UrbanEscape

"Experience Modern Travel"

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Urban Escape ✈️🌍

A Smart AI-Powered Travel & Stay Booking Platform

🌟 Inspiration

Urban Escape was born from a simple frustration — endlessly scrolling through hotel booking sites, filtering by price, amenities, and location, only to feel overwhelmed by choices. We imagined a smarter way, where AI could take charge and make personalized travel recommendations easy, fast, and efficient.

With AI transforming how we interact with technology, we felt it was time to reimagine travel discovery — not just through search bars, but through natural, intelligent conversations.

👥 Team

  • Sajidul Ahmed – Team Lead, Frontend & AI Integration
  • Pragyan Lahkar – Full Stack Developer & Backend Logic

💡 What We Built

Urban Escape is a fully responsive web platform where users can:

  • Search for hotels and stays via filters or chat with an AI travel assistant
  • Get location-based suggestions under specific budgets
  • View intuitive search results with clear CTAs and UI
  • Experience a smooth, clean red & white themed interface
  • Access detailed hotel views that include map location previews
  • Seamlessly interact with the platform thanks to proper error handling mechanisms
  • Register and login with robust authentication and authorization features

🔧 Tech Stack

  • Frontend: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, EJS
  • Backend: Node.js, Express.js
  • Database: MongoDB Atlas
  • AI Integration: Gemini API (initially), tested with Groq and OpenRouter
  • Authentication: Passport.js with local strategy
  • Hosting: Render
  • Other Tools: Canva (for UI assets), Postman (for testing APIs), Map display integration

🚀 Key Features

  • 🌐 AI Chat Assistant – Users can simply "ask" where to go, and the AI provides filtered results
  • 🧭 Smart Filtering – Location + price + amenities filtering system
  • 🗺️ Map View on Hotel Pages – Visual display of hotel location for better navigation
  • 📱 Responsive UI – Looks clean on both desktop and mobile
  • 🛎️ Travel Listings – Displays hotel/stay cards based on queries
  • 🔐 Authentication & Authorization – Login with session handling using Passport middleware
  • 🧂 Hashing & Data Security – Credentials protected using secure hashing practices
  • ⚙️ Error Handling Middleware – Built-in system for handling user and server errors smoothly

🧠 What We Learned

  • How to integrate third-party AI APIs (Gemini, OpenRouter, etc.)
  • Working with server-side rendering using Node.js and EJS
  • Structuring a frontend layout that adapts to real-time data
  • Managing authentication using Passport with local strategy
  • Handling API key limits and designing fallback systems
  • Building around user experience and AI interaction

😓 Challenges We Faced

  • Dealing with rate limits in free AI APIs during testing
  • Making AI responses control visual components (e.g., filter results from chat)
  • UI decisions that matched both form and function
  • Filtering listings dynamically from conversational input
  • Designing clean yet secure login and session logic

🔭 Upcoming Features

  • 🔄 Live Hotel API Integration – Connect to real-time hotel/stay APIs for dynamic data
  • 🧠 Local LLM Integration – Using Ollama with LLaMA3 for unlimited AI access
  • 🤖 UrbanKBA – Our custom-trained AI assistant, replacing third-party models
  • 🎯 User Profiles – Save preferences, favorite stays, and chat history
  • 📍 Interactive Map View – Full-screen map view to choose by location
  • 🎤 Voice-based Search – Speak to the AI for suggestions
  • 🌎 Multi-Language Support – Make travel more accessible worldwide
  • 🔐 Google & Facebook Login – Enable OAuth login via major platforms

📌 Final Words

Urban Escape is our first serious step toward blending AI and travel tech. From brainstorming late-night features to overcoming API errors and authentication roadblocks, this project has taught us how teamwork and persistence bring even complex ideas to life.

We're excited for what's next — and we’re just getting started.

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