
Hipmunk (YC S10) Brings a Little Ecstasy to Hotel Search and Booking - thankuz
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/hipmunk_now_lets_you_search_for_hotels_sorted_by_e.php
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thecoffman
I wish they would focus on cleaning up their flight search before moving on to
new features. While I like the idea of their flight search - in practice its a
confusing visual mess. I really wanted to like it - but I found myself back on
travelocity in short order. I think they're really on to something with their
idea, but it needs some refinement before they move on. I showed it to my
folks back home and they looked at it for about 2 minutes before just going to
southwest.com and booking their flight there. While hipmunk may be all the
rage here - it has basically zero traction outside of the tech community.

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rradu
I agree with you about their flight search issues See my previous comments -
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2249984>

But this hotel search upgrade really is an improvement on the usual booking
systems. I can easily add filters for the basic things I need in a room and
then visualize the results based on location. Traditional booking sites give
you either no grouped map or a just a small indecipherable map.

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sgdesign
Yep, we felt that when you book an hotel you need to be able to easily compare
two result sets. So that's why we made it easy to toggle amenities on and off
and instantly see the result on the map.

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stevenp
I love Hipmunk, but 'ecstasy' is a strange word to use in a headline about an
airline travel booking site.

In all seriousness, if they put an alerts feature in, it would be amazing. I
find that I have to check back really often to find the best deals because
airlines rejigger the prices so much.

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singingwolfboy
Have you tried TripAdvisor Flights? I work for TripAdvisor, and we have an
"AirWatch" feature that will send you an email whenever the price for a
certain route drops.
<http://www.tripadvisor.com/help/what_are_airwatch_alerts>

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acconrad
These guys are moving at mach 5 for such a small team.

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staunch
More likely these guys are moving at mach 5 _because_ of such a small team.

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peterwwillis
Maybe there's no way to get around this, but a flight from DCA to LAS on Aug 3
is $227 with Hipmunk, whereas on Spiritair.com I get as low as $195. With a
promotion coupon (which almost always pop up about a month in advance) I could
get between $19 and $50 off that.

Is there some way Hipmunk can show reduced costs direct from airlines or
incorporate promo coupons? I know some promos are "random" but Spirit has them
every week for different destinations and dates.

(I also notice Tripadvisor shows me one for $189 if I leave from BWA... does
Hipmunk have a 'nearby airports' search option?)

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robobenjie
As a frequent airbnb host, I wonder if this is going to increase bookings...
It seems like a lot more people have heard of hipmunk than airbnb.

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danilocampos
Is it weird having other people in your place? Do you ever put up your space
while you're away, leaving people unsupervised?

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robobenjie
Its not that weird having people over. Its a lot like having friends over to
visit, except you haven't met them before. We've never rented the whole place
out while we were away, but we give out guests a key and they are often there
while we are out during the day or out to dinner, etc.

I figure that if someone wanted to steal something there are much better ways
(for example ways that don't involve giving out their full name and credit
card information) and we don't own anything that steal-able anyway.

The biggest problem is that we only have one bathroom and it can get busy with
showers in the morning.

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jonknee
One nit pick I just found when doing a hotel search is the tip was still
flight related... "Tip #4: Drag the black triangle to hide flights."

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Urgo
Been using hipmunk for a while now & love it for airline searches. People may
say its confusing but I find it extremely easy to use and much less confusing
then their competitors. The hotel feature is a great addition as well. The
only thing I'd add to it (at least on a quick look) is an option to
search/filter by pet friendly hotels.

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mjh8136
Just used Hipmunk for the 1st time to book a ticket and found it to be totally
useful and intuitive.

