
Announcing Hipmunk's $15M Series B Funding - jacqattack
http://blog.hipmunk.com/1/post/2012/06/announcing-hipmunks-15m-series-b-funding.html
======
stickfigure
Am I the only one that thinks "Ugh, not making money yet"?

Yes yes, I know about burning cash (err, growing) as fast as possible to lock
down winner-take-all markets, but travel booking doesn't seem like one of
those. There doesn't seem to be any switching cost other than typing a
different url in the browser. I don't see any network effects. Am I missing
something?

This is a business with revenue streams and cash flow. They've been around for
two years. They've already raised more than $5mm. When I hear "we raised
another venture round" my gut reaction is concern, not congratulations.

As far as the product goes: The UX is nice. But every time I tried hipmonk,
the prices were higher than what I found elsewhere, so I stopped using it.

~~~
ketralnis
> every time I tried hipmonk, the prices were higher than what I found
> elsewhere

Can you be more specific? We (Hipmunk) get our data from the same places that
most everyone does, fares aren't really something that's variable from site-
to-site (Southwest aside)

The only thing I can think of is that we list fares after taxes and fees, and
many other sites list fares before them

~~~
stickfigure
Here is an example: One-way flight SFO -> LEX (sadly relevant to my interests)
somewhere around August 20.

Hipmonk, $245:
[https://img.skitch.com/20120613-8rregkqr2exgrcppt87j8hggy8.j...](https://img.skitch.com/20120613-8rregkqr2exgrcppt87j8hggy8.jpg)

Kayak, $179:
[https://img.skitch.com/20120613-gjy1r3as42atrp3ack1m24eyc8.j...](https://img.skitch.com/20120613-gjy1r3as42atrp3ack1m24eyc8.jpg)

For some reason Hipmonk isn't finding the $179 United flights. That $179
includes taxes and fees.

In addition, Hipmonk's flexible search is far more limited than Kayak's.
Hipmonk allows +2 days for a total of 3 possible. Kayak searches +/- 3 days,
for a total of 7. Also Kayak has the "nearby airports" feature which often
drops the price even further (Louisville is $149) - especially in the Bay Area
where SFO and OAK are both a bart ride away.

~~~
ketralnis
> Hipmonk allows +2 days for a total of 3 possible. Kayak searches +/- 3 days,
> for a total of 7.

Actually you can change that text field to say "+-3". We're both using the
same feature of our mutual data provider ITA. And if you search for the same
day this way, you get the same fares on both sites.

> Also Kayak has the "nearby airports" feature which often drops the price
> even further (Louisville is $149) - especially in the Bay Area where SFO and
> OAK are both a bart ride away

We do that automatically when you give us a city name (like "San Francisco" vs
"SFO"). You can also just add comma-separated airports if you know the codes.

I don't pretend our UI exposes these the best, but we really are getting the
same data from the same companies.

~~~
stickfigure
_Actually you can change that text field to say "+-3"._

Wow, that is a totally hidden feature. Even worse, if you click the + button,
it tops out at +2 and then greys out. Same with the - button and -2. My
offhand suggestion is 3 buttons: plus adds days after, minus adds days before,
and a third that resets to day-of only.

 _We do that automatically when you give us a city name (like "San Francisco"
vs "SFO")._

Also a completely hidden feature. You can probably help mitigate that by
putting "San Francisco, CA (and nearby airports)" in the dropdown list.

You're alienating all of the flexible-dates travelers right on the first
page... seems like you might get a lot of immediate result out of just fixing
these usability issues.

I notice the missing $179 United fare now shows up. What was up with that?
Bug?

FWIW, now that I know how this works (and assuming the price issues are taken
care of), I will use himpunk for my next flight.

------
kn0thing
Feels like just yesterday I published this first blog post:

<http://blog.hipmunk.com/1/post/2010/08/hello-world.html>

I can't believe how much the site & company has grown since - it's a testament
to the fabulous product and team. Onward & upward!

~~~
revorad
Congrats!

I just noticed your homepage is starting to get busy. Please don't put too
much stuff on it.

------
spoiledtechie
I always feel hipmunk has the most expensive prices out of any other airline
search engine. They might do it differently, which I like, but their prices
seem higher than any other site.

I also love what priceline offers, their price negotiator!!! It always hits
well below what the prices of airlines currently offer. Any plans to put this
in the future of hipmunk?

~~~
netcan
Searching for flights sucks, hard. Fixing it with a better ui is a great
thing. But ultimately we're experiencing that pain in large part trying to get
the best prices. I search for flights about twice a year. Usually between two
not-a-hub destinations (currently dublin-tel aviv) so its even harder. Every
time I have to do it, I wish that things have improved. They haven't.

Basically, I:

\- Go to 3-4 engines or portals. Try to figure out all the airline flying that
routes. See who flies where.

\- Go to the airlines' sites directly, see if they prices are better (usually
they are). Try to remember which airlines (RyanAir) never have fares listed on
aggregators. Fill out captchas and tick on boxes to be let in.

\- See what the prices are for the most expensive leg & try to put together my
own route using two separately bought tickets.

\- Try to think of some more exotic routes: change airports in London, fly
through a Greek resort island, whatever.

\- Call a travel agent to see if they can do better.

I might not get all the way down this list.When I do, I rarely see the same
fare twice. When I lived in Australia the stakes were higher and I always went
down the whole horrible list. I hate doing this. I'd pay good money to avoid
it. But, for my use case UI crappiness isn't the issue(even though doing your
grocery shopping on Ebay in 1998 would be a better experience). The problem is
centralizing all the available fares onto one site.

~~~
netcan
Just as an experiment, I tried looking for a trip on hipmunk that I have
booked for 10 days from now. Prices start arund $1000 per leg, about 250%
higher than what I paid (coincidentally for the same flight).

Slight tangent: You can get these flights (dublin-tel aviv) for around
$600-$900 _round trip_ if you're reasonably early and flexible. Why does
hipmunk even offer me a $7500 leg that takes 24hr and fly through Toronto?
Shouldn't their agony detector realize that no sane person would want this?
Isn't good UI also removing useless information? If they want to demonstrate
how thorough they are (also important) aren't there easier ways?

I don't mean to be picking on hipmunk. They're obviously dedicated to good
user experience and they do a great job of presenting the large amount of
information one needs to process in order to book a flight. If any Hipmunk
people are reading please take any snarkiness as a cry for help. I really do
want a better experience booking flights I'm looking to you guys for them.

~~~
planetguy
_Just as an experiment, I tried looking for a trip on hipmunk that I have
booked for 10 days from now. Prices start arund $1000 per leg, about 250%
higher than what I paid (coincidentally for the same flight)._

That's a terrible experiment, fares almost always go up as you get closer to
the departure date. If you want to do that, check the same thing on the
airline's own site.

In my experience hipmunk _isn't_ more expensive than any other site. In fact,
every site will quote you the same darn price for the same darn flight,
because airline fares are a lot more formalized than most people seem to be
assuming.

~~~
netcan
You're right, but it would have been anecdote either way.

BTW, that's not my experience at all. My experience is every site quotes a
completely different price.

------
AndrewWarner
Any suggestions for what I should ask Adam? We're recording his Mixergy
interview tomorrow about Hipmunk.

~~~
kn0thing
I recommend asking about how important a role his bizdev played in prep for
launching the site as well as signing on partners thereafter. The amount of
hustle it took to get us in the door with OTAs/airlines at first is not
something I see in many of my startups.

~~~
anthonycerra
Why don't YOU tell us :) I'd love to hear about it. Bizdev/Marketing is still
really undervalued in startup land.

~~~
kn0thing
Heh. I did none of the bizdev, which really made the difference with getting
hipmunk off the ground (and is a unique startup proposition). If you wanna
know about my marketing/PR brandbuilding, just watch my class on Making
Something People Love: [http://generalassemb.ly/start/fundamentals-of-
entrepreneursh...](http://generalassemb.ly/start/fundamentals-of-
entrepreneurship/making-something-people-love)

------
c0mpute
Can someone explain how do these free flight search engines make money?

In my case I search using Kayak, but never really book the ticket from Kayak
(don't follow their link to the airline). I go directly to the airline site
and book it there. Many people I know do the same. I despise using
Orbitz/Priceline other than just a cursory glance to see if there are cheaper
tickets. I know that sometimes an itinerary involves multiple airlines and
that is when there might be an advantage booking through, say Orbitz, but even
in those cases I just book separate tickets.

Why is this free search/booking industry still unsaturated and is there really
a demand for such capital infusion?

Update: My question is specific to flight search, because I think hotel search
can be profitable model as sometimes these sites provide better rates than the
hotel's site.

~~~
lacker
_"In my case I search using Kayak, but never really book the ticket from
Kayak."_

A lot of people do book from Kayak just because it's easier. So, don't assume
you are the typical customer here. Also, I am not familiar with Hipmunk's
numbers but I believe that hotel search is the real revenue generator for
these sites, and flight search just acts to get people in the door.

~~~
c0mpute
True, I think logic suggests most people find it convenient to just click the
result link on Kayak, which has made it so easy compared to Oribts, which has
its own booking engine. So I am guessing they just make a very small
percentage of the sale just for referring.

If as you say the hotel search is the real deal, it makes sense. Which leads
me to the next thought, wonder why hotels haven't caught up with the airline
industry in having a fairly realistic price listing on their own site? In
fact, most of the times I am ok just booking using priceline bidding for
hotels.

~~~
planetguy
_wonder why hotels haven't caught up with the airline industry in having a
fairly realistic price listing on their own site?_

What do you mean? Most hotels nowadays give you exactly the same price on
their site as you'd get from orbitz/expedia/hipmunk.

If you mean a price _list_ rather than a get-a-quote-for-a-particular-day,
then that's not in their interests (they don't really want you to know how
much they're gouging you on busy nights), but it's been a fair while since I
stayed in a hotel which didn't have a price search thing on their site.

Priceline and hotwire are, of course, always cheaper than getting a named
hotel, if you're clever about it.

I have to say, though, if hotel search is the real cash cow (as I suspect it
is) then I think hipmunk should spend some more time working on it. Their
interface for flight search is the greatest, and I use it all the time. But
the hotel search I find to be confusing and clunky so I rarely use it.

------
gyaresu
I find that the ITA iOS app from <http://itasoftware.com/> (Google owned)
consistently brings me the best prices and then I book direct through the
airlines website.

I fly mainly International.

------
joshu
i probably should have invested in this one when i had the chance.

------
calbear81
Congrats to Adam and the whole team at Hipmunk. It's always great to see
investments into travel startups, it's a big space in need of lots of
innovation.

------
rokhayakebe
While we are on the subject, does anyone have a good website to find when is
the cheapest time to fly to a particular city?

~~~
bawllz
I like Adioso, though I think it works best within australia. Give it a try!

------
mrgordon
Congrats to Adam and the team!

------
its_so_on
What, and not a down-round? Congratulations! You must have had a heart-attack
a few days ago with PG's email...

update: would be nice to know when you guys closed this...someone says it was
a while ago?

~~~
cluda01
What's this comment referring to?

~~~
manuelflara
This: [http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-fallout-y-
combinator...](http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-fallout-y-combinators-
paul-graham-just-emailed-portfolio-companies-warning-of-bad-times-in-silicon-
valley-2012-6?op=1)

