For years, Hipmunk has put its map front-and-center for its hotel search, leaving the default images of hotels and Airbnb that turn up small in a thumbnail-size.
Now, the San Francisco-based startup has chosen to emphasize images that are seven times larger.
Clicking on any image flips it over like a playing card to reveal key details about the property, such as the availability of wi-fi.
Hipmunk is not neglecting its maps, though it is shrinking the screen real estate they occupy. It's making them more interactive instead, thanks to natural-language search, which it has been offering via its Hello Hipmunk service since last November.
Up until now, its natural language search was only available by sending an email to hello@hipmunk.com or visiting hipmunk.com/hello.
Now it is making simple queries like "three-star hotel near downtown" intelligible via a "keyword view" search interface.
In a twist, results from the search are presented as having a high match, a medium match, or a low match "similar to an online dating app," the company notes.
The natural-language search isn't perfect. A search in the keyword box for "a hotel near JW Marriott by LA Live" in time for mid-November's Phocuswright Conference didn't turn up any responses, despite trying a couple of variations (like "hotel near la live" and "near LA Live").
We eventually succeeded by searching the map for "JW Marriott LA Live" to find results (including a helpful selection of Airbnb rentals).
Another query via "keyword view" -- "a three star near riverwalk in San Antonio" -- turned up helpful results near the River Walk landmark. The search automatically introduced on the map a star pinpointing the attraction's location, making it easy to find how close various properties were to it.
Like with many innovations, Hipmunk's new search still has some kinks to work out. Yet once again the metasearch site strives to find fresh ways to present travel information intuitively.
Earlier: Hipmunk now helps plan trips using its AI