Avoid Getting a Great Deal at a Bad Hotel; TripAdvisor Offers Only Travel Site for Finding Deals at the Most Popular Hotels on the Web.

Business Editors/Travel Writers

NEEDHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 3, 2003

TripAdvisor (www.tripadvisor.com), the leading travel research site, announced today a new service to help consumers find special "web deals" on the most popular hotels for a given city. With TripAdvisor's SmartDeals index, consumers save valuable time and avoid frustration locating the best rates on the highest quality hotels on the web.

While great "negotiated rates" exist on the web for many hotels, consumers have historically been frustrated by the time and complexity of scouring the Internet and visiting multiple vendor sites to locate these great rates. Additionally, consumers are faced with the added task of verifying if the hotel offering a "web deal" is a decent place to stay. Too often the "too good to be true" deal turns out to be for lousy, undesirable hotel accommodations.

With TripAdvisor's new SmartDeals index, consumers can place "negotiated hotel rates" in context. The SmartDeals index searches multiple travel supplier sites for special web rates, then groups rates by hotel to facilitate price comparisons. Consumers now need only visit one site to view special rates from several different suppliers.

However, finding a great rate is only part of the equation. Consumers also need to verify if the hotel in question is of a suitable quality level. Traditionally this involves additional research on the web. With TripAdvisor SmartDeals, all of the hotels offering special web deals are already ranked for the consumer using TripAdvisor's Hotel Popularity Index. TripAdvisor is the only site that dynamically ranks more than 90,000 hotels in major cities worldwide based on the popularity of each hotel, as measured by both the quantity and quality of content written about the hotel on the web. By combining this ranking with data on the best deals available from companies such as Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz and CheapTickets, TripAdvisor's SmartDeals index lets consumers research price and quality in one quick step.

For example, consumers researching the best hotel deals in Boston can now view a ranking of the most popular Boston hotels offering special web rates. Additionally, for every hotel web deal in Boston, there are links to articles, reviews and net comments on that specific property.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/SmartDeals-g60745-Boston-Hotel-Deals.html

Unlike other web sites that display random samplings of deals on all types of hotel properties, TripAdvisor gives consumers an organized list of deal information for hotels with the highest quality hotels at the top of the list.

"Travel consumers turn to the web to find good deals, but nobody wants to get a great rate on a mediocre property," said Steve Kaufer, CEO of TripAdvisor. "The web offers all of the information a consumer needs to find great rates and great hotels, but until now, researching both price and quality has been a time consuming task. With SmartDeals, consumers can go to one place to find great rates with a ranking system for hotel quality. It's really about saving consumers time in their hotel purchase process."

About TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor, Inc. provides a comprehensive travel search engine and directory that helps consumers research their travel plans via the web. With more than 3.9 million unique visitors a month, TripAdvisor.com is the 9th most popular travel site worldwide on the web, according to comScore Networks, and has won dozens of awards including PC Magazine's Top 100 Web Sites and Forbes Best of the Web. The company also offers travel suppliers a performance-based marketing medium that generates average click-through rates of over 10% per page. Partners include leading travel companies such as Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, and CheapTickets. TripAdvisor, Inc. is a privately held, venture-backed company based in Needham, Massachusetts. For more information, visit http://www.tripadvisor.com/.