How a subscription-based travel app guarantees users low prices to travel the world

Vacations and trips are great. But planning weekend getaways, business trips and longer vacations can be time consuming and costly. Even with all the travel websites and booking apps available today, travelers still struggle when it comes to finding the perfect hotel, the best flight prices and affordable rental cars.

By 2022, the global travel industry is expected to grow to ten percent of the Global GDP. The industry is predicted to reach a yearly revenue of around $10 trillion in the coming years. As the travel sector continues to expand, travelers across the globe are seeking a one-stop solution that will easily fulfill all their needs – from booking flights, to finding hotels to securing the perfect rental car.

There’s An App For That

Fortunately, there’s a new app in town that lets users get around town effortlessly and affordably.

FinalPrice, a new subscription-based travel app, just raised $4 million in funding. The company aims to become the “Amazon Prime of travel,” offering users access to the best possible hotels, flights and rental car prices on the market for an annual subscription fee of just $99.

FinalPrice provides users with direct access to worldwide travel, which includes flights from more than 800 airlines, 1 million hotels to book from and options from the top 40 rental car companies throughout the world. Not to mention that savings are guaranteed with FinalPrice, as users are promised to save more than what they pay for their subscription, otherwise the company refunds the difference.

“Multiple sectors of the US market are moving to a subscription-based model, from Netflix and Spotify to Amazon and even dry cleaning. I’ve been working in the travel industry for 14 years and founded services with revenues exceeding 1 billion per year,” said Peter Kutis, CEO of Final Price. “Then I noticed that the travel industry still cherishes the old transactional model, where they try to make a profit on each purchase: a flight, hotel stay, rental car, etc. The competition in this market is brutal, and a lot of online travel agencies still try to attract customers with discounted hotels and rentals, and bundles. As a result, the price became the defining criteria. FinalPrice is bringing the subscription model to travel where we earn money only on a subscription fee and turn all our profits (commissions, incentives, bonuses from airlines, hotels, car rental companies) to discounts and cashbacks. It will save up to 30% for frequent travelers. Our goal is to become the final destination in travel like Amazon is in online retail.”

The Tinder of Hotels

Not only does FinalPrice save users thousands, the app offers hotel choices in a “tinder-like” style. After all, swiping left and right to choose the perfect date is easy enough, so why not do the same when booking a hotel?

Travelers looking for hotels on the app can swipe either left or right when they like or dislike a hotel. At the end of the list, users are able to eliminate hotels from their selections based on certain features. The best hotel is then presented to the user.

“Booking websites like to praise how big the number of hotels is that they have on their platform, but the majority of people don’t actually want to go through all of them. They’re just trying to understand what’s better. That’s why we’ve developed the ‘Hotel Duel’, where people eliminate the hotels from their selection based on certain features, one at a time and end up with the best offer for them. When you do that, our AI is being trained and analyzes what are the hidden reasons why you rejected that particular hotel, such as pricing, location, style, etc. That helps us recommend more relevant offers in the future,” Peter said.

FinalPrice also relies on machine learning to ensure that the best hotel options are always shown. As users swipe for different hotels, machine-learning algorithms are applied to analyze different reasons why users reject or accept particular hotels. The algorithms take into account pricing, location, style, etc. These algorithms are then trained to remember why a user likes or dislikes a hotel in order to recommend relevant options each time a new search is performed.

Keeping Travel Affordable

While exploring the world is fun, one of the biggest downfalls when it comes to traveling is the expense. According to the popular travel site, Expedia, individuals going on a business trip spend an average of $987 on a round-trip flight, $228 on a hotel and $214 on a rental car. It’s also been noted that younger travelers spend more than their older counterparts. Simply put, traveling isn’t cheap.

In order to make traveling more affordable, FinalPrice keeps track of their members’ reservations. If the price drops substantially, the company will reissue the trip and refund the difference. FinalPrice also claims that users who spend $10,000 in travel expenses through the app will save around $2,500 in comparison to the best available public price via other services.

Start Exploring

Travelers shouldn’t have to feel limited in terms of options when booking a trip. They also shouldn’t have to seek out traditional online travel agents (OTAs) when planning their next big vacation.

And, since many individuals today are already familiar with a number of subscription-based models (Netflix, Amazon, etc.), it only makes sense to have a subscription-based travel app. Through this model, FinalPrice is able to offer travelers the most affordable and effortless way to book a trip - from the flight, to the hotel to the rental car – all of which are tailored exactly for each individual’s needs.

Happy swiping, travelers (for hotels – not dates)!