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Awesome post. I'm in 100% agreement with the author. It takes courage to write an analysis like this, knowing that there are some high-profile people backing Hi

by dkrich 15y ago

Awesome post. I'm in 100% agreement with the author. It takes courage to write an analysis like this, knowing that there are some high-profile people backing Hipmunk, which in turn causes a lot of people on HN to defend it as well. The first time I read about Hipmunk solving "the problem of travel search", the first thought I had was "what problem?" I looked at Hipmunk and I couldn't see what it did that was so radically better than Kayak, which I think actually does a great job. If there are people who enjoy Hipmunk, then I say fantastic, but to me, travel search is not actually broken. In the comments section I wrote what I believed to be a well-reasoned comment making similar comments to those made in the OP's post and was promptly downvoted and even received a sarcastic response from one of the founders. No big deal, but after close to a year, I still maintain that what I said was valid. Sometimes I think people get stuck working aggressively on a problem before they really confront the reality of whether the problem is real or an illusion that was created in order to build a business. That said, I do think the site looks great and I hope it does phenomenally well. I don't have any ill-will towards the company or its founders, but I'm just not convinced that this is a startup that is built to solve its users' problems. It seems that a lot of successful smart people proclaimed that travel search was a major problem and that this was the solution, and that in turn got the business a lot of support. I'm just not convinced.

dlitwak 15y ago
Thansk dkrich. What I find pretty funny is that I definitely complimented hipmunk. Pretty sure I said it was useful and had a wonderful interface haha. I never insulted them but merely stated the reason why I don't use it. But for some reason not being head over heels in love with the product, having something slightly critical to say gets people incredibly defensive. I also don't have any ill will towards Hipmunk, I think the product looks great. But yes, I also agree that, for flights, travel isn't 'broken' so badly. If it was, Hipmunk would be overflowing with users. Last article I read they were having trouble attracting new users. Now for other forms of transportation . . . I'm going to have to disagree with you that travel isn't broken.
calbear81 15y ago
I do also agree with a lot of what the Mozio blogger mentioned, especially in regards to using a sledgehammer when a chisel would do just fine. I do however, especially given my position at a travel focused startup, think it's good that there is so much support and funding given to try and make the travel search space better. I know people from all three of the startups mentioned and they are each trying to tackle what they see as shortcomings in the current state of travel. Social introduced a new opportunity to tap your friends for travel recommendations and tips but there lacked that follow up (hence Trippy which allows those who suggest places for you to visit to get updates when you check into those locations) that is so satisfying. It answers the question "so did you go to that place ..." when the trip is happening and not after. Hipmunk is doing a lot of interesting things like integrating AirBnB listings and also revealing heatmaps for which areas of cities have the things people like to do like eat, party, vice, etc. so they know where they should be looking for a convenient hotel. Gogobot, in my opinion, is better just layered on Facebook but they probably have the best chance of doing a better social recommendation algorithm given their leadership position in the space so I'm looking forward to seeing what comes out of that. Since the Kayak launch waaaaay back, there really hasn't been that much travel startup innovation. If anything, the landscape has gotten more confusing and worst for consumers in my opinion. The average user checks over 3+ sites before booking because they just don't know where they can find the best prices. There's so much focus on monetization that everywhere you turn, you get pop-ups and more pop-ups and by the time you're done, you're not even sure how you ended up on the site you are on to buy your ticket, book your hotel, etc. Over at our startup, Room 77, we are focused on a real travel search problem specifically in the hotel space. There's too much price fragmentation and the current solutions today aren't satisfying to us. For example, everyone offers a "best price guarantee" but everyone has a different price, so who's lying and who's telling the truth? Sites that claim to search all the other hotel sites show you 3 prices and then a bunch of links that open pop-ups to other sites. How is that a great user experience? We see a lot of opportunity to provide true price transparency in hotel search w/o compromising the user experience. Would love to get your feedback on our site, we've recently focused more on pricing transparency and less on our unique hotel layout and rooms database information. I'm excited there's so much discussion on this travel related thread and happy to respond more when I get home later. Although I'm immersed in the hotel space now, I was part of the team at Farecast that became Bing Travel (fare predictions) so I can provide some insight there as well.

by dkrich 15y ago

dlitwak 15y ago

Thansk dkrich. What I find pretty funny is that I definitely complimented hipmunk. Pretty sure I said it was useful and had a wonderful interface haha. I never insulted them but merely stated the reason why I don't use it. But for some reason not being head over heels in love with the product, having something slightly critical to say gets people incredibly defensive. I also don't have any ill will towards Hipmunk, I think the product looks great. But yes, I also agree that, for flights, travel isn't 'broken' so badly. If it was, Hipmunk would be overflowing with users. Last article I read they were having trouble attracting new users. Now for other forms of transportation . . . I'm going to have to disagree with you that travel isn't broken.

calbear81 15y ago

I do also agree with a lot of what the Mozio blogger mentioned, especially in regards to using a sledgehammer when a chisel would do just fine. I do however, especially given my position at a travel focused startup, think it's good that there is so much support and funding given to try and make the travel search space better. I know people from all three of the startups mentioned and they are each trying to tackle what they see as shortcomings in the current state of travel. Social introduced a new opportunity to tap your friends for travel recommendations and tips but there lacked that follow up (hence Trippy which allows those who suggest places for you to visit to get updates when you check into those locations) that is so satisfying. It answers the question "so did you go to that place ..." when the trip is happening and not after. Hipmunk is doing a lot of interesting things like integrating AirBnB listings and also revealing heatmaps for which areas of cities have the things people like to do like eat, party, vice, etc. so they know where they should be looking for a convenient hotel. Gogobot, in my opinion, is better just layered on Facebook but they probably have the best chance of doing a better social recommendation algorithm given their leadership position in the space so I'm looking forward to seeing what comes out of that. Since the Kayak launch waaaaay back, there really hasn't been that much travel startup innovation. If anything, the landscape has gotten more confusing and worst for consumers in my opinion. The average user checks over 3+ sites before booking because they just don't know where they can find the best prices. There's so much focus on monetization that everywhere you turn, you get pop-ups and more pop-ups and by the time you're done, you're not even sure how you ended up on the site you are on to buy your ticket, book your hotel, etc. Over at our startup, Room 77, we are focused on a real travel search problem specifically in the hotel space. There's too much price fragmentation and the current solutions today aren't satisfying to us. For example, everyone offers a "best price guarantee" but everyone has a different price, so who's lying and who's telling the truth? Sites that claim to search all the other hotel sites show you 3 prices and then a bunch of links that open pop-ups to other sites. How is that a great user experience? We see a lot of opportunity to provide true price transparency in hotel search w/o compromising the user experience. Would love to get your feedback on our site, we've recently focused more on pricing transparency and less on our unique hotel layout and rooms database information. I'm excited there's so much discussion on this travel related thread and happy to respond more when I get home later. Although I'm immersed in the hotel space now, I was part of the team at Farecast that became Bing Travel (fare predictions) so I can provide some insight there as well.