Remember when we introduced Hops back in May 2025? Back then, our AI assistant was working behind the scenes — scouring the web for happy hour information and adding it to our database. You couldn't talk to Hops directly, but you could see the results of its work through the AI Collected badge on listings.

Well, a lot has changed since then. Hops has leveled up, and we're excited to tell you about it.

Hops Now Searches Our Database For You

The biggest update is that Hops can now directly search the HappyHourMaps database to find happy hours that match what you're looking for. Ask Hops something like "What are the best beer specials in Pacific Beach tonight?" and it will search through our 2,000+ bar records to find you real deals with real prices at real bars.

This isn't Hops making things up — every recommendation comes straight from our database. You'll get the bar name, the neighborhood, the specific deal, the price, and the hours. No guessing, no outdated info from some random Google search. Just the good stuff.

How It Works

You'll see Hops in the bottom-right corner of every page on HappyHourMaps. Click the chat icon and start asking questions like:

Hops will search our database in real-time, pull up matching bars and specials, and give you a quick, easy-to-read response. Think of it like having a knowledgeable friend who's been to every happy hour in the city and somehow remembers all the prices and times.

How Many Messages Do I Get?

We wanted to make Hops accessible to everyone while keeping things sustainable, so here's how the daily message limits work:

Guests (not signed in): 3 messages per day. Enough to find a great happy hour for tonight without even creating an account.

Signed-in users: 6 messages per day. Create a free account and you'll double your daily chats with Hops. Plenty for planning your week.

HappyHourMaps Plus subscribers: 30 messages per day. If you're the friend who's always organizing happy hours for the group, Plus is for you. At $5/month, you get 30 daily chats with Hops, plus you're supporting the platform. Check out HappyHourMaps Plus here.

What's Next for Hops

This is just the beginning of what we have planned for Hops. We're exploring things like event search (ask about trivia nights or live music), neighborhood guides, and optimizing search. Your conversations with Hops also help us understand what kind of deals and features you care about most, which directly shapes what we build next.

Try It Out

Click on Hops in the bottom-right corner. Ask about a neighborhood, a type of drink, a specific day; whatever you're in the mood for. And if Hops ever gets something wrong, we want to hear about it. Just email us at [email protected] with the subject line "Hops Feedback."

Happy hour hunting just got a whole lot easier.

Cheers,

Cassidy
Founder & CEO, HappyHourMaps