smarTours
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1996
- HeadquartersNew York, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingDigital Commerce or Content
What smarTours does
Smartours is a privately held, AI-powered travel discovery and planning platform that connects consumers to hotels, villas, vacation rentals, and unique stays worldwide. The platform functions as a discovery and planning layer aggregating accommodation and tour inventory from four major global travel partners — Booking.com, VRBO, Expedia, and Kayak — and redirects booking transactions to those partners. Its core product surface includes destination landing pages across more than 20 countries, a "Tour Yourself" self-guided travel feature, AI-curated destination guides, and a suite of Smart Travel Tools covering price comparison, itinerary planning, currency conversion, weather, safety alerts, and packing lists.
Underlying the platform is a generative-AI and recommendation-engine stack that powers personalized itinerary generation, smart destination search, and the planned "AI Package Tours" module, which is positioned to bundle stays, transport, tours, and activities into a single AI-curated package. The company's AI capabilities are presented as product features rather than proprietary models — no in-house models, patents, or training pipelines are disclosed — and the modality is text-based, focused on itinerary and guide content generation.
Smartours earns revenue primarily through affiliate and referral commissions on bookings completed on partner platforms, with the upcoming AI Package Tours product signaling a planned shift toward direct transaction economics. Its go-to-market is product-led and digital-first, relying on SEO-optimized destination content to drive organic traffic that converts through partner booking redirects. The primary customer segments are leisure, group, and business travelers, with no enterprise or B2B contracts disclosed. No funding rounds, headcount, founding date, or financial disclosures were available in the source material, leaving scale and ownership structure unverified.
smarTours firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- smarTours
- Legal name
- smarTours
- Website
- https://smartours.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1996
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
smarTours industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Online Travel Marketplace
- NAICS
- Travel Agencies (561510), Tour Operators (561520), Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Other (4879)
- SIC
- Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Hotel & Accommodation Booking Platforms (THALAFAB)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Online Booking & Reservation Platforms (B2B/B2C) (THALAMAA), Local Tours, Activities & Attractions Metasearch (THALAEAI), Destination/Activity Booking Marketplaces (Tours & Tickets Aggregators) (THAKAAAH)
Keywords
Where smarTours is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- New York
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
smarTours business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Digital Commerce or Content
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Personnel, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Affiliate/Commission Revenue: Earns commissions or referral fees when users book accommodations through partner platforms (Booking.com, VRBO, Expedia, Kayak) via embedded links and redirects from the Smartours website
- Travel Package Bookings: Revenue from AI-powered package tours that will include hotels, transport, and activities in one plan (coming soon feature)
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels3 records
smarTours product offering
Product offeringCore offering
smarTours is an AI-powered online travel platform that aggregates handpicked hotels, villas, vacation rentals, and unique stays worldwide from partner platforms including Booking.com, VRBO, Expedia, and Kayak. It pairs accommodation search with AI-curated travel guides, self-guided itineraries, and trip-planning tools (price compare, currency converter, weather, packing lists, safety alerts). Bookings are completed on partner sites via redirected affiliate links, with smarTours earning referral commissions.
Product overview
Smartours is a travel technology platform that combines accommodation booking with AI-powered travel planning. The core platform connects travelers to hotels, villas, and unique stays worldwide, functioning as an aggregator for Booking.com, VRBO, and Expedia properties. The product suite includes the main Smartours Platform for search and booking, the Tour Yourself feature for self-guided exploration with local insights, and Destination Guides providing curated travel content. Smart Travel Tools offer auxiliary features including price comparison, currency conversion, itinerary planning, weather forecasts, and packing assistance. An upcoming AI Travel Package Tours module will provide fully AI-curated vacation packages combining accommodations, transport, and activities.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Smartours Platform
Companies that use smarTours
Customer profileSegments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
smarTours technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability3 records
Feature9 records
smarTours partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- Booking.comcoreMajor accommodation booking partner providing hotel and property inventory. Smartours displays Booking.com listings and redirects users to complete bookings, earning affiliate commissions on referred reservations.
- VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner)coreHome rental marketplace partner offering vacation homes, villas, and unique rental properties. Smartours integrates VRBO listings and earns referral fees for bookings completed through their platform.
- ExpediacoreOnline travel agency partner providing hotels, flights, and travel packages. Smartours features Expedia inventory and receives commissions for referred bookings.
- KayakcoreTravel search engine partner enabling price comparison across multiple travel providers. Smartours integrates Kayak search capabilities for metasearch functionality.
Scale indicators1 record
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights4 records
smarTours competitors and assessment
Company assessmentEmerging players
- Roam Around: AI travel itinerary generator that creates personalized day-by-day plans. Direct overlap with smarTours' AI-powered itinerary planner and 'Tour Yourself' self-guided travel feature.
- Hopper: AI-driven travel app focused on personalized flight, hotel, and car-rental recommendations and price prediction. Comparable as an AI-first consumer travel-planning product targeting the same leisure segment.
- Mindtrip: AI-powered conversational travel planning platform building personalized itineraries and booking flows. Comparable as an AI-native travel planning entrant competing for the same AI-discovery layer smarTours targets.
Direct peers
- Tripadvisor: Review-led travel discovery and booking platform combining destination content with hotel/activity booking links. Closely mirrors smarTours' content-plus-affiliate model and primary use case (leisure travel planning before booking).
- Kayak: Travel metasearch engine that compares hotels, flights, and packages across multiple suppliers. Directly comparable because Kayak is both a listed smarTours supply partner and a functional peer in price-comparison/affiliate-led travel discovery.
- HotelsCombined: Hotel price-comparison metasearch engine aggregating rates from OTAs and booking sites. Closely comparable to smarTours' accommodation price-compare functionality and affiliate referral flow.
- Trivago: Hotel metasearch engine comparing rates from OTAs and aggregators. Comparable in core mechanism (price comparison, click-out referrals) and target audience (independent leisure travelers comparing accommodation options).
- Skyscanner: Travel metasearch platform covering flights, hotels, and car rentals with global coverage. Comparable as a global metasearch/affiliate-driven travel discovery layer serving independent leisure travelers.
Broad incumbents
- Booking.com: Largest global OTA and a core smarTours supply partner. Comparable as a broad incumbent in the same online accommodation booking space, even though it currently serves smarTours as both a partner and a category benchmark.
- Expedia: Major full-service online travel agency offering hotels, flights, packages, and activities. Overlaps with smarTours' accommodation + tour/activity aggregation scope and is also a listed core partner.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat3 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
smarTours social profiles
Digital presencesmarTours financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
smarTours leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
smarTours funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
smarTours M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about smarTours
What does smarTours do?
smarTours is an AI-powered online travel platform that aggregates handpicked hotels, villas, vacation rentals, and unique stays worldwide from partner platforms including Booking.com, VRBO, Expedia, and Kayak. It pairs accommodation search with AI-curated travel guides, self-guided itineraries, and trip-planning tools (price compare, currency converter, weather, packing lists, safety alerts). Bookings are completed on partner sites via redirected affiliate links, with smarTours earning referral commissions.
Is smarTours a public or private company?
smarTours is a private company. It is classified as unknown and is currently operating.
When was smarTours founded?
smarTours was founded in 1996. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is smarTours based?
smarTours is headquartered in New York, United States, in the North America region.
How does smarTours make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Affiliate/Commission Revenue is the primary driver. The others are travel Package Bookings.
Who are smarTours's main competitors?
Emerging players on record are Roam Around, Hopper and Mindtrip. Direct peers are Tripadvisor, Kayak, HotelsCombined, Trivago and Skyscanner. Broad incumbents are Booking.com and Expedia.
Does smarTours have an API?
No public API is recorded for smarTours.
What industry is smarTours in?
smarTours's product category is Online Travel Marketplace. Its primary akta.pro industry code is THALAFAB, Hotel & Accommodation Booking Platforms, with a secondary code of THALAMAA, Online Booking & Reservation Platforms (B2B/B2C). Its NAICS code is 561510 and its SIC code is 7900.