5 ms·

Offpeak.io helps you avoid peak season to book the cheapest vacation

50 points by fireworks10 9y ago

zippergz 9y ago
Interesting concept, but as mentioned in the article, the severely limited list of destinations really limits the utility.
r3dey3 9y ago
Horribly broken url management.... selecting a city replaces the home page in history so you can't use the browser back button. Plus the search recommends locations nowhere close to the search term... and has like 15 total destinations.
- aesthetics1 9y ago
  I noticed this as well. If you poke around, you can see that only 53 cities are currently available. I tried "Portland" and received "Orlando" as a suggestion. Looks like it uses some sort of half-baked search algorithm that looks for a close match, but does not work so well.
  - fireworks10 9y ago
    Sorry about that. You're right, we need to work on our autocomplete algo and set a fallback for unavailable cities. I will add Portland to our next batch of cities we add and message you when it's up.
- fireworks10 9y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. We fixed the back-button issue. We currently have only 53 cities during this beta, and are aiming to add a ton more soon. And you are right, the autocomplete algo needs a bit more work and a fallback for missing cities. We're on it.
- divenorth 9y ago
  Came here to say the exact same thing. I tried typing in Montreal and it took me to Seoul. Really frustrating actually.
  - fireworks10 9y ago
    Sorry about that. We need to work on a fallback for the autocomplete. Also, I will add Montreal to our next batch of cities we add and message you when it's up.
    - divenorth 9y ago
      It would make more sense to be able to select from a list of available cities instead of a broken auto complete.
empath75 9y ago
Sometimes off-season exists for a reason (ie: Rainy/Hurricane season)
- divenorth 9y ago
  But not always. People travel more during weekends, holidays, spring and summer school breaks.
  - fireworks10 9y ago
    Depending on the city. In a lot of major cities weekdays are more popular due to business travel.
- exhilaration 9y ago
  This is true, but my October honeymoon in Puerto Rico - right in the middle of hurricane season - was amazing. Perfect weather combined with miles and miles of empty beaches on the island of Vieques all to ourselves. Airfare, car rental, hotel, meals for a week - it cost us right around $1k. I mention this because even during the several months of hurricane season the weather is usually fine.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
superasn 9y ago
In addition to being costly it also gets very crowded. Went to Amsterdam and couldn't see the Anne frank museum due to a huge line of tourist. Then went to italy's main square, couldn't get inside the Basilica. Then we went to Louvre, same thing. I just don't have patience to stand in line for hours, so it is kind of my fault. Still, I think it's best to avoid the main tourist attractions because they are generally all booked by tour operators and each groups now contains hundreds of tourists.
- fovc 9y ago
  If it makes you feel any better, the Anne Frank house has absurd lines year-round
  - IkmoIkmo 9y ago
    Hehe, yep, they even made a documentary retelling the Anne Frank stories from experiences of all kinds of different people who're standing in line to get a ticket. (many of them having stories of their own). They're working on it btw, expanding opening hours, allowing you to buy tickets online and skip the queue and expanding the museum itself.
- jaclaz 9y ago
  Italy is a state, it has not a "main square" or a "Basilica", a number of cities in Italy may have those, maybe you meant Rome?
  - superasn 9y ago
    Yes, sorry. That was a slip of tongue. I don't remember the exact city but iirc there was a bridge of sigh and many glass factories around this Basilica. Googling it, it looks like Venice.
    - jaclaz 9y ago
      Yes, bridge of sigh and glass manufacturing, definitely it is Venice. And more or less the same bad news as the ones about Amsterdam, Venice has a continuous flow of tourists, all year round, the "offpeak" in Venice is more or less perfectly overlapping with the cold, rainy winter period where there is less people visiting (but not that much less).
Giorgi 9y ago
http://offpeak.io/all-cities http://offpeak.io/all-cities url broken to Istanbul Also, this site should definitely add Tbilisi, Georgia
- fireworks10 9y ago
  Fixed the URL issue, thanks for alerting me of that. Will add Tbilisi to top of the list for the next cities we add as well.
  - Mayzie 9y ago
    Might want to think about a couple of cities in multiple regions around the world, rather than trying to complete a country as tourist typically season varies per region. For example, Africa (Cape Town [SA]) and Oceania (Sydney [AU], Brisbane [AU], Bali [Indonesia], Auckland [NZ], Suva [Fiji], Noumea [New Caledonia], Port Vila [Vanuatu]).
mthoms 9y ago
I have a similar idea (currently on the backburner) but instead of focusing on "peak" season I thought you would define your own criteria. Some examples: 1. When is a good time to visit (ski resort) based on your chances of catching a powder day? What about a sunny day? What about no lines? What about all 3? 2. When is the best time to visit northern Thailand when it's not too hot.. but air quality is still decent (ie not peak "burning season")? 3. When is a good time to visit San Francisco if I'm into music (perhaps during a festival) but I can't stand rain? And how does that correlate to hotel pricing? Etc..
- nxsynonym 9y ago
  I like this approach a little bit better. Only having "peak" and "off-peak" could have a waze-like effect, directing more people to "off-peak" might help distribute the demand surges a little, but probably not enough. Being more specific and tailoring time frames to interest/objectives seems like a better approach.
fireworks10 9y ago
Hey guys, co-founder and developer of Offpeak.io here. Let me know if I can answer any questions, and we greatly appreciate feedback.
- Mayzie 9y ago
  When viewing the column chart for a particular city on mobile, you should add some animation when scrolling horizontally to switch months. At the moment it feels quite jagged and laggy. Perhaps make the action more obvious, too. Apart from that, great work! I know my mother who pays attention to all things travel and tries to find the best deals will like using this site!

50 points by fireworks10 9y ago

Interesting concept, but as mentioned in the article, the severely limited list of destinations really limits the utility.

r3dey3 9y ago

Horribly broken url management.... selecting a city replaces the home page in history so you can't use the browser back button. Plus the search recommends locations nowhere close to the search term... and has like 15 total destinations.

aesthetics1 9y ago
I noticed this as well. If you poke around, you can see that only 53 cities are currently available. I tried "Portland" and received "Orlando" as a suggestion. Looks like it uses some sort of half-baked search algorithm that looks for a close match, but does not work so well.
- fireworks10 9y ago
  Sorry about that. You're right, we need to work on our autocomplete algo and set a fallback for unavailable cities. I will add Portland to our next batch of cities we add and message you when it's up.
fireworks10 9y ago
Thanks for the feedback. We fixed the back-button issue. We currently have only 53 cities during this beta, and are aiming to add a ton more soon. And you are right, the autocomplete algo needs a bit more work and a fallback for missing cities. We're on it.
divenorth 9y ago
Came here to say the exact same thing. I tried typing in Montreal and it took me to Seoul. Really frustrating actually.
- fireworks10 9y ago
  Sorry about that. We need to work on a fallback for the autocomplete. Also, I will add Montreal to our next batch of cities we add and message you when it's up.
  - divenorth 9y ago
    It would make more sense to be able to select from a list of available cities instead of a broken auto complete.

empath75 9y ago

Sometimes off-season exists for a reason (ie: Rainy/Hurricane season)

divenorth 9y ago
But not always. People travel more during weekends, holidays, spring and summer school breaks.
- fireworks10 9y ago
  Depending on the city. In a lot of major cities weekdays are more popular due to business travel.
exhilaration 9y ago
This is true, but my October honeymoon in Puerto Rico - right in the middle of hurricane season - was amazing. Perfect weather combined with miles and miles of empty beaches on the island of Vieques all to ourselves. Airfare, car rental, hotel, meals for a week - it cost us right around $1k. I mention this because even during the several months of hurricane season the weather is usually fine.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

superasn 9y ago

In addition to being costly it also gets very crowded. Went to Amsterdam and couldn't see the Anne frank museum due to a huge line of tourist. Then went to italy's main square, couldn't get inside the Basilica. Then we went to Louvre, same thing. I just don't have patience to stand in line for hours, so it is kind of my fault. Still, I think it's best to avoid the main tourist attractions because they are generally all booked by tour operators and each groups now contains hundreds of tourists.

fovc 9y ago
If it makes you feel any better, the Anne Frank house has absurd lines year-round
- IkmoIkmo 9y ago
  Hehe, yep, they even made a documentary retelling the Anne Frank stories from experiences of all kinds of different people who're standing in line to get a ticket. (many of them having stories of their own). They're working on it btw, expanding opening hours, allowing you to buy tickets online and skip the queue and expanding the museum itself.
jaclaz 9y ago
Italy is a state, it has not a "main square" or a "Basilica", a number of cities in Italy may have those, maybe you meant Rome?
- superasn 9y ago
  Yes, sorry. That was a slip of tongue. I don't remember the exact city but iirc there was a bridge of sigh and many glass factories around this Basilica. Googling it, it looks like Venice.
  - jaclaz 9y ago
    Yes, bridge of sigh and glass manufacturing, definitely it is Venice. And more or less the same bad news as the ones about Amsterdam, Venice has a continuous flow of tourists, all year round, the "offpeak" in Venice is more or less perfectly overlapping with the cold, rainy winter period where there is less people visiting (but not that much less).

Giorgi 9y ago

http://offpeak.io/all-cities http://offpeak.io/all-cities url broken to Istanbul Also, this site should definitely add Tbilisi, Georgia

fireworks10 9y ago
Fixed the URL issue, thanks for alerting me of that. Will add Tbilisi to top of the list for the next cities we add as well.
- Mayzie 9y ago
  Might want to think about a couple of cities in multiple regions around the world, rather than trying to complete a country as tourist typically season varies per region. For example, Africa (Cape Town [SA]) and Oceania (Sydney [AU], Brisbane [AU], Bali [Indonesia], Auckland [NZ], Suva [Fiji], Noumea [New Caledonia], Port Vila [Vanuatu]).

mthoms 9y ago

I have a similar idea (currently on the backburner) but instead of focusing on "peak" season I thought you would define your own criteria. Some examples: 1. When is a good time to visit (ski resort) based on your chances of catching a powder day? What about a sunny day? What about no lines? What about all 3? 2. When is the best time to visit northern Thailand when it's not too hot.. but air quality is still decent (ie not peak "burning season")? 3. When is a good time to visit San Francisco if I'm into music (perhaps during a festival) but I can't stand rain? And how does that correlate to hotel pricing? Etc..

nxsynonym 9y ago
I like this approach a little bit better. Only having "peak" and "off-peak" could have a waze-like effect, directing more people to "off-peak" might help distribute the demand surges a little, but probably not enough. Being more specific and tailoring time frames to interest/objectives seems like a better approach.

fireworks10 9y ago

Hey guys, co-founder and developer of Offpeak.io here. Let me know if I can answer any questions, and we greatly appreciate feedback.

Mayzie 9y ago
When viewing the column chart for a particular city on mobile, you should add some animation when scrolling horizontally to switch months. At the moment it feels quite jagged and laggy. Perhaps make the action more obvious, too. Apart from that, great work! I know my mother who pays attention to all things travel and tries to find the best deals will like using this site!