I work front desk in a hotel and Priceline, Expedia and Hotwire... basically all 3rd party booking companies [oversell our rooms]. They are the number one reason we get oversold. Most frustrating experience in the world...
It sounds like Priceline was closed out to booking rooms by the hotel, but still continued to sell rooms on their website after the cutoff period. I have been oversold numerous times by these companies and we will actually have to call them (more than once usually) and tell them to stop selling rooms because we have no more. And sure enough, an hour later I will still have people come into the hotel and say that they just bought a room through expedia when they landed at the airport. In this case, there is nothing I can do for this person because their money is with expedia and not the hotel.
My best advice: next time you see a great deal on expedia/priceline/etc. call the hotel up directly and ask them if they can match or do better. Hotels have to keep their promises with guests and if it is our fault we overbooked we have to walk you to another hotel and pay for it out of our pocket. Expedia/Priceline don't have to do that at all because they simply don't care.
Having worked on tripadvisor's flights product, all I can say is "well, duh."
Seems to me there is room for a disruptive hotel booking startup. A Kayak Explore like interface that included the total cost of a trip (mid-range hotel and cost of a flight) would be killer.
Or even better, one that also offered/priced alternative methods of travel. Here on the east coast, now that air travel has been turned into a massive ordeal and time sink by the TSA, bus and train are often quicker, cheaper and more convenient alternatives.
Good thing Hipmunk chose a nice, broad and non-flight specific name.
Very likely that accommodation bookings are on their long term implementation plan. The flight bookings could also just be a good customer acquisition tool to on-sell additional bookings & services.
Orbitz turned out okay despite having a flight-related name, right?
I like choosing a broad name (there's certainly enough examples of that within travel) but I'm more interested to see how the cutesy name and branding works for them. It seems like an easy way to help people remember it but my first impression is a little negative. We'll see, I'm sure.
The current batch of flight search startups (ie YC backed Adioso & Hipmunk) are disruptive in a space that has long stagnated. First using them I felt like I had been unchained, the incumbents are so restrictive and clumsy whereas the new kids on the block are fresh and flexible.
To hell with hotels -- give me a nation-wide (US) real estate listing site with a Hipmunk-like lean and clean interface. All the current ones suck, unless there are some new startups that I haven't come across.
realtor.com has gotten so bad over the last few years (especially with its latest site re-vamp), I've resorted to scraping queries myself to avoid the frustration of wading through the mess of an interface. The leading runners-up in this space all have equally bloated/useless interfaces.
Hipmunk is just plain awesome. I don't fly myself, but I spread the Hipmunk love to any all friends and family that'll listen. A huge congrats and heart-felt thanks to the developers!
Thank you very much, SageRaven! We really count on folks like you to spread the word about hipmunk.com (we're sans PR firm) and really do believe that a great product will sell itself. Or more to the point, that users will sell it for us. In your case, you're not even a user, yet you still are doing us a huge favor by promoting it. Lemme send you something. Please send me your mailing address: [email protected]
The fact that profit margins are bigger in Hotel search doesn't mean that there isn't money to be made in airfare search.
Hotel search is a thornier problem. There may be more money to be made when someone eventually figures out how to do it right, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't tackle airfare search if you think you've solved that easier problem.
[+] [-] naner|15 years ago|reply
http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/e0val/how_pricel...
I work front desk in a hotel and Priceline, Expedia and Hotwire... basically all 3rd party booking companies [oversell our rooms]. They are the number one reason we get oversold. Most frustrating experience in the world...
It sounds like Priceline was closed out to booking rooms by the hotel, but still continued to sell rooms on their website after the cutoff period. I have been oversold numerous times by these companies and we will actually have to call them (more than once usually) and tell them to stop selling rooms because we have no more. And sure enough, an hour later I will still have people come into the hotel and say that they just bought a room through expedia when they landed at the airport. In this case, there is nothing I can do for this person because their money is with expedia and not the hotel.
My best advice: next time you see a great deal on expedia/priceline/etc. call the hotel up directly and ask them if they can match or do better. Hotels have to keep their promises with guests and if it is our fault we overbooked we have to walk you to another hotel and pay for it out of our pocket. Expedia/Priceline don't have to do that at all because they simply don't care.
[+] [-] ojbyrne|15 years ago|reply
Seems to me there is room for a disruptive hotel booking startup. A Kayak Explore like interface that included the total cost of a trip (mid-range hotel and cost of a flight) would be killer.
Or even better, one that also offered/priced alternative methods of travel. Here on the east coast, now that air travel has been turned into a massive ordeal and time sink by the TSA, bus and train are often quicker, cheaper and more convenient alternatives.
[+] [-] happybuy|15 years ago|reply
Very likely that accommodation bookings are on their long term implementation plan. The flight bookings could also just be a good customer acquisition tool to on-sell additional bookings & services.
[+] [-] zach|15 years ago|reply
I like choosing a broad name (there's certainly enough examples of that within travel) but I'm more interested to see how the cutesy name and branding works for them. It seems like an easy way to help people remember it but my first impression is a little negative. We'll see, I'm sure.
[+] [-] kn0thing|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|15 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] dzlobin|15 years ago|reply
We (me and ihodes) are launching our startup in this space within the month
[+] [-] ihodes|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hartror|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kn0thing|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SageRaven|15 years ago|reply
realtor.com has gotten so bad over the last few years (especially with its latest site re-vamp), I've resorted to scraping queries myself to avoid the frustration of wading through the mess of an interface. The leading runners-up in this space all have equally bloated/useless interfaces.
Hipmunk is just plain awesome. I don't fly myself, but I spread the Hipmunk love to any all friends and family that'll listen. A huge congrats and heart-felt thanks to the developers!
[+] [-] kn0thing|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jessriedel|15 years ago|reply
Hotel search is a thornier problem. There may be more money to be made when someone eventually figures out how to do it right, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't tackle airfare search if you think you've solved that easier problem.
[+] [-] colinsidoti|15 years ago|reply
They seem to have quite the team: http://www.room77.com
[+] [-] jrockway|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sanj|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ebun|15 years ago|reply