For those who don’t know, Yapta.com is an online travel website that monitors airfare for travelers from most of the major domestic and international airlines. Since launching its initial airfare tracking service in May 2007, Yapta has alerted over 600,000 travelers to more than $160 million in potential savings.
Just last week, the website introduced a hotel rate tracking service that allows customers to track and compare rates for roughly 110,000 domestic and international hotels. In general, Yapta lets you choose your preferred hotels and then sign up for automatic e-alerts if that hotel’s rate drops for your specified set of dates.
Of the 9 Starwood brands, Westin, W, Sheraton, and Four Points have properties on Yapta. The brands that don’t have properties listed are St. Regis, Luxury Collection, Le Meridien, Element, and Aloft. Other hotel companies found on Yapta include Four Seasons, Fairmont, Hilton, and Hyatt, among many others.
How does all this work? Yapta collects the best available published hotel rates and create a graph to illustrate visually the change in pricing over a specific period of time. You can track as many hotels as you woud like, and you can also filter through hotels using star ratings, prices, and a laundry list of amenities.
What really sets Yapta apart from all the other hotel websites is the tracking functionality. It basically automates the way to monitor and compare hotel rates and airfare without the inconveniences of having to constantly track prices yourself. In fact, the website will even help you get a refund on your air tickets if you’ve already booked and the price dropped afterward.
“Hotel rates are highly volatile and can fluctuate on a day to day basis. Unfortunately, this ‘black box’ of pricing information has remained obscured to travelers who have little idea of when or in which direction pricing changes will occur,” said Tom Romary, co-founder and CEO of Yapta.com. “By giving travelers a simple online tool by which to track hotel prices over time, they will have full price transparency and a much better understanding of what constitutes a good value. And with Yapta.com’s integrated alert system, they’ll be able to act quickly to secure the best rates on the hotel properties of their choosing.”
Source: Hospitality Net
