|
|
Search Party Adds Hotels.Com To New Money-Saving Desktop Tool
|
Added: 06/01/2006
Type: Summary
Viewed: 155 time(s)
[ Not Rated Yet ] |
Search Party Adds Hotels.Com To New Money-Saving Desktop Tool
Search Party (www.searchparty.com), a new hotel price search engine, today announced its free downloadable and proprietary desktop tool, Search Party Desktop, is now effective on Hotels.com in addition to Expedia.com and Travelocity.
Search Party Desktop is the only online tool that helps consumers compare total hotel costs for more than 40,000 U.S. hotels when shopping on Hotels.com, Expedia and Travelocity. These sites do not actively participate in Search Party or other travel search sites so Search Party Desktop has been developed to automatically launch and notify the consumer shopping on these three sites when a lower price is available on another travel or hotel website.
“Search Party Desktop is the perfect tool to compare rates on these major sites and find rates lower than their guaranteed best prices. Our regular internal audits show Search Party Desktop identifies lower prices for approximately 50 percent of the hotels listed on these leading travel websites, saving an average of $47 each time a lower price is found,” said Eric Christensen, president of Search Party.
“Search Party wants to make hotel shopping as transparent as possible to help consumers find the best value and stop overpaying for hotel rooms -- which is why we created Search Party Desktop in addition to our website.”
Search Party is the first travel search engine to calculate and compare the total cost of a hotel stay, going beyond just the average nightly rate to include taxes and booking fees, as well as comparing cancellation policies and penalties. Taxes and booking fees can vary considerably from site to site and can add up to 20 percent to the cost of a hotel room, yet are often excluded from most online price guarantees, such as Expedia’s Best Price Guarantee.
Search Party Desktop Makes Price Comparisons Easy
Once downloaded, Search Party Desktop only activates when a consumer is shopping for a hotel on Hotels.com, Expedia, or Travelocity.
Once a hotel is selected, Search Party will automatically get to work and compare the selected hotel – down to the specific room type -- against dozens of other sellers in Search Party's system. In a matter of seconds, the shopper will see a side window open to identify if there is a lower price for the stay, inclusive of taxes and booking fees, available through another online source.
Through the Search Party Desktop window, hotel shoppers can easily click on the alternate seller with the lowest price to be redirected to the site to purchase, or click "Compare All" to view Search Party's unique comparison grid for that hotel room that easily breaks out nightly rate, taxes and booking fees, as well as cancellation policies and penalties to help determine which seller offers the best overall value.
Easy and Safe to Install – Privacy Guaranteed
Search Party Desktop may be downloaded using Internet Explorer at http://www.searchparty.com/html/download.html.
Search Party understands how important security and personal privacy are to online consumers and has developed its website and Search Party Desktop with numerous safeguards to protect the privacy of its customers.
Since Search Party is a shopping search engine and not a transactional site, it does not collect any personally identifiable information – ever. No registration is required to download or use Search Party Desktop, and once installed it may be disabled or uninstalled at any time. Search Party Desktop does not include spyware or any third-party advertising.
Save Money – Win Hotel Stay
In its official consumer beta, Search Party is soliciting feedback from its customers and offering visitors the chance to win free hotel stays in exchange for sharing their online hotel shopping experience with Search Party. Anyone who uses Search Party to find a hotel can send a brief e-mail to Search Party at savemoney @ searchparty.com with details about how Search Party saved them money. Each month through December 2006, Search Party will select three submissions at random and reimburse the Search Party user for their hotel stay, up to US$500. Complete rules and restrictions can be found at www.searchparty.com/savemoney.html.
About Search Party
Search Party (www.searchparty.com) is a new hotel price search engine that gathers detailed information on more than 40,000 U.S. hotels from most major hotel brand and online travel sites so users can easily compare prices from one easy location. Search Party's direct connections to online agencies and hotel companies allow it to access and compare hotel pricing data from as many as 8 different Web sites for the same hotel simultaneously. Search Party's patent-pending technology gathers information on prices, taxes and booking fees, and cancellation policies, and standardizes and displays this information in a unique side-by-side comparison table so shoppers can easily find the best value. Search Party Inc., founded in 2004, is a venture-funded company, based in Mountain View, Calif.
|
Article Pages: 1
Article Comments
 Add Comment |
 View All (0)
There are currently no comments for this article.
|
|
|
Recent News