Attn, flight-search startups: Priceline, Expedia say hotels are where it’s at

There's a lot of room for improvement:<p><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/e0val/how_priceline_screwed_me_out_of_a_family_vacation/c14ebz2" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/e0val/how_pricel...</a><p><i>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...</i><p><i>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.</i><p><i>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.</i>

Having worked on tripadvisor's flights product, all I can say is "well, duh."<p>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.<p>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.<p>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 &#38; services.

Goddamn it VentureBeat, stop blowing up our spot :-)<p>We (me and ihodes) are launching our startup in this space within the month

The current batch of flight search startups (ie YC backed Adioso &#38; 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.<p>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.<p>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!

The fact that profit margins are bigger in Hotel search doesn't mean that there isn't money to be made in airfare search.<p>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.

Room77 has been recruiting heavily at MIT and are "working to bring a unique twist to hotel search"<p>They seem to have quite the team: <a href="http://www.room77.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.room77.com</a>

Doesn't booking.com pretty much have a monopoly in this market? What will your company do that's better than what they do?

I'm a little surprised that this is news. The profit margins in hotels appear to be <i>much</i> bigger than in flight.

I guess nobody informed AirBnB.