About GoPlanit?
GoPlanit is a social travel planning tool for exploring destinations and creating personalized trips. We created GoPlanit to help users navigate through the myriad of information available and create a meaningful plan that can be accessed anywhere and shared with friends.
As frequent travelers ourselves, we know that even the most experienced user could spend countless hours researching and managing all the details of a trip, organizing the trip plans, and communicating with friends and family. The information available can be even more daunting for novice planners. So, we created GoPlanit because we wanted a tool that would be helpful to everyone: from a first-time vacation planner to an expert globe trotter.
Getting Started
GoPlanit's travel planning tool will help you plan your next trip. Here's how to get started:
Explore Destinations
From the home page, you can explore destinations from around the world. Each city page includes top lists featuring the most popular activities, restaurants, and hotels based on users from across the web. You can also see which of your friends have been there and what they think. Or, get inspiration for your own trip by browsing trip itineraries from other users.
Create an Itinerary
When you're ready, you can easily create a trip by clicking the "Creating an Itinerary" button. You can also create a trip from an item page by clicking the "Add to Itinerary" button and choosing new itinerary. Select the dates for your trip and you're ready to start.
Create trips with friends
You can collaborate with your friends to create the perfect trip using our drag and drop planning tool. To invite your friends on a trip, click "Guests" on the right module and then choose "Invite." From here, you can select from friends who are already on GoPlanit or invite friends using their email address. You can also assign the appropriate access rights as you are inviting them. Friends without a GoPlanit account will be able to view the trip plans, but they won't be able to edit them. Everyone with moderation rights will be able to work together to plan out the perfect trip.
Add things onto your plans
You can add items onto your plan by clicking anywhere on the calendar or clicking the "Add" button and choosing the type (activity, dining, lodging, flight, and custom). Browse through our top lists or create your own custom items to add onto your plans. You can also add these items directly from the search results pages and from the item's informational pages.
Find nearby things to do
With GoPlanit's dynamic distance search, you can also find nearby restaurants, activities, and hotels from wherever you are. Use any item on the trip itinerary as the starting point for a new distance search. Find specific things nearby or use this feature to discover new places to try.
Plan It!
Receive personalized recommendations for things to do and see by clicking the PlanIt button. With just one click, "Plan it" will help you find popular and highly rated items and take into account location, hours of operation, personal preferences, and friends' recommendations.
Mobile access and microblogging
Access your trip details and search for nearby things to do and see directly from your mobile phone. You can even keep track of your experiences with the travel microblogging feature. Update your trip journal with text and pictures in real-time and allow friends to follow your latest developments. The microblog automatically tags each entry with the appropriate activity, ratings, and time.
Print your itinerary
Print a copy of your trip itinerary complete with maps, contact information, notes, and pictures. Imagine your very own travel guide available on-demand.
Export your calendar
Keep your calendars in-sync by exporting your trip plans directly into your Outlook, iCal, or Google Calendar.
Share your trip
Share your experiences by writing in the trip journal, microblogging your experiences, inviting your friends, or sharing the direct link to your trip plans.Team
Steve Chen, Chief Executive Officer
Steve has over 17 years of entrepreneurial and Internet startup experience. Steve founded and directed the growth of Element LLC, the largest social event planning and marketing company in Northern California. Steve also worked at Accenture for 5 years developing and project managing large systems implementations before joining Epylon, a business to government and education Internet startup that was later purchased by Accenture. Steve is also an investor in several internet and brick and mortar businesses. Steve graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in Economics and a minor in Business Administration.
Ronen Elrom, Chairman & Chief Operating Officer
Ronen brings over 14 years of managerial, entrepreneurial and technical experience. Prior to joining GoPlanit, Ronen was a division manager at Tangram Soft which was acquired by Matrix (NASDAQ:MTRX.TA). Before joining Tangram Ronen held positions as R&D team leader at Amdocs, Inc. (NASDAQ:DOX), and infrastructure lead at StructuredWeb. Ronen served as an Officer for the Israeli Air Force software unit, where he led development teams and projects. Ronen holds a BA in Economics and Business Management and a Mastes in Law from Bar Ilan University in Israel. Ronen received his programming training from the Israeli Defense Force's MAMRAM school.
Yaron Biton, Chief Technology Officer
Yaron has over 16 years of experience in various technologies, with solid background at the most technical and architectural aspects of software engineering, including expertise at the domains of: Enterprise level - Secured - Scalable Systems, Service Oriented Architectures, The Web Platform, The Social Platforms, and the Mobile Platforms. A graduate of the IDF computers track (Mamram) and a BA at Computer Science (Tel Aviv College). Yaron worked at 2Train4 as a senior consultant and senior architect, delivering advanced JEE courses and managing development teams in Israel, Europe, US and India for Oracle.Advisory Board
Barry Shuler, CIO & IT Consulting Principal, Design Management Associates, Inc.
Former CIO of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and CTO of Marriott International, Inc.
Mr. Shuler is presently the CIO & IT Consulting Principal of Design Management Associates, Inc. Prior to this he was the SVP & CIO of Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, and Marriott International, Inc. as Senior Vice President, Information Technology Strategy and Chief Technology Officer. In those roles Mr. Shuler was accountable for the information technology strategy and enterprise architecture for all Marriott brands and business units, including Marriott Lodging, Marriott Vacation Club International, Ritz-Carlton, and corporate functions. Mr. Shuler is past President and board member of Hotel Technology Next Generation (www.htng.org) which promotes the emergence of specifications for interoperability among commercially available and custom developed hotel systems. Mr. Shuler is also the author of the book Virtual Travel: Embrace or Expire, where he explores the impact that evolving virtual reality technology will have the travel industry.
Ted Jansen, President and Managing Director, Travel Holdings eCommerce
Former SVP at Expedia
Mr. Jansen spent 15 years immersed in the world of luxury services marketing and e-commerce while serving as SVP of Product & Retail at Expedia, VP at the Walt Disney Company, and VP at MTI Vacations. Ted is the current President and Managing Director, eCommerce at Travel Holdings, Inc. Travel Holdings, Inc. operates the following URLs: easyclicktravel.com, lastminutetravel.com, and lastminutecruises.com
