One of the travel technology startups in Boston in recent years has been, which has sought to dramatically change the process of travel planning with a new way to search for destinations. It turns out that consumers weren’t interested in their approach, however (more on that below). But the Cambridge company has shifted gears in a big way after realizing that it has been accumulating valuable data on flights — data that can be used to help consumers find the best airfare. The idea is to take the guesswork out of choosing a flight by using historical data — as well as airline filings that look into the future — to help predict when the ideal flights for you would be and when you should buy a ticket. “When you buy your airfare, it’s like when you buy your car — you don’t know when you’re getting the best deal and it’s always a matter of conjecture,” said Bob Offutt, principal at Travel Technology Consulting in Texas, who has tried out Hopper.com but has not consulted for the company. “What Hopper has done is provided enough information that you can make an informed decision,” he said, and is a vast improvement over past efforts along these lines such as Farecast (now part of Bing). Pro Evolution Soccer Patch 1.3. “Hopper is taking it to a whole different level.” Hopper has seen “a tremendous amount of consumer interest for this,” said founder and chief executive Frederic Lalonde.

Oct 25, 2017 For the past two years, Hopper has been working to perfect the art of predicting the best time to book a flight. I use Hopper frequently, and it's helped. Save BIG on cheap flights with CheapOair! We offer cheap flight tickets, hotels and car rental deals year round. Book now & Travel the world for less!

The tools launched earlier this spring and received in the New York Times in April, leading to a lot of the traffic, he said. Hopper had the flight tools as just one component of its site but has made the tools the centerpiece of its homepage in recent weeks in response to the demand. After getting the detailed report, Hopper lets users shop for the best flight and then directs to ticket booking sites such as Orbitz, which provides a fee to Hopper when users complete a booking. Shift in focus Founded in 2008, Hopper had raised $22 million in funding from investors including Atlas Venture to pursue its original vision of allowing consumers to more easily discover new travel destinations. The company pulled in massive amounts of travel-related data — blogs, photos, reviews — and built a system that would let consumers search for destinations using simple keywords. For instance, a user could type in “best wine destinations in Spain” and Hopper would rank all of Spain according to the wine experience.

“We found people did not want to do that,” Lalonde said. “I think people just don’t know what to type.” In that process, however, Hopper processed years worth of flight data and ultimately realized it had been underestimating the interest in its flight research, he said. Kyle Alspach has worked in journalism in Massachusetts since 2005 and was one of the original staff writers at BetaBoston.

Follow Kyle on. Hitachi Laptop Display Drivers.