We’ve got some pretty big news to share with you all today.
After many late-night beer-induced soul-searching sessions, we decided that it made sense for us to rebrand our business.
Specifically, we were looking for something that was more relevant to hotels, more memorable, and had more personality. We were also looking for a brand that could better represent all the neat things we’ve been working hard on for the last six months.
So I’m very proud to announce that VibeAgent, henceforth, is now hotelicopter! You can read the official press release here. We hope you like our new brand and our new site. We’ve made significant improvements in usability in direct response to feedback from our community.
Here’s five big upgrades:
1) Integration with Facebook Connect: We’ve replaced our user system entirely with Facebook via Facebook Connect. While you don’t need an account to use hotelicopter, if you want one all you need to do is type in your Facebook credentials - your profile and privacy settings will follow you to our site. Over time, we’ll be adding more cool features to make it easier to share recommendations and travel deals with your friends.
2) More Hotel Reviews: We’ve teamed up with one of the biggest players in the industry (you know the one) to display hotel reviews for most of our hotels. So now there’s no need to visit multiple travel sites when researching your trip - hotelicopter has all the content you need in one place.
3) Comparison Feature: We’ve added a cool feature that lets you compare hotels with each other without leaving the search results page - making it even easier to decide where you want to stay on your next trip.
4) Book Direct with Hotels: Whenever possible, we help you book directly with the hotel when that’s available through one of our partners. You’ll see us continue to focus on helping you book direct with either the hotel or your favorite online travel agency.
5) User Flow: We’ve re-architected the entire site experience to make it easier to navigate and get access to the content you need to make good decisions. Enjoy!
Oh, and yes, we’re the folks behind the flying hotel of the same name. We were just having some fun, and had no idea it was going to blow up like it did - we’ve gotten about 1.5 million page and video views just in the last week - so thank you very much for all the attention and support - and hopefully we made you smile 
April 8th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
OMG this is hilarious. Nice job with the april fool’s viral video and concept! I saw it and had no idea it was you guys. Wow. Great execution. Interested in writing a guest blog post at UpTake blog about the future of metasearch and how hotelicopter will be in the center of it?
Congrats again Adam!
April 9th, 2009 at 7:48 am
I feel Fooled!
April 9th, 2009 at 8:32 am
Elliott,
Thanks for your kind words! I’d love to write a blog post for you guys
Guido,
Sorry you feel fooled - I’ve written a response on your blog post.
April 27th, 2009 at 10:00 am
Love the creative content on your innovative site! Finding my next hotel through you!
April 30th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
I am sure that after many nights of soul- “heisting” maybe, you came up with the idea. It does not even match with the concept of of a hotel room search. This idea is an original of mine that I shared with others at my place of employment (a multi-million dollar company) a few months ago. I know that spiritual piracy by people like you is nothing new, but your invasion is truly a violation. You will never be able to conceive fully the beauty of creativity and imagination in a “beer-induced” stupor. Your MOA is faulty. I have an entire class of witnesses with whom I shared my idea.
August 28th, 2009 at 9:48 am
Some great ideas guys - we may just try some of them out on our holiday rentals price comparison site Compareaway.com
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:37 am
OMG this is hilarious. Nice job with the april fool’s viral video and concept! I saw it and had no idea it was you guys. Wow. Great execution. Interested in writing a guest blog post at UpTake blog about the future of metasearch and how hotelicopter will be in the center of it?
Congrats again
December 23rd, 2009 at 10:09 am
Hey there I came across your post by accident, I was surfing around the worldwide web for things to do on Oahu when I came upon your webpage, I must say your website is very interesting I just love the theme, its amazing!. I’m strapped for time right now to completely absorb your blog but I have favorited it and also signed up for your RSS feeds. I will be back when I free up some time. Bravo for a great webpage.