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Cannot agree more with wishcan. I sketched up a few different ideas for something like this, but never pushed on because I thought integrating with hotels, airl

by fovc 10y ago

Cannot agree more with wishcan. I sketched up a few different ideas for something like this, but never pushed on because I thought integrating with hotels, airlines, etc. Would painful. Also figured I'd need to automatically parse email confirmations, which would be a PITA. What is it written in and how much work is left to do?

soneil 10y ago
Parsing emails seems to have got a whole lot easier - most I interact with have started moving to schema.org microformats (eg, https://schema.org/FlightReservation https://schema.org/FlightReservation and https://schema.org/LodgingReservation https://schema.org/LodgingReservation for flights & hotels respectively). It seems google/gmail are backing this quite extensively, which is how it's finally found traction.
- ThomPete 10y ago
  Never heard of https://schema.org/ https://schema.org/ before. Looks like a great resource thanks!
sixdimensional 10y ago
I often wondered if automating the pain point you mention above (integrating with hotels, airlines etc.) and providing a singular, specialized API for that would be an amazing business opportunity. Seems like one of the existing travel companies could do it, or a travel agency.
mgkimsal 10y ago
Strikes me that you could turn this around somewhat... When people are publishing what they want, that looks to be a good starting point for travel/lodging companies to come in and make offers to these folks. "You're looking to stay in Bucharest on Sept 18 and 19? Our hotel can offer you XZY for $ABC on those nights." Sort of like lendingtree-model for travel. Not quite sure why that's not taken off yet, other than, perhaps, larger company IT systems? This could possibly work well for smaller regions - contact a local chamber of commerce and have them have all the local businesses make offers to people looking to stay in areas on specific days. Basically... define a format and let them integrate with you if they want access to the market you've defined, not the other way around.

by fovc 10y ago

soneil 10y ago

Parsing emails seems to have got a whole lot easier - most I interact with have started moving to schema.org microformats (eg, https://schema.org/FlightReservation https://schema.org/FlightReservation and https://schema.org/LodgingReservation https://schema.org/LodgingReservation for flights & hotels respectively). It seems google/gmail are backing this quite extensively, which is how it's finally found traction.

ThomPete 10y ago
Never heard of https://schema.org/ https://schema.org/ before. Looks like a great resource thanks!

sixdimensional 10y ago

I often wondered if automating the pain point you mention above (integrating with hotels, airlines etc.) and providing a singular, specialized API for that would be an amazing business opportunity. Seems like one of the existing travel companies could do it, or a travel agency.

mgkimsal 10y ago

Strikes me that you could turn this around somewhat... When people are publishing what they want, that looks to be a good starting point for travel/lodging companies to come in and make offers to these folks. "You're looking to stay in Bucharest on Sept 18 and 19? Our hotel can offer you XZY for $ABC on those nights." Sort of like lendingtree-model for travel. Not quite sure why that's not taken off yet, other than, perhaps, larger company IT systems? This could possibly work well for smaller regions - contact a local chamber of commerce and have them have all the local businesses make offers to people looking to stay in areas on specific days. Basically... define a format and let them integrate with you if they want access to the market you've defined, not the other way around.