• by Jess Nelson , November 17, 2015

Travel search company Hipmunk has built a virtual assistant for email powered by artificial intelligence (AI) that identifies travel dates and locations in emails to make flight and hotel recommendations. 

Hello Hipmunk, the product, applies AI to personalize a consumer’s travel experience through their email and/or calendar, the company's CEO Adam Goldstein announced Tuesday at the PhocusWright Conference in Fort Lauderdale.

The company offers two travel planning features for email and calendar, both available in beta. 

Hello Hipmunk for email offers users a quick and easy way to search for travel accomodations directly within their email inboxes. Travelers can email questions to hello@hipmunk.com and Hipmunk will respond with suggested travel recommendations. Hipmunk’s email also includes links to additional information that is available across channels on the Hipmunk app or Web site. 

Users can also cc the email address to any ongoing email conversation about travel plans, and the machine will send suggested travel recommendations to the entire group. Hello Hipmunk for email is compatible with any email provider.

A customer service representative at Hipmunk says Hello Hipmunk can answer round-trip and one-way flight searches and can search for hotels and vacation rentals if users specify the date range and city within their email inquiry.

Hello Hipmunk for calendar integrates with a user’s Google Calendar to anticipate any upcoming travel needs by reading the location and date of upcoming scheduled meetings. Hipmunk then emails users recommended travel accommodations and flights for those dates and prioritizes hotels and services nearest to the meeting location.

Travel and email marketing have been moving in tandem toward offering a more personalized customer experiences -- a probable factor in travel’s role as the top performer in email marketing ROI.

Consumers also expect personalized content from travel brands. Eighty-five percent of consumers prefer customized itineraries to generic plans and 72% would spend more time planning a trip that is tailored to their needs, according to a recent study by American Express Travel.