Smart travel planner Speakspots.com launches flights 

AI travel planner Speakspots.com  announced the launch of real-time flights packages for its users. Travellers visiting the Speakspots.com platform will be offered the option to receive fully personalised flight packages – tailored to their individual preferences and requirements – calculated and displayed in under 1 minute, as part of Speakspots.com’s bespoke itinerary planning services.

Over the last 12 months, Speakspots.com has already seen a 1000% year over year increase in traffic, with users visiting the platform in search of personalised tourism recommendations for over 175 global destinations. In December 2023, the company began offering ticketing services for attractions via leading Spanish online travel operator Civitatis and saw conversion rates 3x the industry standard. Last month Speakspots.com launched in the UK market, announcing the inclusion of accommodation inventory to its trip planning services, via a partnership with Booking.com.

Flights integration

Now, Speakspots.com is adding flights to its platform, made possible via global travel leader Skyscanner’s flights API, bringing the startup one step closer to offering travellers a smart, highly personalised and dynamic trip planning functionality.

“At Speakspots.com, our ambition is to create the most intelligent and efficient trip planning assistant. Since 2019, we have been laser focused on building a fit for purpose AI and collaborating with the best in travel for access to industry leading APIs to help us deliver against that vision. Today’s announcement brings us one step closer to offering travellers truly smart trip planning, via a single platform that can connect travellers to personalised recommendations from across the travel ecosystem – not just discovering what to do and where to eat in a destination, but also how to get there and where to stay,” said Speakspots.com founder Andres Martinez Artal.

“Speakspots.com eliminates the countless hours spent trawling through hundreds of websites and social media feeds, as well as the inevitable choice overwhelm that follows. Instead, we generate an itinerary that is entirely personalised to you, which takes into account not only your personal preferences and requirements, but also real-time data that could impact your trip. That’s our secret sauce,” concluded Martinez Artal.

The integration of flights via Skyscanner’s API also allows Speakspots.com’s AI to enhance the platform’s “Smart budgets” feature; this enables budget optimisation of each of the various trip components. How it works: a traveller has stated they are going to a city for two days, and want to spend £500. The algorithm takes this into account to recommend possible accommodation upgrades, or alternative flight options or attractions to visit, to help users get the most value out of their trip budget. The AI also factors in a hotel’s proximity to the city centre, flight times and who you’re travelling with, alongside price. Once an itinerary has been generated, it is shared with the traveller via Whatsapp, where they have access to a chatbot assistant for any additional questions or changes.

Funding roadmap

Following on from a successful pre-seed round at the beginning  of the summer, Speakspots.com is preparing for its next funding round; this time, a seed round. Speakspots.com already counts two heavyweights from the Spanish tourism sector amongst its advisors: Manuel Butler, former executive director of UNWTO, and José Guillermo Montañés, current president of Thinktur, and former president of CEHAT (Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodations).

The startup remains intent on accelerating the adoption of more sustainable and conscious tourism by the mainstream. Speakspots.com’s AI defaults towards walking whenever possible, encouraging travellers to discover a destination on foot, as well as prioritising hotel recommendations, to counter concerns around rises in self-catering accommodations leading to increased rents for local residents. Over 90 percent of travellers who plan trips with Speakspots.com choose to include hidden gems, off-the beaten path experiences and visits to nature and green spaces in their itineraries. And so far this year, 95% of the itineraries generated via the platform have been entirely unique.

Currently, Speakspots.com is available in 36 languages and can plan itineraries in 176 destinations across 37 countries around the world. The company is nominated in the Startup of the Year category for the prestigious Travolution awards, with CEO Andrés Martínez Artal shortlisted for Rising Star of the Year. Martinez Artal was also included on Forbes’s list of the 100 most creative professionals of 2024.