Cambridge, Cambridgeshire -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/02/2012 -- Hotel search is hotting up - last year saw the birth of lots of new start up enterprises devoted to the hotel booking experience - Room77 & Mobissimo to name but a few. Most of these startups had formulated interesting ideas which may or may not stand the test of time. This year will be, if anything, more active than 2011 in terms of start-up activity. HotelSweep is the latest effort which aspires to transform the Hotel Search world for the better.
It's not just newcomers to the hotel search market which are causing hype. A few online giants and incumbent hotel chains are reinventing their online search options using sleek new websites and interfaces. The most noteworthy case study is RoomKey, which is the outcome of collaboration involving major hotel groups like Marriott & Hilton.
What could explain this trend in new efforts to re-define the hotel booking sector? Much like many other sectors, the explanation might be Google's internet superpower status. In late summer 2011, it launched its own hotel search function, and its continued development & expansion has prompted newcomers and incumbents alike to begin innovating for fear of getting eclipsed or blocked out of the market by the search leader.
The business of hotel search has been evolving, ever since its conception, to address the problem of how to set up the ideal user experience. What precisely does this entail? Factors like search speed, information reliability, search depth & usability with reference to a search website interface are key. The challenge confronting newcomers to the hotel search sector is this: how can the responses to these points find balance with each other to give rise to the optimum all-round user experience?
HotelSweep is one of the latest attempts at getting the right balance between search speed, search depth, precision and ease of access. The most stand-out element is search depth - lots more results from a wide pool of hotels will often dig up the very lowest prices & best value for the end user while, of course, safeguarding quality.
HotelSweep is presently in beta, and strategies for new development and evolution of the concept are well underway. First and foremost, HotelSweep's goal is to cover more great value hotels than anybody else out there. The theory is simple: the more diverse and numerous the hotel search results are, the more potential there is for a quick deal for the customer. The web site currently includes an impressive 50,000 hotels, guesthouses and B&Bs, but there's definitely scope for growth. Using cutting edge forms of information extraction, the creators hope to unearth even more of the small-scale, good-value hotels which the larger search engines constantly forget about. There are also plans to partner with more booking operators to implement a real-time pricing database.
HotelSweep has two websites, one for the USA and one for the UK. Right now, all major towns and cities in the USA and UK are covered. The American site lists around 50,000 hotels, and there are plans to at least double this number in the very near future with the help of new information extraction techniques. At present, the major cities have extremely good coverage, but there's more to be done when it comes to less urban spots.
In the words of the developers , "The notion of creating HotelSweep came about because we felt that the majority of hotel search engines, while having extensive listings, were dominated by the same limited group of comparatively expensive brands. We felt that there had to be an effective way to list smaller, less visible & better value hotels, guesthouses & B&Bs. This was the reasoning behind our information extraction systems".
So, how is HotelSweep different to its rivals in how it gathers its data? Rather than using second-hand sources or data from other hotel search engines, HotelSweep goes straight to the source and gets data straight from the hotels' own websites. Small hotels, guesthouses & B&Bs don't have to pay or even ask to be listed - they're automatically covered. The end result is a larger and, most importantly, more diverse hotel database which increases the likelihood of a customer discovering a fantastic deal on a room. Novel information extraction techniques (patent pending) and verification systems were designed to make this practical, and they're still being broadened & updated, hence HotelSweep still being in beta.
Hotel search engines are all about enhancing the experience of the consumer, who fundamentally desires to find the best value room suited to their wants & preferences as quickly as possible. The fresh style of hotel search championed by HotelSweep helps to produce an enhanced experience using its greater diversity and, particularly in the cities, superior amount of search results.
The groundbreaking information extraction systems being used by HotelSweep lead to more small, independent hotels & guesthouses being showcased. It means that consumers who use HotelSweep are more prone to hit gold, finding a great deal for a room which had been missed by the more conventional existing hotel search engines.
Similarly, HotelSweep's deep search functionalities help small independent hotel businesses acquire extra visibility in a tough economic climate. Very small guesthouse / B&B operations may be unable to find the money for integration with the pre-existing hotel search engines, or they might not have learned to start raising their online profile. The unique technology behind HotelSweep makes a speciality of digging up these small-scale operations, which makes them more accessible to the online consumer.Hoteliers can also effortlessly modify their details by themselves as they need to, making the hotel database very adaptive.
'Hotelsweep' is a technology start-up located in Cambridge, UK. The continuing expansion of the website & hotel search concept is being led by creators Christopher Doman & Richard Lewis.
For more information, email contact@hotelsweep.com