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where do you get all the data for planes, hotels from? are you scraping it? do they block it after a while?

For flights, we're plugged into exactly the same systems (called GDS's or Global Distribution Systems, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Distribution_System) that Expedia, Orbitz, etc use for flights. For hotels, we're using the Expedia Affiliate Network right now.

can you explain a bit more about the costs of getting data from those sources? How do websites like Kayak get all the price data for tickets, hotels?

How does hopon actually make money, is it from affiliate programs? What affiliate programs are you signed up with?

Seems like these ticket, trip websites are dime a dozen, how do you stand above the crowd?

It's actually a fairly complicated business development process - we make money the same way the other travel booking/OTA (online travel agency) sites like Expedia/Orbitz do, but we think our differentiation is the simplicity of the site and social features we've built. If people have a good experience and share the site with their friends, then we will grow organically without a lot of expensive advertising.

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