Kyle
Sure sites look HotelTonight and Hotels.com are awesome places to shop for hotels while on the go by price and features. The problem is you have to toggle between their apps and your maps app when trying to plan out your stay. Even with the ability to drill down on the hotels.com app for iPhone and Android, by address, or venue, to get real distance and directions you need your map.
Mapov makes it easier to find hotels, and the best deals on hotels by adding a hotel layer on top of your existing Google Maps. They also harness the power of TripAdvisor for reviews, and multiple sites for the best rates. It’s like Kayak, meets hotels.com, meets priceline meets Google Maps.
We got a chance to talk with the team behind Mapov in the internet below.
What is Mapov?
Mapov.com is a new way for searching for hotels. Designed to simplify the hotel booking experience, we display the hotel’s location, TripAdvisor reviews and the lowest prices for over 220,000 hotels, all on top of a map.
Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?
Richard Jackson is the founder of Mapov.com, who, like many entrepreneurs before him, left his studies at Cambridge University before graduation to start his own Internet Company. After 3 years he went onto work as an online marketing consultant for some of the leading companies within the travel and retail markets.
By 2011 he had worked with over 20 such businesses including Booking.com and Expedia Inc., both amongst the largest advertisers in the world. Through varied projects Richard worked closely with senior management teams, advising on the design and implementation of efficient marketing processes and best practice.
Building on this experience Richard founded Mapov.com in 2012. Fusing a remarkable attention for detail together with his ambitious vision for the company’s future, Richard’s humble confidence lies at the core of the Mapov.com.
Where are you based?
We are based in Penzance, which is the most westerly part of the UK, an area renowned for great surf and superfast broadband.
What’s the startup scene/culture like where you’re based?
Cornwall is out on a limp geographically and therefore often feels like it has fewer opportunities than the rest country, this has helped breed a culture of innovation and a greater willingness to take risks. In spite of the wider economic downturn we have witnessed many new Cornish startups successfully launch over the last few years. There is a genuine buzz about doing business in Cornwall.
How did you come up with the idea for Mapov?
Richard’s vision for Mapov began back in 2004 when he first saw Google maps. “I loved its rich content and interactivity and was instantly convinced that the map interface was the way to search for hotels”. A year later, In June 2005, Google launched their maps API, which allowed third parties to easily integrate their content onto a map. In the following months many of the largest travel sites layered their hotel properties onto a Google map. However, the response to this type of interface was underwhelming to say the least, and today maps are often an accessory rather than the main focus of travel sites.
As Richard observed these trends he came to the conclusion that a map was still the best way to search for hotels, but no one had yet mastered how to make it work. And so determined to create a solution, Richard has spent the last year working with two top developers, reimaging the future of hotel map interferences.
What’s your secret sauce?
Coffee. After that, a few cups of that, we would say that it’s our ability to take complex process and make them simple, balancing elegant form along side great functionality. We listen carefully to what our users are saying and make adjustments and improvements quickly.
What’s one dilemma you’ve encountered in the startup process?
Our biggest challenge so far has been pushing the boundaries of innovation whilst ensuring the site remains intuitive to use. An example of this has been our new date picker. We have always found the traditional ways of picking dates clumsy and confusing and so have really wanted to create a dynamic date picker that is both easy to use whilst being attractive to look at.
What’s one challenge you’ve overcome in the startup process?
Many hotel booking sites display hotels in a long list. This is allows you to compare prices and the hotel details but doesn’t let you see where the hotel is. Typically there is a separate display for the hotels location. This means you have to jump between the different views which can be confusing and time consuming. At Mapov we have sought to integrate the map and the hotel details into one single easy to use interface.
What’s the first thing you would do for Mapov with a one million dollar investment?
We would buy Porsches for everyone in the company who can drive, Mike would get driving lessons. Seriously, we would be prepared to take a loss on our search engine marketing in a bigger way, along side that we would increase our IT team to enable us to increase the number of suppliers we are working with.
What’s next for Mapov?
We are working hard to launch tablet versions of Mapov, which we hope will be live by the end of August. After this we are turning our attention to launching a mobile version of the site. Beyond this we will be making it faster, simpler, with more providers ensuring our users keep getting very best prices on the market.
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