Hopper

Hopper is a travel booking startup that allows users to book flights, hotels, and cars. In January 2022, it additionally launched short-term home rentals, similar to Airbnb and VRBO. The platform was initially established as a free app that predicts the best time to purchase a flight. It has since expanded its offerings to provide additional services, which it dubs “travel FinTech,” that includes a unique program where customers can pay a fee (usually 10–20% of the ticket price) to lock a flight's price for a week. If the fare increases and the customer buys the ticket, Hopper covers the difference. Hopper Cloud—the company's effort to expand its business by creating a larger B2B platform for companies already utilizing its B2C platform—was launched in March 2021, enabling travel companies to integrate Hopper's travel services and FinTech offerings.

Hopper generates revenue through commissions on bookings and licensing its proprietary travel FinTech software to businesses. As of February 2022, travel FinTech products accounted for ~70% of Hopper's air travel sales, while Hopper Cloud contributed 15% to total sales. As of November 2022, Hopper reported around 80 million downloads of its free app, supporting its claims of being the third-largest online travel agent in the US.

Hopper acquired the Paris-based airline merchandising and customer care platform, Smooss, in February 2022. Hopper intended to expand HopperCloud’s adoption among airlines through the acquisition. Other acquisitions include of PlacePass (October 2021) to build a new division focused on traveller experiences, Journy (May 2021) and GDX Travel (November 2019) to expand to Latin America, and the dynamic restaurant-pricing app, Gravy (September 2019).

In July 2023 , Hopper ended its supply relationship with Expedia having been accused by the latter of exploiting consumer anxiety and confusing customers, leading them to purchase services they neither need nor fully understand. Hopper refuted these claims, stating that Expedia Group views Hopper as a significant competitive threat.

Key customers and partnerships

In November 2024, Hopper partnered with Acai Travel to improve efficiency in customer service operations. Previously in August 2024, the company partnered with Tripadvisor to launch an in-app hotel booking feature on the Tripadvisor app.Previously in August 2023, Hopper entered into a partnership with Air Canada, to introduce "Cancel for Any Reason" policies, allowing customers to cancel non-refundable fares up to 24 hours before departure.

Older partnerships included that with:

1) CommBank to integrate travel features via Hopper Cloud into the bank’s app (May 2023)

2) RateGain Travel Technologies to link Hopper to hotels and hospitality companies worldwide, allowing reservations made through selected Hopper Cloud partners to be processed through RateGain's Connectivity Switch platform (February 2022)

3) Capital One to launch Capital One Travel, a travel reservation platform powered by Hopper Cloud, to offer perks and FinTech features such as price lock, price decline coverage, and flexible cancellation insurance for Capital One cardholders (December 2021)

Key competitors: None (Hopper is a leading player in the US, providing additional services, which it dubs “travel FinTech")