Hipmunk, the flight search company that has somehow managed to seem even cooler than Kayak, has announced the launch of Hipmunk Hotels today. Hipmunk Hotels lets you search for hotels and "space that people are renting out in their own homes", the latter courtesy of Airbnb, the very hip 'rent a couch' service.
Hotel search is now powered by several companies, including Orbitz and HotelsCombined, however in time Hipmunk will add direct links to hotel companies, as it has done for airlines in its flight search product.
Hipmunk's hotel search is built around a big map. Each hotel is represented by a dot, and multiple hotels that are very close to each other get grouped into one single dot. The map model's usefulness really shines when you start using the information overlays. Right now there are overlays for nightlife and food, shopping and tourism, and even 'vice'. Using overlays, you can find hotels in the areas of a city that you're most interested in. The hotels' dots are colored by price, so you can quickly see where the city's cheap and expensive parts are. The colors represent cheap, average, or pricey hotels.
Results are ranked by 'ecstasy' by default, which is sort of like the 'agony' ranking that Hipmunk has pioneered for flights. 'Ecstasy' is made up of a combination of price, amenities, and Yelp reviews. Of course, you can always instantly re-sort by price or user reviews. You can also restrict hotels by the amenities they have. Results from Airbnb are also included and allow you to see alternative accommodation and compare prices against those of hotels.
Hipmunk now lets you search for hotels, couches originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/01/hipmunk-hotels-couches-search/
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