kxter

I built https://www.Bonvago.com in my spare time as a friendlier alternative to other hotel booking engines.

Slow dev server, no VC cash, no hype—just me + caffeine, so thanks for your patience. Every “painfully’ slow search helps improve speed.

What it does:

- Unlocks hidden rates (AAA, Costco, double points, etc.)

- Summarizes hotel reviews using AI so you don’t have to doomscroll.

- Gives you BONV points (aka tokens you can spend on hotel bookings).

- Travel agents get 10% commissions (most OTAs give you like... 6%)

Up Next (maybe): Flights, rental cars, tours, cruises—and an AI agent to help you plan and book entire trips.

Heads up: It’s live. If you’re just testing it out, pick refundable rates or risk paying real money. You’ve been warned.

Would love any feedback—design, bugs, broken links, wish list features, whatever.

Appreciate you. Much love to HN!

A couple of years ago this coder started an old-school travel agency. Don't laugh. LOL :) It was my way of decompressing from the stress of Silicon Valley startup culture.

Turns out our revenue run rate is now $5MM annually. And contrary to all predictions on travel advisors' imminent demise, they are flourishing post-pandemic as people are less trusting of the online travel monopolies.

I have an amazing team that gives 1000% when it comes to customer service. During the pandemic we helped over 500 people get home when sites like Expedia and almost all Airlines left people stranded. We went as far as chartering our own aircraft and getting permission from various governments to land in far off places like South Africa.

What really pains me is that we are using Expedia's travel agency portal to book things. But Expedia in their greed keeps 60% of my teams commission. I find that truly unfair. And I want them to be able to earn the income they deserve. And you can help me change the lives of these amazing, fun loving people.

I decided to build us our own hotel booking engine. Leveraging the inventories of multiple GDS services, bed banks and even booking.com. Almost 3.5 million accommodation options.

Wanna help me test it? Add yourself to the waitlist, get some cool rewards in return. Like book now, pay later and 10X rewards points as a big thank you!

I'll let you know when I put it into production.

Get on the list here: https://www.bonvago.com

Cheers, Thomas

SVB Financial Group stock SIVB, is retaining advisers for a potential sale of the company amid a liquidity crunch, CNBC-TV’s David Faber reported on Friday. The company is not being successful in efforts to raise more cash, he said. The stock has been halted since shortly after 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

Is it just me? Or are other people envious of the web traffic the IRS is enjoying?

Maybe we should take our VC money and just offer $1200 to everyone to create some instant loyalty.

Then delay it a bit and have people come back again and again 4-5 times per day to check the status of their payment as we pitch them our wares.

Just a thought! ;) LOL

Decided to build a new flight booking engine using some AI to weed out the garbage flights the airlines and meta-sites throw at us.

Wanna help me test it? Put your name in the Google Doc below and I'll let you know when I put it into production.

https://forms.gle/SWQbEqmpEw83ehgv7

Cheers, Thomas