{"id":300513,"date":"2025-11-19T05:01:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T05:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/300513\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T05:01:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T05:01:14","slug":"boops-new-app-turns-social-recommendations-into-bookable-itineraries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/300513\/","title":{"rendered":"Boop’s new app turns social recommendations into bookable itineraries"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a\u00a0sea of\u00a0AI travel-planning apps, a new startup called Boop<\/a> aims to redefine\u00a0the space\u00a0with\u00a0a new approach: turning social recommendations into bookable itineraries.\u00a0Instead of getting a random AI-generated travel plan, the app offers users access to itineraries from real people who went on real trips.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When someone takes a trip, Boop uses AI to quickly turn their trip into an itinerary that others can copy and personalize, mainly by looking at location data and metadata from photos they share with the app. The idea is to build a network of shared itineraries that people can monetize, giving\u00a0travel creators another way to earn\u00a0money\u00a0from their recommendations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The startup was founded in February by Nancy Li Smith, who previously led AR\/VR innovation at Meta and Microsoft and served as executive vice president of growth and strategy at physical AI startup\u00a0BrightAI.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Smith\u00a0came up with\u00a0the idea for Boop\u00a0after feeling like there\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0a way for her to remember or share her own travel\u00a0recommendations\u00a0efficiently.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

She also wanted to address the stress and emotional labor that often comes with planning travel, especially since women make\u00a0roughly 80%\u00a0of travel decisions<\/a> and often feel pressure to make every trip perfect.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen are majority of the time the planner in the relationship and in the family and the friends groups,\u201d Smith said during an interview with TechCrunch. \u201cThere\u2019s this pressure to make every trip amazing, not only for yourself or your partner, for your family, for your friends. All these years of the emotional and logistical labor for free. Boop is now solving this so that we can capture this easily without people doing anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of\u00a0having to scour TikTok for recommendations, sift through hundreds of reviews, and pin ideas across Google Maps,\u00a0users can\u00a0access tested and loved itineraries from creators and friends.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\"\"Image Credits:Boop<\/p>\n

\u201cBoop is the first AI travel companion that\u2019s built on social trust,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWhat that means is, the moment you start going on a\u00a0trip\u00a0and start exploring and roaming around, Boop basically remembers\u00a0your\u00a0trip in\u00a0the background, so\u00a0all your\u00a0stops, your photos, your reservations,\u00a0and in the background turns this into a beautiful, shoppable itinerary that friends can now actually use.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

She continued, \u201cAnd so how that works is, instead of planning from scratch \u2014 which is like a weeks-long process \u2014\u00a0you can now just copy your friends\u2019 real Tokyo or Paris trip itinerary. And in one tap, you can chat with AI and in minutes be able to personalize it to make it your own.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

When users starts \u201ccapturing\u201d a trip, the app tracks their movements in the background, similar to how a fitness app tracks steps or running routes, if the user has given the app permission to do so. The company says Boop\u2019s AI doesn\u2019t use location data for anything other than capturing trips and offering recommendations. For instance, if a user has shared an interest in art and is located in the 11th arrondissement in Paris, Boop may direct them to Atelier des Lumi\u00e8res.<\/p>\n

In the future, Boop plans to integrate with users\u2019 calendars, with their permission, in order to access existing reservations and add them to their itineraries.<\/p>\n

Smith says Boop is helpful when you\u2019re on the road, too, not just when planning a trip. For example, if you\u2019re standing in the middle of Tokyo at 11 p.m. feeling spontaneous, Boop can recommend something for you to do based on your taste and your friends\u2019 recommendations.<\/p>\n

Boop is launching on Tuesday on mobile and is currently available on an invite-only basis.\u00a0The company currently has a public waitlist<\/a> that users can join.<\/p>\n

Boop is offering\u00a0early access\u00a0to select travel creators whose trips people already want to copy, Smith says. The startup has seen interest from creators who already share their travels and are looking for a way to earn from their recommendations.\u00a0Creators can share their trips with followers through a \u201cBoop with me\u201d link that includes affiliate links.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Image Credits:Boop<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people copy the link and book, we automatically integrate affiliate commission APIs from the industry, and we generate the industry standard of 10 to 25%\u00a0commissions, and we turn half of that back to the creators,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWith each copy, that means 50 to 100\u00a0bucks. And if\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0an influencer with 100,000 followers,\u00a0and\u00a0you have 100 people copying this, it\u00a0becomes a five- [or] six-figure income down the road.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boop is working with hotel and experience affiliate aggregation companies and using APIs to access affiliate booking inventory from platforms\u00a0such as Expedia, Booking.com, Marriott, and Viator.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Smith says Boop is fortunate to be backed by\u00a0leaders from Tripadvisor, Marriott, and Expedia, noting that they understand travel and consumer behavior.\u00a0Notable investors include Stephen Kaufer, co\u2011founder and former CEO of Tripadvisor, and Stephanie Linnartz, the former president of Marriott International.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In terms of funding, Boop raised $3.2 million in pre-seed funding in May, co-led by Bling Capital and BBG Ventures.<\/p>\n

As for the future,\u00a0Boop wants to be the go-to place for booking travel, especially as research shows that Gen Zs are less likely to view travel as a discretionary expense<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn five\u00a0years,\u00a0what we the team internally talked about is when someone wants to plan a trip, they won\u2019t say, check the reviews, they\u2019ll say, copy my Boop,\u201d Smith said. \u201cAnd, so every real trip becomes a guide, and every memory becomes a new currency.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a\u00a0sea of\u00a0AI travel-planning apps, a new startup called Boop aims to redefine\u00a0the space\u00a0with\u00a0a new approach: turning social…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[8543,156402,165,74,2427,156401],"class_list":{"0":"post-300513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-apps","9":"tag-boop","10":"tag-mobile","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-travel","13":"tag-travel-startups"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}