Group travel and collaboration

TripLoom’s group collaboration features help coordinate travel with multiple people. From role-based permissions to expense splits, the platform reduces coordination overhead for shared trips.

Group trip detection

A trip is automatically marked as a group trip when the traveler count exceeds 1. This enables group-specific features across the platform. From frontend/components/trips/pages/overview-page-content.tsx:86-92:

updateTrip(trip.id, {
  destination,
  startDate,
  endDate,
  travelers,
  isGroupTrip: travelers > 1,
  totalDays,
})

Group page overview

The group page (frontend/components/trips/pages/group-page-content.tsx) provides centralized access to collaboration controls.

Current capabilities

Members and roles

Purpose: Manage who can view, edit, or approve trip decisions.Roles:

Owner: Full control, can delete trip and manage members
Editor: Can modify itinerary, flights, hotels, and expenses
Viewer: Read-only access to all trip data

Use case: Assign one person as trip owner, grant editing rights to co-planners, and invite others as viewers for transparency.

Approvals queue

Purpose: Track pending votes and decisions that require group consensus.Workflow:

Editor proposes a change (e.g., hotel selection, itinerary adjustment)
Proposal enters approvals queue
Members vote or comment
Once approved, editor can apply the change

Status: The queue shows trip.approvalsPending count from the trip object.

Split rules

Purpose: Configure how expenses are divided among travelers.Modes:

Equal split: Divide evenly across all travelers
Custom split: Assign specific amounts per traveler

Integration: Split rules apply to all expenses added in the finance page.

From frontend/components/trips/pages/overview-page-content.tsx:172-177:

Navigate to overview

Open the trip overview page where the Share and Invite buttons are visible.

Click Invite

The Invite button (with UserPlusIcon) opens the invite dialog.

Enter email and role

Specify the invitee’s email and assign a role (Owner, Editor, Viewer).

Send invitation

The invitee receives an email with a secure link to join the trip.

Shareable links

The Share button generates a read-only link for quick access without account requirements. Useful for sharing trip details with family or friends who don’t need editing rights.

Finance group mode

The finance page includes a group mode toggle that changes how budgets and splits are calculated.

Enabling group mode

From frontend/components/trips/pages/finance-page-content.tsx:406-414:

Open budget settings

Navigate to Finance → Budget Settings.

Toggle group mode

Enable the “Group mode” switch.

Set group size

Enter the number of people sharing expenses. This can differ from the traveler count if only some people are splitting costs.

How group mode affects calculations

Traveler count: Uses finance.groupSize instead of trip.travelers when group mode is enabled
Per-person estimates: Divides budget and expenses by group size
Split validation: Ensures custom splits sum to the expense total across all group members

From frontend/components/trips/pages/finance-page-content.tsx:159-160:

const travelerCount = finance.groupModeEnabled ? finance.groupSize : Math.max(1, trip.travelers)
const travelers = React.useMemo(() => buildTravelers(travelerCount), [travelerCount])

Expense split management

Every expense can be split equally or custom-allocated among travelers.

Equal split

Divides the expense evenly across all travelers. This is the default mode. Example: A

300 hotel cost with 3 travelers splits to

100 per person.

Custom split

Allows specifying exact amounts per traveler. Useful when costs are uneven (e.g., one person books a single room, others share). Validation: The sum of custom splits must equal the total expense amount within 1 cent. From frontend/components/trips/pages/finance-page-content.tsx:314-324:

if (draft.splitMode === "custom") {
  const sum = travelers.reduce(
    (total, traveler) => total + Number(draft.splits[traveler.id] ?? 0),
    0
  )
  if (Math.abs(sum - amount) > 0.01) {
    return "Custom split must add up to the expense total."
  }
}

Hotel cost allocator

The Hotel Split tool automates expense division across trip days.

Open hotel allocator

Navigate to Finance → Hotel Split.

Enter stay details

Full stay price: Total cost for entire booking
Price entered for: Select “One person”, “X people”, or “Entire booking total”
People count: Number of travelers sharing the hotel (if applicable)
Nights/Days: Duration to split across
Start date: First day of hotel stay

Apply split

The system creates one expense per day/night, dividing the total cost evenly. Each expense is labeled “Hotel stay 1/N”, “Hotel stay 2/N”, etc.

How it works (frontend/components/trips/pages/finance-page-content.tsx:431-491):

Calculates booking total based on pricing mode
Deletes any existing auto-generated hotel expenses (identified by [hotel_allocator_v1] prefix in notes)
Splits total into equal cents per day/night
Creates individual expenses with proper date offsets

Itinerary collaboration

The itinerary calendar supports multi-user editing with visual status tracking.

Status filters

Planned: Confirmed activities
To Do: Items requiring action or booking
Finished: Completed activities (useful during or after the trip)

From frontend/components/trips/pages/itinerary-page-content.tsx:100-104:

const STATUS_OPTIONS: Array<{ key: ItineraryStatus; label: string }> = [
  { key: "planned", label: "Planned" },
  { key: "todo", label: "To Do" },
  { key: "finished", label: "Finished" },
]

Drag-and-drop coordination

Editors can drag itinerary items to adjust timing. Changes are reflected in real-time for all collaborators once saved. Calendar modes:

Month view: Overview of entire trip
Week view: Detailed daily planning
Day view: Hour-by-hour scheduling (recommended for mobile)
Agenda view: List of all scheduled items

AI group recommendations

The AI copilot provides group-specific guidance on the group page. From backend/internal/ai/prompt.go:103-105:

Group: Prioritize decisions that reduce coordination overhead and clarify ownership/approvals. Suggest explicit owner + deadline for each next action.

Example AI recommendations:

“Assign hotel booking to Sarah with approval by Friday”
“Split daily itinerary planning: Alex owns Day 1-3, Jordan owns Day 4-6”
“Set budget cutback vote deadline to reduce back-and-forth”

Trip progress tracking

The overview page shows trip progress across all group members. Progress is calculated based on completion of essential tasks:

Trip basics (destination, dates, travelers)
Flights selected
Hotels booked
Itinerary planned
Transit confirmed
Finance budget set

From frontend/components/trips/pages/overview-page-content.tsx:183-191:

<div className="mb-2 flex flex-wrap gap-2">
  {progressSteps.map((step, idx) => {
    const done = Math.floor((trip.progress / 100) * progressSteps.length) > idx
    return (
      <Badge key={step} variant={done ? "secondary" : "outline"}>
        {step}
      </Badge>
    )
  })}
</div>

Best practices for group trips

Assign clear roles early: Designate one owner and divide editing responsibilities
Use approvals for major decisions: Hotels, flights, and large expenses should go through the approvals queue
Enable group mode in finance: Ensures accurate per-person budget calculations
Set split rules upfront: Decide equal vs custom splits before adding expenses
Leverage AI for coordination: Ask the AI to suggest explicit owners and deadlines for pending tasks
Check “What’s Missing” regularly: The overview page shows incomplete essentials visible to all group members

Permissions and data access

All group collaboration features respect role-based permissions enforced at the backend level (backend/internal/ai/service.go:110-116):

ok, err := s.repo.IsTripMember(ctx, req.TripID, userID)
if err != nil {
    return nil, err
}
if !ok {
    return nil, ErrUnauthorizedTrip
}

Viewers: Can read all trip data but cannot modify anything
Editors: Can add/edit itinerary, expenses, and transit; cannot delete trip or manage members
Owners: Full access including trip deletion and member management

Future enhancements

Planned group collaboration features:

Real-time notifications when approvals are requested
Comment threads on individual expenses and itinerary items
Voting UI with approval thresholds
Split settlement summary (who owes whom)
Export of split breakdown for external payment apps

Core Features

Advanced

Group travel and collaboration

Group trip detection

Group page overview

Current capabilities

Shareable links

Finance group mode

Enabling group mode

How group mode affects calculations

Expense split management

Equal split

Custom split

Hotel cost allocator

Itinerary collaboration

Status filters

Drag-and-drop coordination

AI group recommendations

Trip progress tracking

Best practices for group trips

Permissions and data access

Future enhancements

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Core Features

Advanced

​Group trip detection

​Group page overview

​Current capabilities

​Invite and share

​Shareable links

​Finance group mode

​Enabling group mode

​How group mode affects calculations

​Expense split management

​Equal split

​Custom split

​Hotel cost allocator

​Itinerary collaboration

​Status filters

​Drag-and-drop coordination

​AI group recommendations

​Trip progress tracking

​Best practices for group trips

​Permissions and data access

​Future enhancements

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Group trip detection

Group page overview

Current capabilities

Invite and share

Shareable links

Finance group mode

Enabling group mode

How group mode affects calculations

Expense split management

Equal split

Custom split

Hotel cost allocator

Itinerary collaboration

Status filters

Drag-and-drop coordination

AI group recommendations

Trip progress tracking

Best practices for group trips

Permissions and data access

Future enhancements