A lot of people have been talking lately about TripIt, a web-based travel organizer website created by some of the same people that brought you Hotwire. TripIt, however, isn't your ordinary travel site.
With the ever increasing use of online services to make travel plans, organizing the details scattered across multiple emails and varying formats can be difficult and sometimes downright frustrating. TripIt simplifies all of that by knowing how to read the confirmation email formats of most of the major airlines, hotels, and travel sites. You simply forward the email to TripIt and let their services take care of the rest.
Once TripIt has processed your trip details, you get a very nice summary and detailed view of your trip. The best thing is that you can get maps and driving directions from the airport to the hotel, your hotel to your various destinations, weather reports, travel guides, and a whole lot more. It keeps everything very nicely organized and easy to read.
You can even use TripIt to share your trip with family and friends, or if you are traveling with a group you can all collaborate on the same trip.
Up until recently, I never had a need to use a service like TripIt so I simply filed the information away for safe keeping. That all changed when I started planning my travel arrangements for my upcoming trip to Seattle. After booking my airfare, I decided to give TripIt a try. I forwarded the email from Southwest and added my hotel stay (I didn't have a confirmation email for the hotel stay but I was able to add the details by hand). Everything has worked seamlessly and so far I have been very impressed with the quality of the site and the ease of use.