Hipmunk for Business Help

Hipmunk for Business takes the agony out of planning, booking, and managing your and other people's travel. We built it to help our friends who are executive assistants, office managers, and the parents and friends who end up booking all their family and friend's travel.

If you're one of those people, Hipmunk for Business is built to save you time and reduce errors. This page shares how we do it and how to use it.

We're building this product for you, so any feedback you have is greatly appreciated! Feel free to use the online chat, or to email us at adminfeedback@hipmunk.com.

Saving You Time

One of the most annoying parts about booking travel for other people is trying to keep track of their schedules. Fortunately, Hipmunk for Business keeps track of other peoples' calendars for you. When you run a flight search, we show you flights that fit in your traveler's schedule. And when you run a hotel search, we show you hotels near your traveler's meetings. It's all on one screen, and it's entirely interactive, so you can choose which events are worth scheduling around. Finding the perfect flight or hotel takes a few seconds, rather than hours.

In addition, Hipmunk for Business spares you from writing emails describing all the travel options you've found. Instead, simply choose the flights and hotels you think your traveler would be interested in, and within a few clicks an email with the details is sent automatically. Once they pick the option they want, you get an email with a link to book it right away.

Some people are fiercely loyal to a particular airline or hotel brand, and if you're booking their travel, you know how important it is! But when booking travel for multiple people, it's easy to lose track of each person's preferences. Therefore, Hipmunk for Business saves separate preferences for each traveler. When you switch to one traveler's profile, you'll only see the flights and hotels they prefer.

And if you manage people's calendars, you know how much trouble it creates when you mess up the times or time zones of flights. That's why we've made it easy to export flights directly to your travelers' calendars, time zones and all.

Signing Up

Hipmunk for Business is free to try for your first 60 days—and with no need to put a credit card down. After that, it will cost $10/month for your first year.

Visit hipmunk.com/business and to sign up. You can create a new account or use an existing one. Once you've signed up, you'll see a new Hipmunk for Business menu in the upper right of Hipmunk.

Accessing the Traveler Pane

There's a button in the upper-right of the screen. If you've never used Hipmunk for Business before, it will read No Traveler Selected. Once you add your list of travelers to Hipmunk, the button will show the name of your currently selected traveler. Click this button to bring up the Traveler Pane. From here, you can add new travelers, switch travelers, see existing trips, and send trip emails to your travelers.

Choosing a traveler shows groups of flights or hotels in the main area of the Traveler Pane. We organize flights and hotels based on the date of travel—for example, we group all the flights you're considering for your traveler's trip to New York together. Each group of options represents one decision, or choice, that can be emailed to your traveler independently.

Adding a Traveler

There are three ways to add a traveler: From the Traveler Pane Click Create a Traveler on the left side of the Traveler Pane, enter the traveler's name and email address, and click Save Traveler Info. From a flight pop-up Click a flight bar or booking button to see a flight details window. Choose Add to a new traveler from the drop-down list, and click Add. From a hotel pop-up Click a hotel from the list or click a hotel dot on the map to see a hotel details window. Choose Add to a new traveler from the drop-down list, and click Add. Once you've added a traveler, flights and hotels can be added to their itineraries using the same menu from the booking popups.

Adding a Flight

To add a flight to a traveler, click a flight bar or booking button and add the flight to a traveler from the drop-down list. Flights can be added one segment at a time, or complete itineraries can be added all at once. We'll automatically store each segment with the appropriate group of other options. That is, when adding round-trip or multi-city flights, each segment will be added to its own group of options in the Traveler pane. Once you've picked all the flights you want your traveler to consider, click Send Decision to send an email to your traveler.

Adding a Hotel

Adding a hotel to a traveler is similar to adding a flight. Simply run a search, choose a hotel by clicking on it in the results list or on the map, and choose to which traveler you'd like to add the hotel. Once you've picked all the hotel options you'd like your traveler to consider, click Email Decision to send an email to your traveler.

Coordinating Travel Over Email

As described above, to send an email to your traveler with a set of choices, simply click Send Decision for whichever group of flights or hotels you want. Your traveler will get an email with their choices. Once the traveler selects an option, you'll get an email back with their choice. When you come back to the Traveler Pane on Hipmunk, you'll see the traveler's selected option with a check mark next to it. Remember that if you're planning multiple travel decisions (for example, flights to three different cities, or both a flight and a hotel), you'll need to send a separate decision email to your traveler for each decision.

Booking an Approved Option

Once your traveler has made their decision, there are two ways to book: Through the Traveler Pane. Open the Traveler Menu and choose your traveler. Find the appropriate decision based on the dates and location of travel. The option your traveler chose will have a check mark next to it. Clicking the approved flight or hotel will reveal the booking options. Through your email. When your traveler chooses an option, you'll receive an email. In that email will be links to book that flight or hotel.

Enabling Calendars

One of the most useful features of Hipmunk for Business is the ability to see your travelers' calendars as you search for flights and hotels. To enable this feature, click the button with your email address in the upper right. Click preferences. From here, you can enable Outlook and Google calendars.

Integrating Outlook calendars In your preferences popup, fill in your Outlook/Exchange information and click Add this account. If successful, Hipmunk will reload, and you'll be synced to Outlook. Integrating Google calendars In your preferences popup, click Enable Google Calendar integration and then Save. When Google asks whether Hipmunk should have permission to access your calendar, approve it.

Viewing Calendars

Once Outlook or Google calendars are enabled, you can click on the Calendars menu near the upper right of flight or hotel search results. This is where you can choose which calendars—and which specific events—to show or hide. Note that when you first link Hipmunk for Business with Outlook or Google Calendar, we may not be able to figure out exactly which calendars go with which travelers. Just turn on or off the appropriate calendars for the current traveler, and we'll remember it the next time you select that traveler.

Adding Flights to a Calendar

Once you've found and booked a flight, come back to Hipmunk. On that flight's bqooking pane, click one of the links at the bottom to add its information directly to your calendar.

When You're Feeling Spiteful

By default, we sort our flights by Agony, so you can find the flight that will maximize your traveler's convenience. But sometimes, you're just not in a good mood, or a colleague, boss or family member has done something to annoy you. That's why, just for Hipmunk for Business, we've built a special sort: Spite. It shows you the worst flights upfront—the ones that'll leave your traveler with a very expensive 3 stop, and 13-hour layover flight. Use sparingly.