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Hipmunk’s Official Round: $4.2 Million Led By Ignition & Online Travel Experts

42 points by thankuz 16y ago

aberman 16y ago
I know nothing about this industry, but I can say categorically that hipmunk has the best UX of any airline search site on the web. It just makes me happy.
- dgrant 16y ago
  Agreed, and I think they will destroy Kayak.
- CoachRufus87 16y ago
  I concur. The beauty is in the site's simplicity/effectiveness. I hope they continue to innovate beyond UX though.
  - randall 16y ago
    Yeah, I think UX is the starting point, I'd love to hear what they think the ending point is.
thankuz 16y ago
Here are some additional details regarding this breaking story from VentureBeat: http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/03/hipmunk-funding-2/ http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/03/hipmunk-funding-2/ 'Confirmed: Hipmunk raises $4.2M to 'de-agonize' flight search'
count 16y ago
Can I get hotel bookings (and the combo savings that leads to) via Hipmunk? I use Hipmunk now to find the flight I want, but I book via AmexTravel, because I usually save hundreds (sometimes more!) when I book a package all together. I'd love to drop Amex and just use HipMunk (it's definitely nicer!), but I can't justify it just yet.
- cbar 16y ago
  Curious to see if hipmunk expands to other travel products. Tapping GDS systems for inventory should be relatively easy (ex any subscription fees). The challenge will be creating a UI that can correctly convey the value of those additional products. Airfare really only has a few value variables (price, duration, departure/arrival date, and stops) that are clearly objective. Expanding into other travel products (hotels, packages) and you start adding many more variables and subjective value.
spitfire 16y ago
Why haven't they been bought out yet?
- jonknee 16y ago
  They have money and and an itch to scratch, who says they are interested in being bought out any time soon?
dw0rm 16y ago
http://www.anywayanyday.com/ http://www.anywayanyday.com/ got me cheaper prices for a particular flight.
- holdenk 16y ago
  So I tried that, while the UI looks nice, it certainly falls flat in the actual functioning component of the UI. For example I have to click on the search button next to the greyed out text to enter anything, and for Seattle the first suggestion is the seaplan airport. Again in Toronto it suggested the city center airport, which while a nice airport only has mostly domestic flights and even then only one commercial airline. It also required me to enter a seperate flight back (when I tried clicking for a return date it suggested another one way flight from Seattle). That being said, it may work better in Russia, I noticed the prices returned were in rubbles.
  - dw0rm 16y ago
    Yep, they are one Russian startup, but you can change the currency. Maybe they are not optimizing it for the USA flights, but searching for a flight from st Petersburg to Barcelona on the 24th of May with the flight back on the 31th of May for two persons returned me 168usd cheaper results.
patrickgzill 16y ago
I like their user interface, I think it is brilliant. However I have found cheaper prices elsewhere (actually dealt with a real live travel agent); so I am not sure what is going on with that.
- DanBlake 16y ago
  I actually just got tickets to florida the other day. I started out on kayak as thats what I am used to and then thought half way in to try hipmunk. Unfortunately, hipmunks lowest price was 150$ more than kayaks.
- kn0thing 16y ago
  Thanks for the kind words! We're limited to certain datasets at the moment, but we're always trying to grow our fare data.
mkramlich 16y ago
I used to work at Cheaptickets.com and Orbitz.com and one of the things I never liked was how complicated and "visually busy" their UI's were. Many times I envisioned in my mind what a better approach would look like. Hipmunk's UI is pretty much exactly what I wanted. Something super simple, just enough but not too much. No ads. No bullshit. No upselling or cross-selling. Solid colors. Less is more. Brilliant. I hope they stick with this style and philosophy. It's a powerful differentiator in a market which otherwise tends to be commodity-like, ugly and retarded in approach. Second but related point I wanted to make. I knew many of the in-house designers at both companies. I can confirm that the look/style/approach of those UI's is not their fault. They are salaried folks, working for The Man, and as with many large companies there's no single person who can put their foot down and say something is good/shit while also having the taste/skills to know what they're talking about. (Like a Steve Jobs at Apple.) A lot of the UI at major travel company websites is the result of "design by committee", by accretion, by slippery slope, by too much advertising, too much philosophy of "just one more thing" and trying to maximize the accounting value of each pixel of real estate. And yes, some of it is the result of A/B-testing and the Local Maxima anti-pattern.
srik1234 16y ago
I'm not quite sold on hipmunk yet. Travel is a pretty competitive industry. UI does not sell tickets. It helps to have a good UI. Bargain prices drive ticket sales. Also, how difficult it is to replicate by competitors? Everybody has access to the same data.
korussian 16y ago
I adore hipmunk, especially the multi-tab functionality. But frankly, the prices I get for here in Asia are NEVER as good as I get from a travel agent. Adioso.com is much better and more flexible, but their coverage is extremely limited. If Hipmunk were as flexible as Adioso (i.e. queries that show me flights from "ICN to anywhere before February 12"), then I'd be all about Hipmunk. As it stands, doing exact searches in Hipmunk get me "good" deals, but not "great" deals.
- kn0thing 16y ago
  Ah yes, the Adioso guys are on point with their flexible queries. To begin, we wanted to nail the basics with hipmunk. My dad's been a travel agent for decades and I still go through him for special intl flights, especially because he has access to wholesalers who can sell tickets at rates below what you'd find from the airlines. One day, we'd love for hipmunk.com to be a one-stop-shop, of course, but babysteps... Please do check back in periodically and let us know how we're doing: contact@hipmunk.com
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]

42 points by thankuz 16y ago

I know nothing about this industry, but I can say categorically that hipmunk has the best UX of any airline search site on the web. It just makes me happy.

dgrant 16y ago
Agreed, and I think they will destroy Kayak.
CoachRufus87 16y ago
I concur. The beauty is in the site's simplicity/effectiveness. I hope they continue to innovate beyond UX though.
- randall 16y ago
  Yeah, I think UX is the starting point, I'd love to hear what they think the ending point is.

thankuz 16y ago

Here are some additional details regarding this breaking story from VentureBeat: http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/03/hipmunk-funding-2/ http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/03/hipmunk-funding-2/ 'Confirmed: Hipmunk raises $4.2M to 'de-agonize' flight search'

count 16y ago

Can I get hotel bookings (and the combo savings that leads to) via Hipmunk? I use Hipmunk now to find the flight I want, but I book via AmexTravel, because I usually save hundreds (sometimes more!) when I book a package all together. I'd love to drop Amex and just use HipMunk (it's definitely nicer!), but I can't justify it just yet.

cbar 16y ago
Curious to see if hipmunk expands to other travel products. Tapping GDS systems for inventory should be relatively easy (ex any subscription fees). The challenge will be creating a UI that can correctly convey the value of those additional products. Airfare really only has a few value variables (price, duration, departure/arrival date, and stops) that are clearly objective. Expanding into other travel products (hotels, packages) and you start adding many more variables and subjective value.

spitfire 16y ago

Why haven't they been bought out yet?

jonknee 16y ago
They have money and and an itch to scratch, who says they are interested in being bought out any time soon?

dw0rm 16y ago

http://www.anywayanyday.com/ http://www.anywayanyday.com/ got me cheaper prices for a particular flight.

holdenk 16y ago
So I tried that, while the UI looks nice, it certainly falls flat in the actual functioning component of the UI. For example I have to click on the search button next to the greyed out text to enter anything, and for Seattle the first suggestion is the seaplan airport. Again in Toronto it suggested the city center airport, which while a nice airport only has mostly domestic flights and even then only one commercial airline. It also required me to enter a seperate flight back (when I tried clicking for a return date it suggested another one way flight from Seattle). That being said, it may work better in Russia, I noticed the prices returned were in rubbles.
- dw0rm 16y ago
  Yep, they are one Russian startup, but you can change the currency. Maybe they are not optimizing it for the USA flights, but searching for a flight from st Petersburg to Barcelona on the 24th of May with the flight back on the 31th of May for two persons returned me 168usd cheaper results.

patrickgzill 16y ago

I like their user interface, I think it is brilliant. However I have found cheaper prices elsewhere (actually dealt with a real live travel agent); so I am not sure what is going on with that.

DanBlake 16y ago
I actually just got tickets to florida the other day. I started out on kayak as thats what I am used to and then thought half way in to try hipmunk. Unfortunately, hipmunks lowest price was 150$ more than kayaks.
kn0thing 16y ago
Thanks for the kind words! We're limited to certain datasets at the moment, but we're always trying to grow our fare data.

mkramlich 16y ago

I used to work at Cheaptickets.com and Orbitz.com and one of the things I never liked was how complicated and "visually busy" their UI's were. Many times I envisioned in my mind what a better approach would look like. Hipmunk's UI is pretty much exactly what I wanted. Something super simple, just enough but not too much. No ads. No bullshit. No upselling or cross-selling. Solid colors. Less is more. Brilliant. I hope they stick with this style and philosophy. It's a powerful differentiator in a market which otherwise tends to be commodity-like, ugly and retarded in approach. Second but related point I wanted to make. I knew many of the in-house designers at both companies. I can confirm that the look/style/approach of those UI's is not their fault. They are salaried folks, working for The Man, and as with many large companies there's no single person who can put their foot down and say something is good/shit while also having the taste/skills to know what they're talking about. (Like a Steve Jobs at Apple.) A lot of the UI at major travel company websites is the result of "design by committee", by accretion, by slippery slope, by too much advertising, too much philosophy of "just one more thing" and trying to maximize the accounting value of each pixel of real estate. And yes, some of it is the result of A/B-testing and the Local Maxima anti-pattern.

srik1234 16y ago

I'm not quite sold on hipmunk yet. Travel is a pretty competitive industry. UI does not sell tickets. It helps to have a good UI. Bargain prices drive ticket sales. Also, how difficult it is to replicate by competitors? Everybody has access to the same data.

korussian 16y ago

I adore hipmunk, especially the multi-tab functionality. But frankly, the prices I get for here in Asia are NEVER as good as I get from a travel agent. Adioso.com is much better and more flexible, but their coverage is extremely limited. If Hipmunk were as flexible as Adioso (i.e. queries that show me flights from "ICN to anywhere before February 12"), then I'd be all about Hipmunk. As it stands, doing exact searches in Hipmunk get me "good" deals, but not "great" deals.

kn0thing 16y ago
Ah yes, the Adioso guys are on point with their flexible queries. To begin, we wanted to nail the basics with hipmunk. My dad's been a travel agent for decades and I still go through him for special intl flights, especially because he has access to wholesalers who can sell tickets at rates below what you'd find from the airlines. One day, we'd love for hipmunk.com to be a one-stop-shop, of course, but babysteps... Please do check back in periodically and let us know how we're doing: contact@hipmunk.com
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]