Solo Sisters - your travel companion finder

This matchmaking platform is built for women, by women, to foster a community of solo travelers to have a safe companion during periods of travel, making every journey empowering, secure, and free.

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Inspiration

Recent surveys show that women travelers outnumber men in solo travel, by 67% to 37%, however 88% felt that their safety was threatened in some way by traveling on their own. Solo travel promises independent travel, personal growth and support for women’s self discovery. This matchmaking platform is built for women, by women, to foster a community of solo travelers to have a safe companion during periods of travel. Whether you're planning your next big outdoors exploration or looking for someone to explore nightlife with, AI powered Solo Sisters helps you connect, plan, and embark on unforgettable journeys with confidence. We aim to empower women to explore the world on their own terms, with the right companionship. Because the best journeys are the ones where you feel safe, inspired, and free.

What it does

Solo Sisters connects solo female travelers looking for companionship and safety while exploring new destinations. Simply create a profile, select your city/state, and match with other women who share your travel plans. We handle the toughest part—pairing you with travelers heading to the same destination at the same time. Additionally our filters allow us to match users on specific criteria including interests, hobbies and goals. With safety tips and a supportive community, we make solo travel more enjoyable, secure, and hassle-free. Whether you're seeking a weekend getaway buddy or a long-term adventure partner, we’ve got you covered!

How we built it

We developed our tech stack with Javascript for the frontend, Node.js and Express.js for the backend. We wanted to explore a new database and we took up the opportunity in this hackathon to check out MongoDB. We used Gemini API to help us match users based on the similarity of the profile based on individual’s data. We then used the similarity scores for user matching using advanced Natural Language Processing techniques. We collaborated together through github and made structural feature-branch integration based on our own expertise.

Challenges we ran into

As all of us were new to building a full-stack app, we initially struggled in learning the integration of frontend and backend modules. We wanted to implement facial recognition for authentication, but because of the time frame, we could not implement it. We also tried to integrate Google new Places API as a selector in our registration component so that if a user types a travel destination, we get the autocomplete and suggestion based on the input, but lost a lot of time in figuring out ‘authentication map error’ by GCP.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re incredibly proud of our matching page, where users are seamlessly connected based on their interests, hobbies, and travel preferences. This ensures that every traveler finds a companion who shares their excitement for new adventures. We’ve designed a visually stunning and user-friendly interface that makes navigation effortless. From profile creation to tips and reviews, everything is smooth, modern, and engaging because travel planning should be as exciting as the journey itself!

What we learned

For most of us, this was our first hackathon experience, and building a full-stack project was both challenging and rewarding. By dividing our strengths and collaborating, we not only developed a functional platform but also taught and learned from each other along the way. This experience was incredibly fruitful and productive, reinforcing teamwork, problem-solving, and the power of shared knowledge!

What's next for Solo Sisters - your travel companion finder

We want SoloSisters to feel safe, like many other social media or dating apps, we want to ensure users are conducting honestly and respectfully:

  1. Google API: Allow users globally to auto-complete cities and destinations by utilizing place suggestions from Google Maps API
  2. User Authentication and Verification: Open authorization API, manual verification, google style verification features, like having re-sign ins, and changing password systematically, verify over phone number or other devices
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