Check out new ways to book hotel rooms
As hotel occupancy declined in recent years, there’s been a growth in creative companies that help sell those rooms. Two recent examples:
Getaroom.com and Room 77.
The later web site says it is different because unlike others, it focuses only on hotel rooms.
“The hotel room database and search engine has collected and indexed data on more than 425,000 hotel rooms in 2,500 properties and is also crowdsourcing reviews and ratings from travelers,” the site says.
For now, Room 77 focuses on three star hotels and above and features information on hotels in North America and the UK (but plans to expand to other markets in the future).
Currently accessible through both a web site and iPhone app, Room 77 provides travelers with specific details about each hotel room at a property, including the room category, square footage, bed type, elevator proximity and if it is a connecting room.
For each room, Room 77 also generates a virtual Room View, simulating the actual view from that room’s window using Google Earth-enabled technology.
“The best rooms for each traveler are automatically ranked using Room 77’s proprietary Room Rank algorithm that adjusts to each individual’s preferences for high or low floor, distance from elevator, view importance and need for connecting rooms,” says the site.
The Miami-based Getaroom says it shows hotel-goers the lowest published rate for a particular room. It also promises to beat the price when you call the hotel.
There’s a catch, however. Buyers will not know exactly what they’re paying until the company bills a credit card. But buyers will know the maximum price.
Getaroom’s rates average about 25 percent below the lowest published rate, says Bob Diener, Getaroom’s co-founder and a former president of Hotels.com, now part of Expedia.
By David Wilkening
David
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