
Ask HN: HN for Travel - somada141
After coming across these two posts today namely https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=19567038 and https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=19567129, which I found very interesting, it got me wondering :<p>Is anyone aware of any HN-like communities&#x2F;feeds related to travel that aren&#x27;t simply a collection of ads for hotels&#x2F;venues&#x2F;tours&#x2F;events&#x2F;transport? I&quot;m hoping for some well-moderated and up-to-date community much like HN.
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jasonkester
There used to be a popular usenet group for travel, which illustrated why you
don’t see this these days.

The only people who hang out in such a place are “seasoned traveller” folk,
who are primarily interested in signalling that they’re the travelliest
traveler. So the interaction was always the same:

Newbie asks a simple question about Bangkok, somebody answers then four people
jump in to battle over where in fact is the _true_ best neighbourhood to stay
in bkk.

Eventually the place just gets left to those four guys fighting over the title
of Alpha Traveler. It’s not a pleasant place.

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somada141
Yeah I bet its kinda tricky to separate bragging from actual info. I can see
how seasoned travellers would have a good amount of knowledge on a topic but
honestly I'd be more interested in current info as opposed to entirely
subjective info eg "the best neighbourhood" or "the most picturesque hike".

I bet that a location-specific events/alerts/info app would be successful.
Perhaps something where you add locations of interest (in addition to the
current location) and the app uses things like social media or local news
sites to retrieve relevant info. I'd pay for that - hint, hint :).

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notoriousjpg
Interestingly, not really. I mean there's stackexchange and quora but its
mostly people asking questions as they plan their itinerary. r/travel is
basically r/travelpictures

TA Forums seem to get worse every year, so do their reviews. Top reviews for
each destination are moving towards bookable tours and guides as more and more
operators realise how important reviews are and start to try and semi game the
system.

I'm working on something in this space that is taking a more data driven
approach to travel, starting with destination discovery. Basically we're
trying to solve the fact that there isn't a catalogue of travel destinations
with basic info like weather, activities, safety, language.

Try searching google for 'safe travel destination with hiking and wineries
that is warm in december' Google will serve up pages of Top 10 lists.

We developed a chatbot[1] to capture some early feedback with a simplified
flow into a personalised set of results[2]. We're working on something more
directly queryable.

Would be interested in your feedback if you have any.

[1] m.me/getcluey (sorry, facebook) [2] getcluey.com [3]
[https://www.getcluey.com/en/result/wK2fw48Wrh](https://www.getcluey.com/en/result/wK2fw48Wrh)

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somada141
Given the popularity of the topic I'm a little surprised that quality content
independent of sponsorship has yet to surface. Quora is a big ad-fest so I
wouldn't base my decisions on it.

I was particularly interested in travel-related up-to-date material, such as
the one about komodo island closing down. Other such topics would be "Don't go
to Townsville, QLD cause there's floods" or "The amazing festival X in
happening next week in Y".

I had a look at Cluey and I definitely appreciate some of the key criteria
you're integrating namely safety and the variety of activities. In fact I was
just researching topics like "Is it safe to drive around Romania in 2019". A
factual list of tips like "petty crime and muggings have gone up in Bogota,
don't flaunt your 8k camera" depending on destination would be invaluable for
me when planning a long-trip.

I would also like to see a breakdown of how my most compatible destinations
were selected after the fact (eg safety score, environmental impact score,
etc).

All in all I really like the idea and registered. I hope you guys launch
something great so keep up the good work!

PS I'd appreciate info on where stats and info are collected from when
presented with results so I can evaluate whether I agree with the facts used
in the calculation.

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notoriousjpg
Thanks! Really appreciate it! Yeah eventually we'd like to provide a writeup
of the data and algorithm that is accessible - something like:
[https://algorithms-tour.stitchfix.com/](https://algorithms-
tour.stitchfix.com/)

Did you find the scoring and guided experience helpful or would you rather
just a big list of criteria you can filter from? We played around with the
former but think the latter may actually be more appealing to more people.
That way compatibility is binary, either it matches your criteria or not.

Rome2Rio are definitely a company we'd like to learn from and partner with.
There's a surprising amount of aussie travel startups (adioso, wotif etc) that
have done well.

~~~
somada141
> Thanks! Really appreciate it! Yeah eventually we'd like to provide a writeup
> of the data and algorithm that is accessible - something like:
> [https://algorithms-tour.stitchfix.com/](https://algorithms-
> tour.stitchfix.com/)

Whoa never saw that before, fancy as. Yeah, I feel that a nice writeup would
lend credibility to your algos.

> Did you find the scoring and guided experience helpful or would you rather
> just a big list of criteria you can filter from? We played around with the
> former but think the latter may actually be more appealing to more people.
> That way compatibility is binary, either it matches your criteria or not.

You see this is where it gets tricky. The people that hang around HN tend to
be more technical and likely used to more convoluted UIs that allow them to be
efficient and flexible.

At the same time your market is likely to be less techie so I fear that my
opinion may be biased and even harmful.

That being said I supposed having a clean and simple default with an advanced
alternative a click away would satisfy both crowds though the latter can wait
post-launch so you can see what the feedback is like.

As a quick note I think even the simple version would benefit from
'justification' behind the recommendation, i.e., we suggested Hawaii because
while expensive it has top-notch surfing (assuming they selected that), is
safe, LGBTQ-friendly, etc. Even if you skip the numbers you make it easy for
people to compromise on things and rethink their choices before trying again.
Otherwise I feel it'd become an arduous trial-n-error for people to get the
confirmation bias they're looking for :P.

> Rome2Rio are definitely a company we'd like to learn from and partner with.
> There's a surprising amount of aussie travel startups (adioso, wotif etc)
> that have done well.

Lol something about living thousands of miles away from most destinations
motivates that sort of startup I suppose :D.

~~~
notoriousjpg
> Lol something about living thousands of miles away from most destinations
> motivates that sort of startup I suppose :D.

Yes definitely. Actually we're slightly worried that we've got too much of an
australian centric view on travel. Everything is 12 hours away so we end up
only planning big trips instead of many small ones. That said nearby places
are often overlooked. Cook Islands and Dili have been appearing quite a few
times recently.

> As a quick note I think even the simple version would benefit from
> 'justification' behind the recommendation

Yes, 100%. The results page has a legend of sorts and it shows red when
criteria is not compatible (after you select the destination card).

Dynamic text has been a bit challenging for us. We will revisit it again soon
because I agree, people benefit from the explanation. However we want to avoid
a scenario where the dynamic text for Results 1-5 are identical (or
effectively identical if we just replace words with their synonyms)

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hackermailman
Big Hospitality covers the industry news much like HN covers startups but
nothing exists that is user curated unless you count the various chan sites
/trv/ like 4chan but then it's same problems as already discussed

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return0
r/travel r/backpacking etc

