7 ms·

Show HN: Price comparison for attraction tickets, tours, and activties

49 points by tymonw 8y ago

tymonw 8y ago
A bit more context. We created a price comparison for attraction tickets, in-destination tours and activities. We were surprised to lear how much you can save by choosing the best provider (check out New York City).
saintPirelli 8y ago
Very neat, I can see myself coming back to this for literally every urban destination.
- tymonw 8y ago
  Thanks!
jacobedawson 8y ago
Looks cool, good name as well, I can see myself trying to remember it next time I'm on holiday and the connection between the functionality and the name is tight. How are you monetizing, and what is your vision for the project?
- tymonw 8y ago
  Thanks
crazysmoove 8y ago
As someone who is currently planning a trip to NYC and has been comparing CityPass to its competitors (and versus just buying individual tickets)... Thank you! I will be using this site this weekend to help me make my decisions.
- tymonw 8y ago
  Hope it will be useful for you. Please don't hesitate to give us feedback. Have a nice weekend in NYC!
duiker101 8y ago
OK, be CAREFUL. I checked a couple of this and it seems like it compares only third party websites, so make sure you check the OFFICIAL website for the attraction. An example: the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, on this website the lowest is 27 euro but from the official website you can get the same fast track ticket for 17(+4) euro. Maybe you can find something good here, but always do some extra research.
- tymonw 8y ago
  Thanks for the feedback!! We are planning on adding these! Our first version though includes 6 big providers which have worldwide reach. We did some test and vs some official sites we are cheaper (e.g. Empire State) however on some we are a bit more expensive (e.g. Vatican Museum). But as said we are planning to add all of them.
- canada_dry 8y ago
  > compares only third party website... the official website (was cheaper) Not surprisingly all the links are affiliate tagged "&partner_id=2FA2B&partner_visitor_id=9lvgkk3kpaa8&psrc=partner_api" so yeah, they only want to show you things that will give them a kick-back. So not really helpful as a one-stop-shop.
  - tymonw 8y ago
    Currently for us the limiting factor is API availability. Most of the official sites don't offer an API so we would need to scrape them one by one. For sites which offer an affiliate program we joined to finance the project but our ranking is not dependent on what we earn but strictly on price.
  - drharby 8y ago
    And the account was created 7 hours ago, so this is a thinly veilef marketing campaign for affiliate marketing cashflow
- tsumnia 8y ago
  Exactly, I went down the rabbit hole, saw $69 Book of Mormon Broadway tickets; decided to do the clickthroughs. Took me to headout.com where the listing occurs, boom total price $162 for 1 ticket ($130 ticket, $32 fees) - I don't even know where they got the $69 from without pulling out of thin air.
AznHisoka 8y ago
I just did a quick check for WTC tickets in NYC, and the prices were wrong. https://www.ticketlens.com/en/g6262 https://www.ticketlens.com/en/g6262 All of the vendors had the exact same price of $26.00 Are you relying on an affiliate feed or something? If so, why? Those are notorious for being out of date quickly, and definitely not reliable at all.
- tymonw 8y ago
  We just checked again and the prices are correct. Some vendors charge a booking fee which they do not show at the first page but only if you proceed to checkout. E.g. the last offer for $29 has $3 booking fee. We always show the full price including all fees.
  - AznHisoka 8y ago
    Gotcha, nice catch!
  - mlrtime 8y ago
    Booking fees are not showing up , I tried the Empire State building, cheapest being $35 (Normal price is $38). There is a $3 booking fee per ticket.
    - tymonw 8y ago
      Indeed :-( You got us! We need to fix this case.
    - tymonw 8y ago
      We corrected the problem see: https://www.ticketlens.com/en/g6248 https://www.ticketlens.com/en/g6248 the parent page: https://www.ticketlens.com/en/p680490/new-york/empire-state-building https://www.ticketlens.com/en/p680490/new-york/empire-state-... will update soon. Unfortunately this specific site is a bit complicated with the fees. Which underscores how in transparent this market is.
  - EGreg 8y ago
    It would be useful if you broke it down and had a total. Do you use any Google APIs?
benj111 8y ago
I clicked on London, and got Stone Henge listed ?! There needs to be some geographical search options, you don't seem to be able to search by area either.
- tymonw 8y ago
  Thanks for the feedback! This is a first version of the product. Far from perfect and the area search definitely needs some more work.
- brixon 8y ago
  Miami shows Kennedy Space Center as an attraction, that is over 3 hours away.
  - tymonw 8y ago
    Thanks for the feedback
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
Everything in Las Vegas is showing up in Euro prices, even though I am located in Las Vegas and would like to see dollars. Also if you look at "The Mob Museum" one vendor has the lowest price, which is 15, but its only because they offer a child ticket, and that price is being compared to the adult tickets on other websites. Not sure how you can solve that but it seems like a significant obstacle to finding the actual best price.
- tymonw 8y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. You can change the price to USD in the top bar of the page. We are working on a smarter way to set the currency on first visit. In regards to the Mob Museum we will take a look and fix. Sometimes the APIs we use are not very specific in regards to child / adult pricing.
chaostheory 8y ago
I like the site. It's easy to find stuff in multiple ways. Easy on the eyes. imo the only thing missing for me are destinations for drinkers like Napa / Sonoma and beer country in the Northwest US. I'm sure there are more places in France, Germany, and Ireland
- tymonw 8y ago
  Thanks for the feedback! There is more destinations coming. So stay tuned ...
EGreg 8y ago
Hey! My company (https://qbix.com https://qbix.com) makes something very complementary to this: apps for communities. We are looking to integrate ticket sales for festivals and so on. Would you like to collaborate? Email me at the username greg and domain is qbix.com
- tymonw 8y ago
  Will do!
  - EGreg 8y ago
    Looking forward
pedro596 8y ago
London in city passes it seems that "explorer pass" is repeated.
- tymonw 8y ago
  Noted
wusatiuk 8y ago
Congrats! I have rarely seens such a fast website from Austrian developers. :) Would be interested in your tech stack for that project. In additional to that, if you are looking for SEO / performance marketing or have any questions, just ping me. Liebe Grüße aus Linz Thomas

49 points by tymonw 8y ago

A bit more context. We created a price comparison for attraction tickets, in-destination tours and activities. We were surprised to lear how much you can save by choosing the best provider (check out New York City).

saintPirelli 8y ago

Very neat, I can see myself coming back to this for literally every urban destination.

tymonw 8y ago
Thanks!

jacobedawson 8y ago

Looks cool, good name as well, I can see myself trying to remember it next time I'm on holiday and the connection between the functionality and the name is tight. How are you monetizing, and what is your vision for the project?

tymonw 8y ago
Thanks

crazysmoove 8y ago

As someone who is currently planning a trip to NYC and has been comparing CityPass to its competitors (and versus just buying individual tickets)... Thank you! I will be using this site this weekend to help me make my decisions.

tymonw 8y ago
Hope it will be useful for you. Please don't hesitate to give us feedback. Have a nice weekend in NYC!

duiker101 8y ago

OK, be CAREFUL. I checked a couple of this and it seems like it compares only third party websites, so make sure you check the OFFICIAL website for the attraction. An example: the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, on this website the lowest is 27 euro but from the official website you can get the same fast track ticket for 17(+4) euro. Maybe you can find something good here, but always do some extra research.

tymonw 8y ago
Thanks for the feedback!! We are planning on adding these! Our first version though includes 6 big providers which have worldwide reach. We did some test and vs some official sites we are cheaper (e.g. Empire State) however on some we are a bit more expensive (e.g. Vatican Museum). But as said we are planning to add all of them.
canada_dry 8y ago
> compares only third party website... the official website (was cheaper) Not surprisingly all the links are affiliate tagged "&partner_id=2FA2B&partner_visitor_id=9lvgkk3kpaa8&psrc=partner_api" so yeah, they only want to show you things that will give them a kick-back. So not really helpful as a one-stop-shop.
- tymonw 8y ago
  Currently for us the limiting factor is API availability. Most of the official sites don't offer an API so we would need to scrape them one by one. For sites which offer an affiliate program we joined to finance the project but our ranking is not dependent on what we earn but strictly on price.
- drharby 8y ago
  And the account was created 7 hours ago, so this is a thinly veilef marketing campaign for affiliate marketing cashflow
tsumnia 8y ago
Exactly, I went down the rabbit hole, saw $69 Book of Mormon Broadway tickets; decided to do the clickthroughs. Took me to headout.com where the listing occurs, boom total price $162 for 1 ticket ($130 ticket, $32 fees) - I don't even know where they got the $69 from without pulling out of thin air.

AznHisoka 8y ago

I just did a quick check for WTC tickets in NYC, and the prices were wrong. https://www.ticketlens.com/en/g6262 https://www.ticketlens.com/en/g6262 All of the vendors had the exact same price of $26.00 Are you relying on an affiliate feed or something? If so, why? Those are notorious for being out of date quickly, and definitely not reliable at all.

tymonw 8y ago
We just checked again and the prices are correct. Some vendors charge a booking fee which they do not show at the first page but only if you proceed to checkout. E.g. the last offer for $29 has $3 booking fee. We always show the full price including all fees.
- AznHisoka 8y ago
  Gotcha, nice catch!
- mlrtime 8y ago
  Booking fees are not showing up , I tried the Empire State building, cheapest being $35 (Normal price is $38). There is a $3 booking fee per ticket.
  - tymonw 8y ago
    Indeed :-( You got us! We need to fix this case.
  - tymonw 8y ago
    We corrected the problem see: https://www.ticketlens.com/en/g6248 https://www.ticketlens.com/en/g6248 the parent page: https://www.ticketlens.com/en/p680490/new-york/empire-state-building https://www.ticketlens.com/en/p680490/new-york/empire-state-... will update soon. Unfortunately this specific site is a bit complicated with the fees. Which underscores how in transparent this market is.
- EGreg 8y ago
  It would be useful if you broke it down and had a total. Do you use any Google APIs?

benj111 8y ago

I clicked on London, and got Stone Henge listed ?! There needs to be some geographical search options, you don't seem to be able to search by area either.

tymonw 8y ago
Thanks for the feedback! This is a first version of the product. Far from perfect and the area search definitely needs some more work.
brixon 8y ago
Miami shows Kennedy Space Center as an attraction, that is over 3 hours away.
- tymonw 8y ago
  Thanks for the feedback

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

ghostbrainalpha 8y ago

Everything in Las Vegas is showing up in Euro prices, even though I am located in Las Vegas and would like to see dollars. Also if you look at "The Mob Museum" one vendor has the lowest price, which is 15, but its only because they offer a child ticket, and that price is being compared to the adult tickets on other websites. Not sure how you can solve that but it seems like a significant obstacle to finding the actual best price.

tymonw 8y ago
Thanks for the feedback. You can change the price to USD in the top bar of the page. We are working on a smarter way to set the currency on first visit. In regards to the Mob Museum we will take a look and fix. Sometimes the APIs we use are not very specific in regards to child / adult pricing.

chaostheory 8y ago

I like the site. It's easy to find stuff in multiple ways. Easy on the eyes. imo the only thing missing for me are destinations for drinkers like Napa / Sonoma and beer country in the Northwest US. I'm sure there are more places in France, Germany, and Ireland

tymonw 8y ago
Thanks for the feedback! There is more destinations coming. So stay tuned ...

EGreg 8y ago

Hey! My company (https://qbix.com https://qbix.com) makes something very complementary to this: apps for communities. We are looking to integrate ticket sales for festivals and so on. Would you like to collaborate? Email me at the username greg and domain is qbix.com

tymonw 8y ago
Will do!
- EGreg 8y ago
  Looking forward

pedro596 8y ago

London in city passes it seems that "explorer pass" is repeated.

tymonw 8y ago
Noted

wusatiuk 8y ago

Congrats! I have rarely seens such a fast website from Austrian developers. :) Would be interested in your tech stack for that project. In additional to that, if you are looking for SEO / performance marketing or have any questions, just ping me. Liebe Grüße aus Linz Thomas