Monday, November 10, 2008

Welcome to Hitchsters 2.0

This blog site has been a long time coming, but to those visiting for the 1st time – welcome! For those returning – I’m excited to introduce you to a new and improved Hitchsters, still the best way to share a ride to and from the airport.

Why Hitchsters? Well, Hitchsters was an answer to my travel woes. I used to traveled quite a bit in NYC, and was always frustrated with hunting down bargain airfares only to pay $90 or more in round-trip car fares (those from NYC, I’m sure you can relate to this). I would spend hours analyzing online travel deals, only to squander my savings trying to get to & from the airport. Sure, there were other way to get to & from the airport, but none suited a time- and cost- sensitive lifestyle that required convenience. It was while a friend and I were venting mutual travel struggles that we realized an opportunity to fill a need – and with an added twist of social networking, Hitchsters was born.

Hitchsters has been around for just over a year now, and we’ve been thinking about ways to improve our service. What are some of the changes you can expect in the coming months? This summer, we will be launching in San Francisco. But what’s more exciting, we’ve been working with our developers to provide you a better experience with Hitchsters 2.0. So what’s new in Hitchsters 2.0?

a. San Francisco – Welcome to Hitchsters! We don’t make sense isolated in one city, and so we are expanding. We’ve recently launched in San Francisco – with Boston, Chicago, and Washington DC to come soon after. What’s so great about scaling our service? If you think about it, using Hitchsters to “bookend” your journey can save you upwards of $100 per trip.
b. User Accounts (MyHitchsters) – complete with your profile, trip history, the options to change your trip itinerary, and even a rating system for your co-rider, we hope these make for a better online experience.
c. Limo Companies – instead of connecting people to share cabs to the airport, we are partnering with limo companies to do the same thing. Not only are car services comparably priced with taxis, they are professional and on-time (no more desperate attempts to hail a cab from street corners). Additionally, when you use Hitchsters to share a ride, you can conveniently pay us online and our fares also include toll and tip so that you don’t have to worry about carrying enough cash to pay the driver.
d. Google Maps - instead of limiting matches to neighborhoods, we will match by distance. Not only will this increase the # matches, it makes for easier expansion into different cities.

So why this blog? Well, we want to connect with you. We want to share what we’re thinking about. We want to keep you coming back. And most of all, we want to hear from you.

Thanks for reading, and for joining the Hitchsters community. We’re excited for what’s in store, and hope you stay to join us for the ride.

The Hitchsters Team