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Show HN: HotelSaver – Save money on your existing hotel reservations

hotelsaver.io

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Re: Show HN: HotelSaver – Save money on your existing hotel reservations

#11

Post by dack »

tfe wrote: post #6

The only way I would pay a fixed price without guarantee of savings is if it were pitched as a monthly or yearly subscription, and then I just run all my reservations through it.

Yeah that might work for me as well. The only problem I would have with that is that it's more loosely tied to customer success - so there's a chance people won't get enough value out of the service. By just charging per reservation, they sidestep that possibility and perfectly extract more money out of those that get more value.

Re: Show HN: HotelSaver – Save money on your existing hotel reservations

#12

Post by tfe »

dack wrote: post #11
tfe wrote: post #6

The only way I would pay a fixed price without guarantee of savings is if it were pitched as a monthly or yearly subscription, and then I just run all my reservations through it.

Yeah that might work for me as well. The only problem I would have with that is that it's more loosely tied to customer success - so there's a chance people won't get enough value out of the service. By just charging per reservation, they sidestep that possibility and perfectly extract more money out of those that get more value.

Maybe some plan tiers based on number of reservations processed? I can't see myself paying anywhere near $20 each on average though.

Re: Show HN: HotelSaver – Save money on your existing hotel reservations

#15

Post by downandout »

You should definitely charge a percentage of the amount saved instead of a flat, non-refundable fee. You have created value here but very few people are going to use it if they have to risk $20 up front. I have killed a few of my own otherwise viable projects with unnecessarily restrictive revenue models, and that's the worst kind of death because it is entirely preventable.

Re: Show HN: HotelSaver – Save money on your existing hotel reservations

#16

Post by justgottasay2 »

You may want to look at how CruiseFish.net does their revenue model... They have an up-front fee, but it is very low relative to the price for the tracked cruise reservation. That takes a lot of the sting out of the 'You have to pay up front and you might not actually hear about a lower rate'. They also use their forum to provide 'evidence' that their site works for its users.

Re: Show HN: HotelSaver – Save money on your existing hotel reservations

#19

Post by adam »

matttah wrote: post #4
Nowaker wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We spend the time and energy searching all over the web for cheaper reservations for you", are you really spending time on searching things manually ? If so, I wouldn't pay anything for such a service, because you may apparently go on holiday and don't care about my reservation. If all is automatic, then I could go for it. However, then "spending time and energy" is a lie. I believe anyone should be able to submit t…

Typo fixed, thanks! As for the automatic it is partially automatic. As we're gauging interest right now we haven't fully automated it. For the pricing we're looking into different options such as taking only a %'d of amount saved, only charging if we save you money, etc. We'll be doing some testing in the very near future on different pricing models.

Congrats on shipping. :) As others have mentioned, I was turned off by the pricing model. Your idea of taking a % of amount saved, or charging me after you've achieved savings would be much more palatable.

That said, if you have the data for it, it would be awesome to show some proof that this is a widespread thing - that prices do fluctuate regularly and there are these drops in price people can take advantage of - if they are using your service. I think that would help your case.

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