EU airport rules vs. my product hunt launch: tips and lessons learned

Airports have one thing in common: strict liquid rules. The 100ml (3.4 fl oz) limit is the most well-known — no bottles bigger than 100ml (3.4 fl oz) in your carry-on, and everything has to fit in a single clear bag. But here’s the catch: these rules aren’t the same everywhere. Some airports have different takes on the guidelines, leaving travellers guessing about what they can actually bring.

That’s where airportregistry.com comes in. The plan was simple: track and display liquid limits for airports around the world, giving travellers a one-stop, updated guide to follow the rules without the confusion.

In the early stages of the project, airport data gathering was anything but smooth. Most of the datasets I found were outdated, paywalled, or hidden behind “contact sales” forms. Wikipedia kept showing up in searches, so I gave it a shot—even though the tables with airport information were messy and inconsistent. I started with Google Sheets and the importHTML function—it was pretty cool to see an entire table load with just one line of code. Later, I switched to Python’s pandas.read_html() and BeautifulSoup to scrape multiple pages and have more control over the data. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked well enough to get what I needed.

Here you can read about the whole process: https://horosin.com/scraping-data-off-wikipedia-three-ways-no-code-and-code-python-pandas-sheets

Once I had a list of airports, I manually checked the liquid restrictions for the first 200 of them—reading through various sources and pulling the necessary details. The process isn’t automated yet, but it was an essential part of getting the information right. While building the platform, I started sharing updates on Twitter and engaging with the Product Hunt community. People provided valuable feedback—some suggested better tools, others gave insights on UX design. That kind of real-time input really helped shape the direction of the project.

Then, all of a sudden, the EU decided to bring back the old liquid limits. Despite all the progress with CT scanners and the promise of bigger liquid allowances, airports like Heathrow, Frankfurt, and Madrid went back to the strict rules. It was a tough blow—after all the research and effort I put into tracking these changes, it felt like a big step back. I had to put that feature on hold for now, but the site still had plenty of valuable info for travellers. With the blog and all the other essentials in place, I decided to give it a go even without the main feature.

Getting AirportRegistry ready for Product Hunt was almost as much work as building the actual site. I learned pretty quickly that timing matters—a lot. Product Hunt resets at midnight PST, so I stayed up late to launch right at 00:00:01 to get the most visibility. I made sure the listing looked good too: I took some screenshots, zoomed in so they’d still look sharp when scaled down, and uploaded them in the right size (1270x760) so the gallery would show properly.

The hardest part was probably adjusting the tone. I didn’t want the description to sound boring or too technical, so I rewrote it a few times until it actually felt more fun and natural. I also added emojis to make it pop a bit more in the feed.

Before launch day, I started posting teaser content—Before the launch, I shared a few teasers—some previews of the UI and how I built certain features, like pulling airport photos automatically using Unsplash. I also talked about some of the challenges, like how changes in travel rules affected parts of the project I had to rethink.

I also learned how important the first comment is. It’s basically your chance to kick off the conversation and share your story. So I used it to explain how the project started, the original idea about tracking liquid limits, and how that got sidelined when the EU went back to the old 100ml (3.4 fl oz) rule. That comment wasn’t just about features—it was about showing the work behind it, the pivots, and what I hoped people would find useful in AirportRegistry.

Launch day was a mix of excitement and nerves. I launched right at 00:00:01 PST, posted the first comment, and shared the link around. It got 11 upvotes—not a huge success, but honestly, not bad for a first version without the core feature I originally planned. It felt good just to get it out there. I learned a lot about timing, how to present a product clearly, and how much small things like screenshots and the first comment matter.

After the launch, I kept posting small updates on social and started thinking about where to take the project next. I’ve been sharing progress, fixing things, and figuring out better features to add. I also realised how fast you can build and ship digital products when you stay focused and don’t overthink every step. Even without a big launch, it was a solid learning experience—and it got me into the habit of building and sharing consistently.

Right now, I’m waiting for the EU to update their travel rules before I can bring back the liquid limit feature. Once those changes come through, I’ll be ready to pick it up again and integrate it into the product. For now, I’m mostly focused on maintaining the website, fixing smaller issues, and making adjustments based on feedback. In the meantime, I’m launching other smaller digital projects like Tolou.com and sharing what I learn along the way. The big takeaway so far: timing, community, and adaptability really do make all the difference.