How to build a trip planner for your friend group
By Will Hannigan · Published , updated
Group trips run on a dozen scattered messages: who is paying for what, who booked which night, whose job is snacks. Ask ChatGPT or Claude for a trip planner built around your actual trip, and Podda gives it a private home only the people going can open.
What can a trip planner actually hold?
Whatever your trip needs. An itinerary day by day, a packing list everyone can tick off, a running tally of who has paid for what, or a place to vote on where to eat next. Describe your trip and who is coming, and ChatGPT or Claude builds around it.
Why not just use a group chat?
A group chat is where the plan gets discussed, and where it gets lost. The itinerary is buried under a hundred other messages by the time you land. An app holds the plan in one place everyone can check without scrolling back through weeks of chat.
How do you build one?
Connect Podda, then tell ChatGPT or Claude about your trip in one message. It opens as a link straight away. Invite the people going and they sign in on their phone, with no separate account and nothing to pay.
That's the whole process, start to finish: one message in, a working trip planner out.
See the connect guide for the click-by-click version.
Do I need to set anything up?
No, and neither does anyone you invite. Want a different packing list, or one more person added? Ask ChatGPT or Claude and it changes the same app instead of building a new one, so everyone keeps using the link they already have.
Does it work for more than one trip?
Yes. Build a fresh one for each trip, or ask ChatGPT or Claude to reset it for the next one with the same group. Either way, the plan lives in one place instead of being reconstructed from old messages every time.
Connect Podda to ChatGPT or Claude and plan your next trip somewhere your friend group can actually find it. The free plan covers your first few apps.
Last updated 22 August 2026.