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Hopper expands its price prediction technology to hotels, initially in NYC

Hopper, a top-ranked travel app that helps you figure out the best time to fly to save money, is today expanding its price prediction service to hotels. The company claims its price tracking technology is able to save users $34 per night, on average, when booking a hotel room through its service, or up to $90 per night in the best cases.

The Hopper application is already one of the better flight search tools on the market today because of its ability to make determinations about the best times to fly, which it does by analyzing historical ticket prices.

The app itself is fairly popular, with over 17 million installs and a #13 rating in the Travel category on the U.S. App Store.

The company said in September that it monitors 10 to 15 billion flight prices per day, and is selling $1.5 million in flights per day to its app users.

However, this is the first time the company has offered the ability to search for travel deals beyond flights in the two years since its debut.

As it does with flights, the new version of Hopper will predict future hotel pricing and tell you when to buy or wait to get the best deal on a room rate. Hopper says its technology is 95 percent accurate up to six months in advance, so it can be used for planning trips far in the future.

Hopper tells us its technology collects 10 million hotel price quotes daily for over 500 hotels in New York - its first market - and has accumulated over a year’s worth of data.

"The main difference is travelers view air travel as a commodity and often make their purchase decision strictly based on price, so we provide an overall price prediction for their trip," explains Hopper CEO, Frederic Lalonde.

"For hotels, we offer a more granular approach to price predictions since every hotel has a different pricing strategy and travelers aren’t solely basing their decision on price. Therefore, you won't see 'hotel prices in New York will drop,' but rather a specific 'buy' or 'wait' recommendation for each property," he adds.

The service will rival a number of hotel deal-finding apps already on the market, like those that help you book last minute hotels, for example. But Hopper notes that the best deals aren't always those booked last minute, as it turns out. Instead, the best rates can sometimes be found two or three months in advance.

With flights, Hopper offers a variety of filters and tools to help you find the right flight for you - including offering to check nearby airports, or letting you eliminate layovers, for example. With hotels, the company allows you to narrow down your selection by hotel rating, or view recommended neighborhoods. Over time, it will get smarter about which hotels you like and will make personalized suggestions.

Hotel rates are also displayed on a color-coded calendar, like flights, and can be viewed on a new map interface, too. The Hotel Profile will fill you in on other things you need to know, including photos of the room, lobby, gym, bar, etc.

The feature is initially being made available to Hopper users on iOS 11, and will only work for hotels in New York City for the time being. The company says it will soon roll out to 10 other major markets, including San Francisco, L.A., Miami and others.

The company is currently working with a good handful of properties in NYC, which will total around 50 soon. The commission rate typically ranges from 15 - 25% depending on the property and dates.

 

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