Posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2012 by Uri Halevi
Tripbirds combines traditional hotel listings with Facebook and Instagram, presenting a smart, easy and social way for you to book hotels.
The problem with hotel booking sites is that they don’t include social data, they usually just show you reviews and ratings from strangers. In today’s social network oriented world you look for personal context:
You want to hear what people you know, who previously stayed there, think about the hotel; want to see the photos they took and not what the hotel’s PR is promoting. Tripbirds shows you hotels where friends have stayed, and make it easy for you to ask for a recommendation.
You can see your friend’s comments, photos and videos that are related to a check in. You can also see their Instagram photos, an interesting feature because Instagrams are usually more about capturing a moment so you can get the vibe of the place.
Another nice feature on Tripbirds is the shortlist-concept. When booking a hotel you usually end up with numerous hotels in browser tabs, that you have to flick between in order to compare your candidates. The shortlist makes the booking process simple as well as social:
Since you can invite your co-travelers to it, you can all add/remove and discuss on the site which hotel you like the best, or you can share it on Facebook/Twitter if you like and get advice and tips from friends. This way the entire booking process becomes a less lonely process.
All in all, Tripbirds is a fun idea for a travel website, and its social hotel booking theory is definitely worth a try in practice.
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