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1 year on, Hipmunk (YC S10) hits 1 million flight + hotel searches a month

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Re: 1 year on, Hipmunk (YC S10) hits 1 million flight + hotel searches a month

#21

Post by purplefruit »

spez wrote: post #19
purplefruit wrote: post #14

I was a relatively senior member at Expedia, and though there is an obvious bias, I think Hipmunk is a bit overrated. Here's why (1) They don't own any relationships with suppliers. UI/UX matter, but any business owner will tell you that those relationships are where the money is. Hipmunk still has to give 50%+ of it's earnings away to those who own the relationships. (2) Hipmunk's differentiating factor is its UI/UX…

1) Not sure what you're basing this claim on, but it's false. 2) To each his own, I suppose, but I have conflicting anecdotal evidence. Hipmunk passes the "parents test" with all of our parents :) And as for "people who spend big bucks booking travel," I can point to the huge amount of email we receive from assistants who use us exclusively. Maybe we're not everything to everyone, but we're at least making some peopl…

Ah re #1 - I was under the impression that you were actually using Orbitz inventory for hotels (flights are through GDS I assume - but barely make money anyway). re #2 - yah totally subjective and I have no data besides anecdotes re #3 - again I have no data to support this. Just generally incredibly suspect of any growth that comes from SEM (though there's clearly cases where it's worked). Good to hear there's some retention, though.

Re: 1 year on, Hipmunk (YC S10) hits 1 million flight + hotel searches a month

#23

Post by paulgb »

spez wrote: post #15
shalmanese wrote: post #6

I want to love Hipmunk and I do a search on it every time I travel but Kayak has consistently returned flights that are $50 - $100 cheaper. I love the Hipmunk interface but not $100 worth.

Have an example? We should have the same fares as pretty much everyone else. There are some holes, but none in the US to my knowledge.

Hipmunk is always my first stop for flights, but the last few I've booked I've ended up finding better deals elsewhere:

London to Toronto (cheaper with CanadianAffair.com)

Halifax, Canada to JFK (cheaper on US Airways site)

Edmonton, Canada to LGA (cheaper on US Airways site)

They're all at least partly non-US, but I was able to find similar price discrepancies with flights from NYC to SF and Seattle. For example, I am quoted $398 ($441 tax-in) for a flight from LGA to SEA round-trip from Aug 25 to Sept 8. Hipmunk gives me tickets from $398 each way, so I'd be paying twice as much minimum.

In Europe, I've found SkyScanner.net to be generally cheaper because they have more discount airlines (namely Jet2, easyJet, and GermanWings; I avoid RyanAir)

Re: 1 year on, Hipmunk (YC S10) hits 1 million flight + hotel searches a month

#24

Post by steve-howard »

sterwill wrote: post #18
shalmanese wrote: post #6

I want to love Hipmunk and I do a search on it every time I travel but Kayak has consistently returned flights that are $50 - $100 cheaper. I love the Hipmunk interface but not $100 worth.

In my case I always start with Hipmunk, find a schedule I like, then I check southwest.com and end up buying a similar flight at about 75% of the other airline price.

Truth. I use Southwest unless I have no other choice (the only times have been when I specifically needed a red-eye and when I took a Thanksgiving flight at the last minute). Aside from the price, it's also just less irritating: not having TVs showing ads on the back of every seat is a big plus, and I don't have to plan around not bringing checked luggage.

Re: 1 year on, Hipmunk (YC S10) hits 1 million flight + hotel searches a month

#25

Post by spez »

purplefruit wrote: post #21
spez wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) Not sure what you're basing this claim on, but it's false. 2) To each his own, I suppose, but I have conflicting anecdotal evidence. Hipmunk passes the "parents test" with all of our parents :) And as for "people who spend big bucks booking travel," I can point to the huge amount of email we receive from assistants who use us exclusively. Maybe we're not everything to everyone, but we're at least making some peopl…

Ah re #1 - I was under the impression that you were actually using Orbitz inventory for hotels (flights are through GDS I assume - but barely make money anyway). re #2 - yah totally subjective and I have no data besides anecdotes re #3 - again I have no data to support this. Just generally incredibly suspect of any growth that comes from SEM (though there's clearly cases where it's worked). Good to hear there's some…

For hotels, we do get Orbitz inventory, but we also have a number of direct relationships. As you know, hotels are much happier to do business with people like us because they're not perpetually going out of business.

We've experimented with SEM, but it's not really cost effective for us. Everyone else in the business runs their own ads, giving them an ad-arbitrage business model we simply don't have. The upside to our customers is that the site is cleaner, the downside is our margins are skinnier.

Re: 1 year on, Hipmunk (YC S10) hits 1 million flight + hotel searches a month

#26

Post by vaksel »

purplefruit wrote: post #14

I was a relatively senior member at Expedia, and though there is an obvious bias, I think Hipmunk is a bit overrated. Here's why (1) They don't own any relationships with suppliers. UI/UX matter, but any business owner will tell you that those relationships are where the money is. Hipmunk still has to give 50%+ of it's earnings away to those who own the relationships. (2) Hipmunk's differentiating factor is its UI/UX…

in many cases you need to start off just being an affiliate, then once you grow your traffic enough to attract bigger partners, you can cut out the middlemen

Re: 1 year on, Hipmunk (YC S10) hits 1 million flight + hotel searches a month

#27

Post by onedognight »

paulgb wrote: post #23
spez wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have an example? We should have the same fares as pretty much everyone else. There are some holes, but none in the US to my knowledge.

Hipmunk is always my first stop for flights, but the last few I've booked I've ended up finding better deals elsewhere: London to Toronto (cheaper with CanadianAffair.com) Halifax, Canada to JFK (cheaper on US Airways site) Edmonton, Canada to LGA (cheaper on US Airways site) They're all at least partly non-US, but I was able to find similar price discrepancies with flights from NYC to SF and Seattle. For example, I…

> I am quoted $398 ($441 tax-in) for a flight from LGA to SEA round-trip from Aug 25 to Sept 8. Hipmunk gives me tickets from $398 each way, so I'd be paying twice as much minimum.

This tripped me up the first time as well. That price is $398 round trip on Hipmonk. They show the best round trip price, not the best one way price. They say "from $398" to indicate that the best you can do is $398 if you pick the correct return flight.

Re: 1 year on, Hipmunk (YC S10) hits 1 million flight + hotel searches a month

#28

Post by Keyframe »

spez wrote: post #19
purplefruit wrote: post #14

I was a relatively senior member at Expedia, and though there is an obvious bias, I think Hipmunk is a bit overrated. Here's why (1) They don't own any relationships with suppliers. UI/UX matter, but any business owner will tell you that those relationships are where the money is. Hipmunk still has to give 50%+ of it's earnings away to those who own the relationships. (2) Hipmunk's differentiating factor is its UI/UX…

1) Not sure what you're basing this claim on, but it's false. 2) To each his own, I suppose, but I have conflicting anecdotal evidence. Hipmunk passes the "parents test" with all of our parents :) And as for "people who spend big bucks booking travel," I can point to the huge amount of email we receive from assistants who use us exclusively. Maybe we're not everything to everyone, but we're at least making some peopl…

spez, any chance you'll implement something like http://www.kayak.com/explore/ but with your own touch (more options)?

Re: 1 year on, Hipmunk (YC S10) hits 1 million flight + hotel searches a month

#29

Post by spez »

onedognight wrote: post #27
paulgb wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hipmunk is always my first stop for flights, but the last few I've booked I've ended up finding better deals elsewhere: London to Toronto (cheaper with CanadianAffair.com) Halifax, Canada to JFK (cheaper on US Airways site) Edmonton, Canada to LGA (cheaper on US Airways site) They're all at least partly non-US, but I was able to find similar price discrepancies with flights from NYC to SF and Seattle. For example, I…

> I am quoted $398 ($441 tax-in) for a flight from LGA to SEA round-trip from Aug 25 to Sept 8. Hipmunk gives me tickets from $398 each way, so I'd be paying twice as much minimum. This tripped me up the first time as well. That price is $398 round trip on Hipmonk. They show the best round trip price, not the best one way price. They say "from $398" to indicate that the best you can do is $398 if you pick the correct…

Also, our $398 is after taxes.

Re: 1 year on, Hipmunk (YC S10) hits 1 million flight + hotel searches a month

#30

Post by saucerful »

spez wrote: post #15
shalmanese wrote: post #6

I want to love Hipmunk and I do a search on it every time I travel but Kayak has consistently returned flights that are $50 - $100 cheaper. I love the Hipmunk interface but not $100 worth.

Have an example? We should have the same fares as pretty much everyone else. There are some holes, but none in the US to my knowledge.

ORD to HNL 12/28 to 1/5.

Hipmunk: $1092. Kayak: $917.

(Both reservations have one layover in each direction and include tax. Kayak sends me to United.com directly while Hipmunk takes me to Orbitz.)

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