Travelers don’t think in dropdowns. They think in sentences: “a pet-friendly condo near the slopes,” “a hotel with a pool for the kids.”
Today, Ripe is introducing Smart Search, our natural language search capability built for destination travel and localized to individual markets. For Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) empowered by Ripe’s In-Market Travel Agency (ITA) platform, it does two things at once. It helps visitors find the right stay in their own words, and it shows you what those visitors are really looking for.
A Search Experience That Sounds Like Your Visitors
Instead of forcing travelers through filters before they’ve decided what they want, Smart Search starts with a single question: what are you looking for? Travelers type “condos that allow pets” or “family friendly near the beach,” and land in results that actually match.
The conversation doesn’t stop at the search box. The query carries into the booking engine, so visitors keep refining without starting over, all the way to checkout. Results arrive with a short summary explaining why the properties fit, and keyword chips let travelers adjust a search with a tap. As they browse, Local Highlights such as Great for Families or Eco Friendly surface what makes your destination distinct.
The result is a smoother path from inspiration to itinerary, on your site, in your brand, reflecting the neighborhoods and property types that define your place.
Intent Data That Belongs To You
Booking data tells you what converted. It says little about the visitor who wanted a lakefront cabin with a hot tub, found none, and left. Smart Search closes that gap.
Every search feeds Search Insights dashboards that show you:
- What travelers are searching for, in their own words
- Search volume and top queries
- How that intent translates into clicks on properties
That is first-party demand data from your own destination, including the searches that never became bookings. If interest in pet-friendly stays keeps climbing, you have a signal for your next campaign, exclusive offer, or conversation with lodging partners. It is the kind of evidence that helps you show stakeholders exactly what visitors want from your community.
Your Destination, Your Voice
Smart Search adapts to you rather than the other way around. It inherits your site’s look, and you control the headline, the example searches travelers see, and the value adds that make booking with you worthwhile.
Set the widget to feature a particular area, property type, or current offer, and create dedicated versions for campaigns, events, and microsites. A marathon, for example, can have its own branded search that sends runners to prioritized hotels.
What It Adds Up To
Ripe AI Smart Search turns a search box into a strategic asset:
- Better experiences for visitors, who search the way they think and keep their intent from first query through checkout.
- Sharper marketing for you, guided by real demand signals instead of assumptions.
- A stronger story for stakeholders, backed by first-party data from your own channels.
- More value kept in-market, because the traveler relationship, the data, and the opportunity all stay with the destination.
That last point is the heart of what Ripe does. What happens in-market, stays in-market. Smart Search extends it to the very first moment a traveler starts looking.
See It In Action
Curious how Smart Search could work for your destination? Talk with the team at Ripe to see it live, or learn more about the Ripe ITA model.
