rate promises Hyatt, Marriott and Hilton have all issued new rate guarantees for booking through their own company channels. Hyatt pledges that in searching the Internet for published prices at its hotels, customers will not see any better rate than they'll find at the company's own Web site (www.hyatt.com). Marriott and Hilton both issued best-available-rate guarantees for all their in-house reservations channels: Web sites (www.marriott.com and www.hilton.com), toll-free national reservations numbers, or individual hotel reservations. The latter two companies said the guarantee applies to all of their hotel brands.
cheap cities CheapSeats (www.cheapseats.com), owned by Onetravel.com, has launched 17 city-specific travel sites so customers can quickly search for air fare deals and specials that only apply in their home markets. Each site will also offer vacation specials priced from the local market as well as hotel and rental car booking services. For Atlanta, the address is www.cheapseats.com/ATL. The others are similar, with the local airport or city code providing the last three letters of the address. Other cities/extensions include BWI, BOS, CHI, DAL, DEN, DTW, HOU, LAX, MIA, MSP, NYC, PHL, PHX, SFO, SEA and WAS.
fast data Business travelers who insist on a hotel room with high-speed Internet access can search for one at the online High Speed Hotel Directory (www.highspeedhoteldirectory.com). Searchers simply click on the desired state and city to find listings of appropriate local hotels, including their contact information, type of high-speed access available, and color photos. The site also has travel tips and a free newsletter. It recently added Holiday Inn Express, TownePlace Suites by Marriott, and Hampton Inn to its database.
package deals Orbitz (www.orbitz.com) has expanded its "dynamic packaging" function to include more combined, single-priced air/hotel combinations for a larger number of destinations, appealing to business as well as leisure travelers. By booking flight and hotel together, consumers can often save 15 to 40 percent off the cost of booking them separately, the company said. Users can still select their preferred airline and hotel for any given destination from Orbitz' package matrix display, which will show up to six airline and 20 hotel options on a single screen.
luxury/independent hotel booking sites