an arrow button on the reservations screen to forward your trip details to anyone’s email.They can also see your plans in the app if they also have Google Trips.

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Travel Software

The fresh features will make Google Trips more user-friendly and competitive in the bigger industry, but despite the additions, the app remains more helpful to discover stuff to do than travel management. The ability of Google to take advantage of its business listing and place Google Maps data is really the standout feature of the app. Restaurants can be found by cuisine or atmosphere, or events organized into categories such as kid-friendly, outdoor, indoor, further away, or you can even browse a list tailored to your interests.

But the app still has a number of issues when it comes to the email import and organizational feature. For instance, when it imported a flight confirmation from Gmail that has me arriving at JFK, it somehow decided that I was staying in Branson, Missouri. (The email doesn’t mention Branson at all.) You don’t tend to see this kind of glitch on TripIt, and it’s bad enough to make the app feel untrustworthy as the location to track your journeys. Google Trips is an Android and iOS free application.

Google’s flight booking service uses the powerful ITA Matrix software. Here are some of the key features of the tool:

Once you fill in the required fields, the search results will highlight recommended choices in the Best flights box, based on parameters like price, travel time and amenities. Take note: the most economical option (whether or not it’s considered by Google to be a ‘best flight choice’) will often be marked by a green price tag. Just be wary of the number of stops on that route!

You can narrow down your search further by putting a cap on price, setting the number of stops on the journey, selecting specific airlines or airports, and indicating outbound or inbound times.

If your travel dates are somewhat flexible, try clicking on the date fields to bring up the monthly view calendar, which displays the lowest rates per day.

If you’re simply window shopping for flights, toggle Track prices If you’re logged into your Google account, your trip will be saved in order to track price trends, sending you price alerts about increases and decreases, as well as other tips via email.

If you still don’t have a specific destination in mind but would like to travel somewhere (anywhere!) you can try the online equivalent of closing your eyes, spinning a globe on its axis and pointing your finger at a random location: the I’m Feeling Lucky button in the Explore Map will conveniently suggest a ‘random’ destination for you based on your search history and places that are currently trending.