Is There Room for Hotelicopter?
Hotelicopter, despite the April Fool’s prank, is a real search engine/hotel aggregator competing for the discriminating budget traveler against Kayak (and as if to prove its relevance – it even has a presence on Facebook!) So far, the Web site received a lot of press on tech blogs. A perusal of their Web site shows hotels broken down by city or airport code. I immediately picked San Francisco because it said, “from $39″ and I had to see that.
It turns out I found something cheap, the Amsterdam Hostel (private rooms are $49 a night,) but I found the site itself a bit clunky — maps, reviews and rates shouldn’t be hidden in tabs and a large-font numbering system takes up space where relevant information could be highlighted.
Hotelicopter (formerly VibeAgent) and Kayak differ from online travel companies in that they aren’t selling anything (except ads, of course) only directing consumers to sites that do, like Orbitz or Travelocity. But the question in my mind is, with the travel industry in such a state, why would anyone start such a business now?
Expedia, Orbitz and Priceline.com are all struggling, trying any promotion to wrest the dollars out of each others’ hands. Can there be much left for the aggregators? Or are investors still willing to throw money at any tech company with a good pitch? I suppose we will all soon find out.
Bay Area resident and award-winning business journalist Barbara E. Hernandez has covered tourism, real estate and personal finance. Her clients include the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Washington Post.
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