Bid Wizard and Forum

Posted on May 28th, 2007 in news by Marc

I have slowly been adding some more functionality that I think will benefit the community.

The first is, a community.. in the form of a message board. I haven’t fully implemented this tool yet. I am still trying to figure out how to best integrate this into the site and how to organize it. I think it will be useful to allow interaction among Travelgoopers. Allows discussing strategy, different hotels, or anything else really. It will be very loosely moderated to allow maximum freedom and since this is separate from bidding information, it won’t be necessary to create strict posting rules. One could also post their bidding profile (the link is shown under your account page) and ask to get feedback about how to proceed.

The second is a bid wizard. I personally think this tool is really cool. I haven’t finished the presentation of the tool or the instructions yet, but the functionality is pretty much there… although there are some things I would like to tweak with that as well. Essentially, you choose a city, then enter what it is you are looking for (hotel star level, area, and price range). After inputting this information and information from Priceline regarding maximum hotel quality levels in each area, the bid wizard will tell you how you should proceed in your bidding in order to GUARANTEE at least that star level in your desired area.
In addition, if there is bid information for the area/star level you are looking for, the bid wizard will also tell you the average prices at each hotel. This is extremely useful when trying to figure out what price range you should be aiming for. This will become more and more useful as the site gets populated, so stay tuned.

Thanks to feedback from LuckyGreen over at FlyerTalk (a great forum about traveling with a special section on travel bidding), I have added the ability to delete bids. This is particularly useful if you make a mistake when entering in information.

Keep on truckin’

Moving right along

Posted on May 20th, 2007 in news by Marc

I’ve had some extra time to work on this project recently. Things seem to be coming together and that’s always good. The majority of big cities in the USA and Canada have been made available and are ready to be populated with hotels. International cities are the next step, but I think for now the focus on USA/Canada should be sufficient.

I can’t put every hotel into the system because that’s inefficient and very time consuming. That’s where I need your help. I have been getting a steady stream of hotel requests, which I have been adding immediately. In addition, I have been adding some here and there to get the site further along.

I also wanted to take this time to thank everyone that has given feedback on the site. I have implemented almost all feedback and I welcome more.

Stay classy.

Welcome to Travelgoop!

Posted on May 15th, 2007 in news by Marc

So, this is the first blog post. Travelgoop is well underway and hopefully it will one day be a useful tool for people to find great deals online for hotels. For those of you that are not familiar with the concept behind Travelgoop, let me take a second to try and explain.

Priceline is a wonderful company that offers consumers travel related items (ex. airfare, hotel, cars) at amazing rates. The reason they can get away with offering these goods cheaply is because they hide the prices and specific item you are searching for. There is little transparency in the system and no guarantee that you will get anything. The consumer chooses a price they are willing to pay and, if something matches, Priceline assigns a product that fits the general description of the consumer’s request.

The problem for the consumer lies in what price to offer. That is where Travelgoop comes in. Travelgoop aims to be a tool for Priceline users to share their bidding history. By sharing this information, the consumer is better off.

As for development, it is still pretty early. Things seem pretty stable, but of course if you run into any problems, let me know. Besides that, I will slowly be populating the site with more cities and hotels. There are links around the site to have you help me with the hotel part of this. If you have bids that you would like to post, but the hotel is not there, let me know and I will add it as soon as I have a chance.

I am open to all feedback and suggestions. This is a tool for me. This is a tool for you. This is a tool for anyone who wants to make smart bids. I look forward to seeing this community grow.

Marc