Quirky and innovative travel search service Hipmunk has just updated its mobile apps (Android | iOS) with a nifty new calendar integration feature. As of today, the already powerful travel apps can now take inventory of your Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, or Apple iCal events, and overlay its findings on your travel search results pages. This can be an especially useful tool for business travelers with difficult schedules.
If you haven’t used Hipmunk before, it’s a Kayak-like travel search service on the Web and mobile devices. What makes it unique is its capability to factor in things like departure time, arrival time, stopovers, and price, to return travel itineraries based on level of “agony.” What’s more, it presents its results on a visual chart rather than text listings, making it easy to compare several travel options and weigh several criteria all on one screen.
And now that the Hipmunk app integrates your mobile calendar events, it’s even easier to see which flight options fit your schedule, thanks to the vertical strips overlaid on your search results.
The new calendar integration doesn’t just help with booking flights, though. Perhaps even more helpful, Hipmunk’s hotel search tool can plot your scheduled events on a map. This way, you can easily find hotels that are conveniently located next to your meetings. Couple this feature with Hipmunk’s “Heatmaps” and you get a pretty powerful travel search resource.
The newest version of Hipmunk (Android | iOS) is a free download available now for Android and iOS devices.