5 ms·

Show HN: Nowcation - find spontaneous travel deals

50 points by rjvir 14y ago

templaedhel 14y ago
This is awesome! I've been tossing this kind of idea around for awhile, because every once and awhile I find myself browsing hipmunk for "cheap flights today" to see if there's anything interesting, and a UI with the express purpose of selling short notice cheap flights has a lot of potential. My thoughts: - When I'm booking a vacation, especially on short notice I'm going to need lodging. A lot of the price is hidden in the lodging and so I can't be sure if these are good deals or not. Going forward, it might be possible to load lodging in (possibly bake the deals a few times a day to reduce server load) and display 1 singular price that includes everything. - While you're at it, why not keep playing up this instant vacation thing, take it to the next level. I click the button, pay, and you dispatch a uber to my house to take me to the airport. - Selling package deals allows you to skim a little off the top in the way of "booking fees", but more interesting is the possibly to use yield management to buy tickets when they are the cheapest, then resell as a "nowcation" later. Hope you keep working on this.
- rjvir 14y ago
  These are all awesome suggestions. If a service did this for me, I would love it forever. I will definitely look into the quickest ways to implement stuff like this.
jaddison 14y ago
Not sure how you're doing your 'booking' to photo matching, but you've got a great pic of Toronto, Ontario matched with a booking to Ontario, California. I noticed this after switching to the Seattle section. Nice simple presentation.
jtdaugh 14y ago
Isnt this just a prettier version of expedia or any of those travel sites.
- bfwi 14y ago
  Don't underestimate a prettier version of stuff.
- jorbecalona 14y ago
  if expedia and any of those travel sites had a UX update to something more elegant, more intuitive, and overall a more pleasing experience, wouldnt that be a good thing?
- rjvir 14y ago
  The main difference between Nowcation and Expedia is that Nowcation helps you find your destination. With Expedia, Orbitz, and other travel sites, you have to know where you want to go before finding deals.
- gailees 14y ago
  I mean....on expedia, I have to query destinations individually as if I know where I'm going....this just shows me the options from my departures point of view...I love it!
pkabra 14y ago
neat... found a flight to shanghai for 75% off... will keep an eye on this for future deals... do you guys do tracking? like can i track future deals for shanghai?
achalv 14y ago
Woah. Respect++;
- achalv 14y ago
  Also, I like how you've tweaked Isotope.js and got individual content boxes to become bigger on click with the slick animation. Good stuff. :D
zan2434 14y ago
Gorgeous photos. Love the simple UX. Watch your backs, Expedia, Travelzoo, etc.
jmediast 14y ago
Looks nice! I'd like to see a feature where I give it a budget, maybe a temperature preference, and it books me a random trip.
camdroid 14y ago
Well, think I'll be taking a vacation sometime soon!
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
thedanyaal 14y ago
Pretty cool idea. I'd like to see the students expand on this by adding some filter features like location, date, etc.
lubibul 14y ago
This is so smart! Really nice animations, too.
dpcx 14y ago
It would be nice if the departure locations were alphabetical, or at least let me type in to search.
merlish 14y ago
This really is a cool idea. Who doesn't occasionally yearn to get away from it all? I'm not in the US, though that's not your fault.
quiquebras 14y ago
I like it. Where are you getting the data from? Could it be expanded to include other cities outside the US?
lhnz 14y ago
Is there something like this for people living in London? I would specifically like something with weekend deals if such a thing exists.
- ceeK 14y ago
  Me too. This would definitely be of interest to me.
arthurquerou 14y ago
This is GENIOUS. Nothing more to say. Now buy some ads, contact big news websites and profit. Maybe take some vacations, I know a great website to find awesome deals ! ;)
stagas 14y ago
Just letting you know that avast pops a malicious url warning for trying to load http://www.ineedstorage.com/images/sd.jpg http://www.ineedstorage.com/images/sd.jpg when you enter the site.
- mosselman 14y ago
  Me too.
smit 14y ago
Would be awesome if you added Boston as an origin :)
- dlennox 14y ago
  +1
ssharp 14y ago
Very nice idea. I love the idea of being able to find random, good value, vacation ideas. It would be nice to be able to apply some filters, or to have your algorithm filter out some of the junk ideas. For example, I was given several options to fly somewhere for one day and then return the next day. Some of the itineraries actually had me landing in the late afternoon and having to come home early the following morning. This is not a trip most would be interested in seeing and it adds noise to the results page. The list of cities also seems like it should be organized alphabetically or by state. I didn't understand at all how it's organized now.
stavrianos 14y ago
Heads up- That faux styled dropdown is very difficult to use with a smartphone.
- nmcfarl 14y ago
  Or the iPad. Took 5, increasingly slow and methodical tries to actually get what I was trying for.
krauses 14y ago
Great idea. I was looking for a solution like this last night as I was trying to plan a last second trip. I hope you can pull this off. I often get random urges to take a 1-3 day trip, but I want to be able to find a flight that leaves the day that the urge hits. It would be awesome to see deals from Hotel Tonight inline with the flights.
Trufa 14y ago
Brilliant! I was just asking about that! http://travel.stackexchange.com/q/11620/ http://travel.stackexchange.com/q/11620/ I hope you have plans for implementing it in Europe sometime!
kvirani 14y ago
Very cool. Can you support Canada?
usaphp 14y ago
Hmm...It did not work for me. It says flight from New York to Orlando is just $128 but when I clicked to buy it - it sent me to Kayak and it was $210. Great idea tho...
- jmediast 14y ago
  heh, the devs were telling me about an issue they solved with caching, sounds like a side-effect
mhb 14y ago
Isn't it obvious that the departure locations need to be sorted? Or do people who want to go somewhere now not care from where they leave?
steveplace 14y ago
Pretty sure "wanna get away" is trademarked by Southwest Airlines. Overall, great layout.
jpwagner 14y ago
Is this really a common use-case? When I travel it's always driven by the "where" not by the "now"...
- krschultz 14y ago
  Common enough to make a living off it. There are times when I want to take a big planned out vacation. There are other times where I just want to sit on a beach for 4 days, and really any beach will do.
vineet 14y ago
Great idea, nicely executed. It seems that the price estimates are only for the flight costs (and not for lodging costs) - I was confused about this a little. I would love to see something similar for lodging costs as well.
mikaelf 14y ago
Nice idea, but nooo contact information, nor an about page reachable from the landing page?
ap22213 14y ago
I love sites like this. But, it would also be extra great if the site's price included estimates for the cost of lodging (say, at a particular quality level).
Arelius 14y ago
This is cool... What data sources do you use? Something I've always wanted is to be able to say, I'm looking for a flight from x to y, email me if it ever gets X cheap.

50 points by rjvir 14y ago

This is awesome! I've been tossing this kind of idea around for awhile, because every once and awhile I find myself browsing hipmunk for "cheap flights today" to see if there's anything interesting, and a UI with the express purpose of selling short notice cheap flights has a lot of potential. My thoughts: - When I'm booking a vacation, especially on short notice I'm going to need lodging. A lot of the price is hidden in the lodging and so I can't be sure if these are good deals or not. Going forward, it might be possible to load lodging in (possibly bake the deals a few times a day to reduce server load) and display 1 singular price that includes everything. - While you're at it, why not keep playing up this instant vacation thing, take it to the next level. I click the button, pay, and you dispatch a uber to my house to take me to the airport. - Selling package deals allows you to skim a little off the top in the way of "booking fees", but more interesting is the possibly to use yield management to buy tickets when they are the cheapest, then resell as a "nowcation" later. Hope you keep working on this.

rjvir 14y ago
These are all awesome suggestions. If a service did this for me, I would love it forever. I will definitely look into the quickest ways to implement stuff like this.

jaddison 14y ago

Not sure how you're doing your 'booking' to photo matching, but you've got a great pic of Toronto, Ontario matched with a booking to Ontario, California. I noticed this after switching to the Seattle section. Nice simple presentation.

jtdaugh 14y ago

Isnt this just a prettier version of expedia or any of those travel sites.

bfwi 14y ago
Don't underestimate a prettier version of stuff.
jorbecalona 14y ago
if expedia and any of those travel sites had a UX update to something more elegant, more intuitive, and overall a more pleasing experience, wouldnt that be a good thing?
rjvir 14y ago
The main difference between Nowcation and Expedia is that Nowcation helps you find your destination. With Expedia, Orbitz, and other travel sites, you have to know where you want to go before finding deals.
gailees 14y ago
I mean....on expedia, I have to query destinations individually as if I know where I'm going....this just shows me the options from my departures point of view...I love it!

pkabra 14y ago

neat... found a flight to shanghai for 75% off... will keep an eye on this for future deals... do you guys do tracking? like can i track future deals for shanghai?

achalv 14y ago

Woah. Respect++;

achalv 14y ago
Also, I like how you've tweaked Isotope.js and got individual content boxes to become bigger on click with the slick animation. Good stuff. :D

zan2434 14y ago

Gorgeous photos. Love the simple UX. Watch your backs, Expedia, Travelzoo, etc.

jmediast 14y ago

Looks nice! I'd like to see a feature where I give it a budget, maybe a temperature preference, and it books me a random trip.

camdroid 14y ago

Well, think I'll be taking a vacation sometime soon!

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

thedanyaal 14y ago

Pretty cool idea. I'd like to see the students expand on this by adding some filter features like location, date, etc.

lubibul 14y ago

This is so smart! Really nice animations, too.

dpcx 14y ago

It would be nice if the departure locations were alphabetical, or at least let me type in to search.

merlish 14y ago

This really is a cool idea. Who doesn't occasionally yearn to get away from it all? I'm not in the US, though that's not your fault.

quiquebras 14y ago

I like it. Where are you getting the data from? Could it be expanded to include other cities outside the US?

lhnz 14y ago

Is there something like this for people living in London? I would specifically like something with weekend deals if such a thing exists.

ceeK 14y ago
Me too. This would definitely be of interest to me.

arthurquerou 14y ago

This is GENIOUS. Nothing more to say. Now buy some ads, contact big news websites and profit. Maybe take some vacations, I know a great website to find awesome deals ! ;)

stagas 14y ago

Just letting you know that avast pops a malicious url warning for trying to load http://www.ineedstorage.com/images/sd.jpg http://www.ineedstorage.com/images/sd.jpg when you enter the site.

mosselman 14y ago
Me too.

smit 14y ago

Would be awesome if you added Boston as an origin :)

dlennox 14y ago
+1

ssharp 14y ago

Very nice idea. I love the idea of being able to find random, good value, vacation ideas. It would be nice to be able to apply some filters, or to have your algorithm filter out some of the junk ideas. For example, I was given several options to fly somewhere for one day and then return the next day. Some of the itineraries actually had me landing in the late afternoon and having to come home early the following morning. This is not a trip most would be interested in seeing and it adds noise to the results page. The list of cities also seems like it should be organized alphabetically or by state. I didn't understand at all how it's organized now.

stavrianos 14y ago

Heads up- That faux styled dropdown is very difficult to use with a smartphone.

nmcfarl 14y ago
Or the iPad. Took 5, increasingly slow and methodical tries to actually get what I was trying for.

krauses 14y ago

Great idea. I was looking for a solution like this last night as I was trying to plan a last second trip. I hope you can pull this off. I often get random urges to take a 1-3 day trip, but I want to be able to find a flight that leaves the day that the urge hits. It would be awesome to see deals from Hotel Tonight inline with the flights.

Trufa 14y ago

Brilliant! I was just asking about that! http://travel.stackexchange.com/q/11620/ http://travel.stackexchange.com/q/11620/ I hope you have plans for implementing it in Europe sometime!

kvirani 14y ago

Very cool. Can you support Canada?

usaphp 14y ago

Hmm...It did not work for me. It says flight from New York to Orlando is just $128 but when I clicked to buy it - it sent me to Kayak and it was $210. Great idea tho...

jmediast 14y ago
heh, the devs were telling me about an issue they solved with caching, sounds like a side-effect

mhb 14y ago

Isn't it obvious that the departure locations need to be sorted? Or do people who want to go somewhere now not care from where they leave?

steveplace 14y ago

Pretty sure "wanna get away" is trademarked by Southwest Airlines. Overall, great layout.

jpwagner 14y ago

Is this really a common use-case? When I travel it's always driven by the "where" not by the "now"...

krschultz 14y ago
Common enough to make a living off it. There are times when I want to take a big planned out vacation. There are other times where I just want to sit on a beach for 4 days, and really any beach will do.

vineet 14y ago

Great idea, nicely executed. It seems that the price estimates are only for the flight costs (and not for lodging costs) - I was confused about this a little. I would love to see something similar for lodging costs as well.

mikaelf 14y ago

Nice idea, but nooo contact information, nor an about page reachable from the landing page?

ap22213 14y ago

I love sites like this. But, it would also be extra great if the site's price included estimates for the cost of lodging (say, at a particular quality level).

Arelius 14y ago

This is cool... What data sources do you use? Something I've always wanted is to be able to say, I'm looking for a flight from x to y, email me if it ever gets X cheap.