I Built a Travel App That Doesn't Book Anything

Open any "travel planning" app and you'll notice something: they all want to sell you something.

Flights. Hotels. Car rentals. Experiences. Every feature is a funnel, every tap an opportunity to earn a commission. The planning part—the actual organizing, thinking, dreaming—gets squeezed into the margins, an afterthought designed to get you to the checkout page.

I built Avventura to do the opposite. It doesn't book flights. It doesn't have hotel partnerships. It doesn't earn a cent when you buy something.

And that's the point.

Planning and booking are different problems

Somewhere along the way, the travel industry decided that planning and booking should be the same thing. But think about how you actually plan a trip.

You don't start by booking a flight. You start by wondering. What if we went to Portugal? What's there to do in Lisbon? How many days do we need? Is it worth the drive to Sintra?

That's planning. It's research, conversation, and daydreaming. Booking comes later—once you know what you want.

What happens when planning becomes a sales funnel

When an app makes money from bookings, every design decision gets filtered through one question: does this lead to a purchase?

• Features that drive bookings get prioritized. Flight search, hotel comparison, "deals" you didn't ask for.
• Features that don't drive bookings get neglected. Itinerary organization, document storage, collaboration.
• The app becomes noisy. Ads, upsells, partner promotions—all competing for your attention.
• Your data becomes the product. Where you're going, when you're traveling, what you're interested in—sold to advertisers.

The case for separation of concerns

I wanted Avventura to be good at one thing: helping you plan.

• A place to collect ideas before you know what you're doing
• An itinerary builder that lets you see your whole trip at a glance
• Expense tracking so you know what you're spending
• Document storage for confirmations, tickets, and reservations
• Collaboration so you can plan with the people you're traveling with
• Offline access because you'll need this on the plane

When you're ready to book, go book. Use Google Flights. Use Booking.com. Use whatever gets you the best price. Then come back to Avventura and add the confirmation to your trip.

Why this is better for you

When an app doesn't make money from your bookings:

• There's no incentive to manipulate you. No dark patterns, no fake urgency.
• Your data stays yours. No selling your travel plans to advertisers.
• Features are built for planning, not purchasing.
• The business model is honest. You pay for the app. The app works for you.

I'm building it because I wanted a better way to plan trips—and I think you might too.