Your Questions Answered
How is Zoombu different to other travel sites?How does Zoombu work?
How can Zoombu help me?
Who is the team behind Zoombu?
What's the history of Zoombu?
Why do I have to sign up to use Zoombu's search engine at the moment?
What modes of transport do you cover?
What geographies do you cover?
Can you help people find the best route to get to my business?
I have found a route that I like, how can I book?
I want to give you some feedback - how can I do that?
Are you hiring?
How can we make sure our fares and times are included in Zoombu results?
My question is not answered here; where can I find out more?
How is Zoombu different to other travel sites?
Zoombu does much more than compare flights; it searches all modes of transport within Europe. Our engine finds thousands of possible routes from your door to your destination, and displays the best results. You can easily compare the cost, duration, and carbon footprint of the entire journeys, and pick the best one for you. Zoombu is not a travel agent, which means that we do not do the booking for you. Instead, we take you to the right place on each provider's website so you can book directly with them.
How does Zoombu work?
Our search engine gathers data from hundreds of travel sites, including providers of flights, trains, coaches, buses, taxis, airport car parking, and car hire. Our search engine contains the routing information and logic necessary to find the optimal journeys from A to B. You can pick out the most relevant routes for you based on your personal preferences. We are continually linking into more data sources to ensure our search is truly comprehensive.
How can Zoombu help me?
Planning travel within Europe typically involves searching through many travel sites, and working out the best combination of transport options by hand. Sometimes you want to get to a place quickly, sometimes you care more about cost, and increasingly you are concerned with the impact your travelling has on the environment.
Often the place you are trying to get to is not close to one particular airport, and finding the best ground transportation can be a nightmare. Or there can be the disappointment of the bargain flight that turns out not to be so great when the airport is miles away from where you expected.
Zoombu does the hard work of searching all these possibilities, letting you focus on what to do when you get to your destination.
Who is the team behind Zoombu?
Zoombu was founded by Dr Alistair Hann and Rachel Armitage who met each other while studying engineering at the University of Oxford and then Princeton University. Since then Alistair has gone on to do a DPhil in Artificial Intelligence and worked for an Oxford University spin-out for several years. Rachel has worked in venture capital and as a management consultant to a wealth of companies in financial services, retail and telecommunications.
Our advisory board includes the CEO of Seedcamp, the CTO of a website with 15 million unique visitors a month, and the former online marketing manager of one of the top five travel companies in the UK.
We are all experienced and frequent travellers and are passionate about taking the pain out of travel planning.
What's the history of Zoombu?
The inspiration for Zoombu was born out of the sheer frustration the founders frequently experienced when planning travel online. They wanted a tool that searched and compared journey options, so they set out to build one. Zoombu has come a long way since winning the Oxford Entrepreneurs' Idea Idol 2008 competition and being selected to take part in Seedcamp 2008. In May 2009 the team won "Travel Start-up of the Year" at the Eye For Travel Summit. Most recently in December 2009 the team secured investment from the Saïd Business School Venture Fund.
Why do I have to sign up to use Zoombu's search engine at the moment?
In order that we can gather, listen and react to valuable user feedback, we are limiting the number of invitations for users to trial our full service while it is still under development. We apologise for the delay to those on the waiting list, but we know you are there and we issue more invitations on a regular basis. If you are interested to try out Zoombu without signing up please try out our first public beta product, Zoombu Ski, which will help you find the best route from your home to your ski resort in the French Alps.
What modes of transport do you cover?
The Zoombu service currently includes flights, trains (including Eurostar), coaches, taxis, hire cares, driving directions, airport parking and shuttle buses. We will shortly be adding ferries and Eurotunnel to our search. We try to ensure our coverage is comprehensive and representative of the most popular options available. If you suspect that something is missing, then please contact us. If you are a transport supplier you can fill in the form on the contact page and one of our data managers will get in touch with you to ensure your transport is included in our search.
What geographies do you cover?
Our private beta service covers routes from the UK to Europe, and Zoombu Ski, which is publicly available in beta, covers popular resorts in the French Alps. We are adding more coverage all the time and we focus on quality of results for selected geographies before we extend the geographical reach. In the future Zoombu will cover countries outside of Europe.
Can you help people find the best route to get to my business?
If you would like to discuss opportunities to use Zoombu to help people find the best way to get to your destination then please get in touch by completing the form on our contact page
I have found a route that I like, how can I book?
Within the search results you can click on the 'book' buttons which will open a new window and take you to a supplier's site where you can place a booking. In some cases we can link you right through to the supplier's booking page but in other cases we will take you to their search page where you will need to enter your details again.
We can't guarantee availability, so we recommend that you book the main transport component first (for example the flight or Eurostar) before booking other components (for example a taxi or shuttle bus).
I want to give you some feedback - how can I do that?
Look for the red tab on the side of each page. If you click on that, you can easily enter your feedback. We are grateful for any feedback we receive, positive or negative, so please give us your thoughts.
Are you hiring?
Yes, we are looking for outstanding people to join our team and contribute to building Zoombu. To find out more about joining Zoombu and the type of people we are looking for, visit the jobs section of our site.
How can we make sure our fares and times are included in Zoombu results?
The partners page provides guidance on how to work with Zoombu to ensure your travel content is included in our searches.
My question is not answered here; where can I find out more?
If you submit a question through our contact page, we will get back to you.
