New Hotel Search Engine HotelSweep to Cover 550,000 Hotels Worldwide
Hospitality
HotelSweep is a new Hotel Search Engine that benefits both travelers and guesthouses.
HotelSweep - Throughout 2013 and beyond, the business of hotel search is being significantly transformed. Travelers and holidaymakers wanting to secure a hotel room are faced with more possibilities than at any other time. Scores of hotel search engines and comparison sites vie for their attention online, each one with a novel selling point. Even so, in spite of the congested online marketplace for hotel search, it seems that there is always space for much more online expansion if you've got the right ideas.
[caption id="attachment_3308" align="alignright" width="247"] HotelSweep.com[/caption]
According to PhoCusWright Inc., a research company, $33.8 billion was spent in booking rooms in hotels online in 2011. Out of that total, a stunning 55% of bookings, over half, were still placed on hotels' own websites, as opposed to through an online travel agent or hotel search engine. The portion taken by online travel agents is rising fast, but the point is that there's still a great deal of space for new hotel search engines to establish themselves.
In the words of HotelSweep Co-Founder Chris Doman, "We asked ourselves why so many people are just going direct to the hotels' own websites to secure their booking. It seems as though the majority of hotels all around the world still save their best prices for their own websites, and don't always give their cheapest rates to web based comparison engines like Kayak."
HotelSweep is a new Hotel Search Engine which aims to take advantage of this state of affairs for the benefit of both travelers and guesthouses. Employing direct information extraction technology, it obtains prices and information direct from the Hotel websites themselves.
Introduced in February of 2012, HotelSweep has been showcased on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, KDSK and several travel sites. While HotelSweep covers a myriad of different hotels, the unique selling point is effective, no-nonsense budget room search, aiming to get holidaymakers the best deal possible just by featuring more of the less well-known hotels than just about every other website around.
Due to a surge in press & customer interest, HotelSweep has been evolving rapidly - "After the success of Version 1, the team are well on their way to releasing the next version of the website" reports Chris. So, what can we expect to see?
"The influx of potential game changers into the Hotel search marketplace, like Google Hotel Finder and Roomkey, encouraged us to formulate major expansion plans" says Richard Lewis, Co-Founder. "For starters, we'll be expanding our hotel coverage from 50,000 hotels to 550,000 which is a an 11 fold increase. We're extending our area of coverage too - from now on, besides just covering the USA and the UK, we'll also cover Europe, Australia and Asia. We'll also be significantly improving our search quality for non-urban areas of the USA, so expect more great deals in smaller towns and villages throughout the USA".
The HotelSweep developers will also be taking measures to further improve the usability of both the web page and the android app, which they will continue to support and expand. There are plans to incorporate considerably more information on Hotel facilities in the upcoming version, although as Richard and Chris point out, "it will be vital to find the correct balance between rapid, straightforward searching & heavier information content - we aim to give travelers what they need most to make the best decision, and not to flood them with less-than-useful infographics". In addition, HotelSweep will begin to feature user aggregated reviews for many of the hotels it covers, which is very good news.
HotelSweep will be undergoing some big changes in the approaching weeks and months, but one thing that will not be changing is the first aim of the hotel search engine. HotelSweep will stay true to its initial dedication to budget travelers and independent hotels - there won't be any charges for listing, and the emphasis of the website will continue to be the budget traveler, although many high-end stay options will also be included in the upcoming version.
"The database we work with is unique, incorporating multiple hotel data sources - there is no other that can match it" says Richard. "We believe we have the technology and the incentive to deliver the biggest and best coverage found in the world of Hotel Search".
'Hotelsweep' is a technology start-up company based in Cambridge, UK. The continuing advancement of the internet site & hotel search technology is being led by creators Christopher Doman & Richard Lewis. To learn more, visit HotelSweep at http://www.hotelsweep.com or email contact@hotelsweep.com
[caption id="attachment_3308" align="alignright" width="247"]
HotelSweep.com[/caption]According to PhoCusWright Inc., a research company, $33.8 billion was spent in booking rooms in hotels online in 2011. Out of that total, a stunning 55% of bookings, over half, were still placed on hotels' own websites, as opposed to through an online travel agent or hotel search engine. The portion taken by online travel agents is rising fast, but the point is that there's still a great deal of space for new hotel search engines to establish themselves.
In the words of HotelSweep Co-Founder Chris Doman, "We asked ourselves why so many people are just going direct to the hotels' own websites to secure their booking. It seems as though the majority of hotels all around the world still save their best prices for their own websites, and don't always give their cheapest rates to web based comparison engines like Kayak."
HotelSweep is a new Hotel Search Engine which aims to take advantage of this state of affairs for the benefit of both travelers and guesthouses. Employing direct information extraction technology, it obtains prices and information direct from the Hotel websites themselves.
Introduced in February of 2012, HotelSweep has been showcased on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, KDSK and several travel sites. While HotelSweep covers a myriad of different hotels, the unique selling point is effective, no-nonsense budget room search, aiming to get holidaymakers the best deal possible just by featuring more of the less well-known hotels than just about every other website around.
Due to a surge in press & customer interest, HotelSweep has been evolving rapidly - "After the success of Version 1, the team are well on their way to releasing the next version of the website" reports Chris. So, what can we expect to see?
"The influx of potential game changers into the Hotel search marketplace, like Google Hotel Finder and Roomkey, encouraged us to formulate major expansion plans" says Richard Lewis, Co-Founder. "For starters, we'll be expanding our hotel coverage from 50,000 hotels to 550,000 which is a an 11 fold increase. We're extending our area of coverage too - from now on, besides just covering the USA and the UK, we'll also cover Europe, Australia and Asia. We'll also be significantly improving our search quality for non-urban areas of the USA, so expect more great deals in smaller towns and villages throughout the USA".
The HotelSweep developers will also be taking measures to further improve the usability of both the web page and the android app, which they will continue to support and expand. There are plans to incorporate considerably more information on Hotel facilities in the upcoming version, although as Richard and Chris point out, "it will be vital to find the correct balance between rapid, straightforward searching & heavier information content - we aim to give travelers what they need most to make the best decision, and not to flood them with less-than-useful infographics". In addition, HotelSweep will begin to feature user aggregated reviews for many of the hotels it covers, which is very good news.
HotelSweep.com
HotelSweep will be undergoing some big changes in the approaching weeks and months, but one thing that will not be changing is the first aim of the hotel search engine. HotelSweep will stay true to its initial dedication to budget travelers and independent hotels - there won't be any charges for listing, and the emphasis of the website will continue to be the budget traveler, although many high-end stay options will also be included in the upcoming version.
"The database we work with is unique, incorporating multiple hotel data sources - there is no other that can match it" says Richard. "We believe we have the technology and the incentive to deliver the biggest and best coverage found in the world of Hotel Search".
'Hotelsweep' is a technology start-up company based in Cambridge, UK. The continuing advancement of the internet site & hotel search technology is being led by creators Christopher Doman & Richard Lewis. To learn more, visit HotelSweep at http://www.hotelsweep.com or email contact@hotelsweep.com
Latest Articles
