Why is the HiChee search bar more than a simple search bar?

If you have already been to websites like Vrbo, Airbnb, you probably are very familiar with the search feature.

Airbnb is asking you to type a location:

Vrbo, on the other hand, gives you to option to search by property id.

So, why is HiChee’s search bar different from others?

At first, it looks like just any other search bar, except the placeholder text. But when you click on it…

You can see the following options are also available, rather than just location search:

  • Search by hostname,
  • Search by Vrbo/Airbnb link or listings id,
  • Search by listing title,
  • Your recent searches.


Let’s dig into these search options one by one.

Search by Hostname

Currently, this search option is only available for the hosts who shared their information with HiChee.

When you type the name of a host or name of a property management company, you will see the fetched results under the “property owner” title with additional information; the number of listings.


Search by Vrbo/Airbnb link or listing id

If you are searching for a vacation rental to stay, most probably, HiChee is not the first website you visited thus far. Though, you most probably searched on Vrbo and/or Airbnb.

Maybe you even bookmarked a few listings.

You maybe already know, but the same listing can be found on different sites. The total price you will pay for your stay will also be different on other sites for the same listing.

You can perform a Google search to find the same listing on other sites or visit Hichee and use the multifunctional search feature by a simple copy-paste of the link or property id.

Let’s walk this through with an example.

Let’s say you are planning to go to Kona Coast, HI. You found the following listing on Airbnb: Sea Village 3310.

You can paste either the full link: “https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/37060363”, or just the listing id: “37060363” on the search bar.

Search by listing title

Let’s walk this through with the same example above, searching for the listing “Sea Village 3310”.

If you copy-paste the title, you will see the result immediately. If you type manually, the search will show many listings as you add a new character.