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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

#31

Post by jhdavids8 »

spez wrote: post #16
bryanh wrote: post #12

I love Hipmunk, but I think they assume their superior interface warrants pretty radical price increases (anything over 5% is kind of ridiculous considering how easy it is to compare prices for the exact same flights with another competitor). Maybe I'm missing something here, but it's never been worth it for me.

Price increases? We should have the same fares as everyone else online.

Spez, it took me no time at all to find a flight cheaper on Kayak than on Hipmunk. From Chicago to Honolulu (roundtrip) on 8/26 - 8/28, Kayak's cheapest rate is $936 total while Hipmunk's is $1063 total. This was my second search comparison between Kayak and Hipmunk. Not to be an ass, but this wasn't difficult at all, so you might want to incorporate some stricter testing before just saying that you "should have the same fares as everyone else online". Asking HN readers for examples when it's this easy appears as if you haven't done much testing and as if you're getting us to test for you.

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

#32

Post by danilocampos »

jhdavids8 wrote: post #31
spez wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Price increases? We should have the same fares as everyone else online.

Spez, it took me no time at all to find a flight cheaper on Kayak than on Hipmunk. From Chicago to Honolulu (roundtrip) on 8/26 - 8/28, Kayak's cheapest rate is $936 total while Hipmunk's is $1063 total. This was my second search comparison between Kayak and Hipmunk. Not to be an ass, but this wasn't difficult at all, so you might want to incorporate some stricter testing before just saying that you "should have the…

One of the tough things about this stuff, as alluded in other threads, is how frequently inventory changes. I just ran the same search you described as close to the same time as possible and...

http://i.imgur.com/7jQsm.png

http://i.imgur.com/AUnb5.png

Both at $1063.

So timing can make a huge difference.

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

#33

Post by jhdavids8 »

danilocampos wrote: post #32
jhdavids8 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spez, it took me no time at all to find a flight cheaper on Kayak than on Hipmunk. From Chicago to Honolulu (roundtrip) on 8/26 - 8/28, Kayak's cheapest rate is $936 total while Hipmunk's is $1063 total. This was my second search comparison between Kayak and Hipmunk. Not to be an ass, but this wasn't difficult at all, so you might want to incorporate some stricter testing before just saying that you "should have the…

One of the tough things about this stuff, as alluded in other threads, is how frequently inventory changes. I just ran the same search you described as close to the same time as possible and... http://i.imgur.com/7jQsm.png http://i.imgur.com/AUnb5.png Both at $1063. So timing can make a huge difference.

Weird...it's still the same prices ($1063 and $936) for me. You may very well be right though, but I find it hard to believe that it changes in the second or two it takes me to do my search on Kayak to HipMunk

http://i.imgur.com/a1VMw.png

http://i.imgur.com/W7dZg.png

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

#35

Post by michaelfairley »

saucerful wrote: post #30
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.

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.)

Edit: This is not actually true. I stand corrected.

The Kayak number doesn't include fees and taxes, whereas the Hipmunk number does.

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

#36

Post by paulgb »

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…

Good to know.

For what it's worth the other flights were one-way so my misunderstanding doesn't affect the price difference.

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

#38

Post by saucerful »

michaelfairley wrote: post #35
saucerful wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.)

Edit: This is not actually true. I stand corrected. The Kayak number doesn't include fees and taxes, whereas the Hipmunk number does.

Nope, from the the footnote: "Prices are per person and are for e–tickets and include all taxes & fees in USD."

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

#39

Post by statictype »

ezl wrote: post #37

I'd like to hear about how they've attracted the volume. I never see ads for them and 1mm searches/mo seems bigger than the set of "techcrunch + hacker news readers".

That's interesting because I see ads for them all the time.

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

#40

Post by DanielRibeiro »

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.

As a non us citizen, I also find it not to be any better for international flights that leave from Brazil.

The UI is clean and great, but its search is just not comprehensive as local competitors.

On the flip side, competitors also don't have all the data (company's site usually has data no-one else has).

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