FlowTrip: Deep Survey on Independent Travel Planning Pain Points & AI Assistance Intent

What is your age group and current status?

A. 18–22 years old

B. 23–28 years old

C. 29–35 years old

D. Over 35 years old

On average, how often do you go on independent trips per year (including domestic and international/European trips)?

A. 1–2 times (Occasional traveller)

B. 3–5 times (Regular independent traveller)

C. 6 times or more (Frequent / Avid traveller)

D. No independent travel experience yet

What is your most common travel style and group setup?

A. Solo traveller

B. As a couple

C. With friends / peers (often hard to reach a consensus)

D. Family trip (travelling with parents or children)

When planning a multi-day independent trip, which types of tools or apps do you usually need to use?

A. OTAs / Booking Platforms (Booking.com, Skyscanner, Trip.com, Expedia, Airbnb, etc.)

B. Social / Content Platforms (Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, Xiaohongshu, TripAdvisor, etc.)

C. Map & Navigation Apps (Google Maps, Apple Maps, Citymapper, etc.)

D. Price Comparison / Deal Trackers (Skyscanner, Hopper, Google Flights, etc.)

E. Offline / Note-taking Tools (Apple Notes, Notion, Excel, Google Sheets, XMind, etc.)

On average, how much total time do you spend planning a multi-day trip?

A. Under 2 hours (Spontaneous / Go-with-the-flow)

B. 2–5 hours (Rough plan)

C. 5–10 hours (Intensive research, price comparisons, and detailed scheduling)

D. More than 10 hours (Exhausting, requiring constant revisions)

What are your biggest frustrations or traps when picking hotels/accommodation?

A. Inconvenient Location: Seems cheap or close to a popular area, but out of the way for daily itineraries.

B. Inadequate Amenities: Low prices lack essential guarantees (e.g., no AC, shared bathroom, wrong bed configuration).

C. Overpriced: Excessive markup in popular areas that exceeds a reasonable travel budget.

D. Misleading Reviews: High platform ratings, but poor actual cleanliness or environment.

E. Tedious Filtering: Room types, policies, and transit info are scattered, making the selection exhausting.

What is your main bottleneck when booking flights or major transportation?

A. Scattered Information: Lack of automated price searches for "flexible dates + open-jaw/multi-city + layover combinations".

B. Complex Connections: Hard to evaluate multi-leg or cross-border transit connections smoothly.

C. Price Anxiety: Constant fear of overpaying, requiring frequent checking across multiple platforms.

D. No Major Issues: Existing booking platforms already meet my needs.

Have you ever tried using general AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity) to plan trips? What problems did you encounter?

A. Never used AI tools for travel planning.

B. Used them, but the itineraries generated were too generic and lacked realistic transit connections.

C. Used them, but AI failed to recommend real, bookable low-cost hotels and flights that met hard criteria.

D. Had a great experience; it fully met my needs.

If a tool could analyse your whole day's route and automatically recommend reliable "value hotels" (adding only 5–10 mins transit, but saving 20%–50% per night), what would your attitude be?

A. Very willing to use: Price and seamless routing are crucial to me.

B. Willing to try: Provided the hotel ratings and cleanliness are guaranteed.

C. Wait-and-see: Prefer picking hotels manually on booking platforms.

D. Not needed: Only care about staying in the heart of the most popular city centres.

10.

During a trip, if your actual progress deviates from the plan, which situations do you encounter most often?

A. Spending longer than expected at a spot, squeezing the remaining schedule.

B. Unable to reach the next location on time due to queues, traffic jams, or weather.

C. Missing scheduled tube/train/bus connections and having to re-route on the fly.

D. Wanting to add, cancel, or swap a spot on impulse, but unsure how to adjust the rest of the day.

E. Having fixed time slots (booked tickets/reservations) that make delays hard to handle.

F. Rarely encounter these issues; usually stick to the plan.

11.

What issues have you faced when taking public transport (tube, bus, train) in unfamiliar cities?

A. Poor GPS/map positioning underground, making it unclear which station I’m at.

B. Unfamiliarity with routes or language, leading to riding in the wrong direction, missing stops, or missing transfers.

C. Complex interchange stations, making it confusing to find the right exit, platform, or connection corridor.

D. After missing a stop or transfer, unsure whether to keep going or go back.

E. Worrying that transport errors will ruin booked attractions, trains, or flights.

F. Rarely face these problems.

12.

If FlowTrip could track your real-time itinerary progress and automatically re-route when delays, missed stops, or missed trains happen, what would your attitude be?

A. Very willing: Prefer automatic adjustments, asking me only when necessary.

B. Willing: But want to manually confirm before any schedule changes.

C. Risk alerts only: Just notify me of delays; don't auto-edit my itinerary.

D. Not needed: Prefer handling adjustments on the spot myself.

13.

After a trip, how do you usually deal with your photos, notes, and travel tracks?

A. Left untouched in my camera roll; rarely look back at them.

B. Pick out the best photos to post on social media (Instagram, BeReal, Xiaohongshu, etc.).

C. Would love an animated digital map route with a trip journal to re-live the memories.

D. Purchase a physical custom-made photo book or travel journal.

14.

If FlowTrip significantly reduces your travel planning hassle and cuts costs, which monetization model is most acceptable to you?

A. Completely Free: Funded solely by commission from affiliate bookings (e.g., Booking.com / Skyscanner).

B. Freemium Model: Core features free; a small subscription fee (£1.99–£2.99 / month) for advanced AI power and auto-monitoring.

C. Value-added Services: Paying for physical custom memory journals or high-definition route exports.

D. Unwilling to pay any fees or make bookings through the app.

15.

Which future expansion feature are you most looking forward to in FlowTrip?

A. Multi-person Collaborative Planning: Auto-resolving preference and route conflicts for groups of 3–5 people.

B. Dynamic Home-screen Widget: Daily route updates and travel memories delivered straight to your phone widget.

C. Real-time Navigation with Offline Mode: Accessing itineraries and basic route adjustments in low/no signal areas (e.g., tube/flights).

D. Off-the-beaten-path Discovery: Hidden gems and local food spots recommended by locals.