Smart Group Travel System: Dynamic Matching and Planning with React Native and MongoDB

Group travel planning tends to be complicated with the aggregation of many preferences, budgets, and logistics. The traditional travel platforms mainly cater to individual or couple travellers, leaving a void in effective group trip planning. This paper describes a smart group travel system developed using React Native for mobile application, Node.js for backend services, and MongoDB for data storage support at scale. The system incorporates dynamic user-group creation, customized itinerary suggestions, and live coordination features to enhance group travel experiences. A recommendation engine based on machine learning constructs travel groups according to user-specified preferences such as destination, budget, travel type, and type of peer group (for instance, solo travelers, families, adventure seekers, professionals). Other filters enable refinement of preferences according to age group, gender, type of accommodation, activity interests, and safety aspects. The platform also features AI-driven itinerary creation, cost management, group chat functionality, and trust-enhancing features such as identity verification and anti-fraud measures. The system proposed enhances the satisfaction of users, compatibility of groups, and efficiency of travel by reducing planning time and optimizing recommendations. Future development involves AR-enabled travel guidance, identity verification based on blockchain, and increased collaborations with hotels and tour operators.