I must say I didn't even know of this "social travel" thing. I've heard of some of those startups before but I've probably just dismissed them right off the bat

I must say I didn't even know of this "social travel" thing. I've heard of some of those startups before but I've probably just dismissed them right off the bat if they didn't happen to immediately give me not only a good answer but a good problem, too. What I usually do is find the cheapest offers for flights from a few selected places such as Hipmunk, Kayak, Ebookers and Momondo, and then proceed to find accommodation by myself. I have a few known places in certain cities already, found empirically and if I don't, I'll just search the web until I find a place I like. And that's pretty much it when it comes to travel. What would make travel better, I don't know. The availability and access to good offers and good information over internet generally pretty much did it, I think.