Home › Blogs › vanessa's blog

Hipmunk Adds Neighborhood Recommendations to its Hotel Travel Search

  • strict warning: Only variables should be assigned by reference in /courses/i202/public_html/f12/includes/common.inc(1696) : eval()'d code on line 1.
  • strict warning: Only variables should be assigned by reference in /courses/i202/public_html/f12/includes/common.inc(1696) : eval()'d code on line 1.
  • strict warning: Non-static method view::load() should not be called statically in /courses/i202/public_html/f12/sites/all/modules/views/views.module on line 879.
  • strict warning: Declaration of views_handler_argument::init() should be compatible with views_handler::init(&$view, $options) in /courses/i202/public_html/f12/sites/all/modules/views/handlers/views_handler_argument.inc on line 745.
  • strict warning: Declaration of views_handler_filter::options_validate() should be compatible with views_handler::options_validate($form, &$form_state) in /courses/i202/public_html/f12/sites/all/modules/views/handlers/views_handler_filter.inc on line 589.
  • strict warning: Declaration of views_handler_filter::options_submit() should be compatible with views_handler::options_submit($form, &$form_state) in /courses/i202/public_html/f12/sites/all/modules/views/handlers/views_handler_filter.inc on line 589.
  • strict warning: Declaration of views_handler_filter_boolean_operator::value_validate() should be compatible with views_handler_filter::value_validate($form, &$form_state) in /courses/i202/public_html/f12/sites/all/modules/views/handlers/views_handler_filter_boolean_operator.inc on line 149.
  • strict warning: Declaration of views_plugin_row::options_validate() should be compatible with views_plugin::options_validate(&$form, &$form_state) in /courses/i202/public_html/f12/sites/all/modules/views/plugins/views_plugin_row.inc on line 135.
  • strict warning: Declaration of views_plugin_row::options_submit() should be compatible with views_plugin::options_submit(&$form, &$form_state) in /courses/i202/public_html/f12/sites/all/modules/views/plugins/views_plugin_row.inc on line 135.
  • strict warning: Only variables should be assigned by reference in /courses/i202/public_html/f12/sites/all/modules/social_media/social_media.module on line 248.
Tue, 2012-11-13 21:50 — vanessa
Most people use online travel search websites to book flights, hotels, and rental cars. Sites like Travelocity and Kayak have become very popular because they aggregate information and help users to make travel decisions. Hipmunk, a startup which launched in 2010, provides another alternative to travel search for flights and hotels and organizes information about the travel experience in a unique way. The company recently launched an update to its hotel search product which allows users to learn more about the neighborhood they will be lodging in and discover the best hotels that fit their personal travel needs.

For a hotel search on a typical travel search website, you enter the dates you wish to stay, the location, number of people, and number of rooms. After searching, a list of search results is generated and you can sort and filter results by certain criteria until you find the option that best meets your needs. Typically, you can then reformulate your query by sorting or filtering to narrow down your search by location (proximity to an airport or point of interest you are visiting), price, amenities, and ratings.

When booking a hotel in a location you have never been to you might use a travel website to find possible hotels that are available and also read reviews about hotels and try to determine whether a hotel might be suitable for you. You might consider whether the hotel or neighborhood would be a good fit for a family with small children. You might wonder whether the hotel is in a touristy part of town you would rather avoid. Answering these questions would typically take you away from the hotel search interface on most travel websites, requiring you to go to hotel reviews site and sift through reviews to figure out if the hotel would be a match.

Hipmunk hopes to make this part of travel planning easier with two new organizing principles in its search user interface which would be used during the 'query reformulation' period. After a user specifies the destination and dates 'in' and 'out' for the query in its hotel search, results are presented including a ranked list of hotels and a map showing the location of those hotels. The first new feature allows users to view hotels organized by neighborhood. Hipmunk provides a neighborhood boundary on the map and a description of the neighborhood written by local travel writers. The second new feature allows users to filter results for hotels that are considered good for 'Family', 'LGBT', 'Romance', 'Business' and 'Adventure'.  This classification is done manually and will take some time for the feature to be implemented in all locations but the company does do some of the neighborhood classification automatically, for example labeling a neighborhood 'Business' if there are a large number of law firms and banks there.

Hipmunk launched in 2010 and was founded by Adam Goldstein and Steve Huffman (one of the founders of reddit). The company's first product was flight search which features a clever 'Agony' rating which takes into account price, flight duration, and number of stops. Hipmunk has other cool features for travel search including tabbed browsing within the interface for multiple searches, Google Calendar integration, and a simple results display.