flight search engines

New tools for making sure you get the best travel deal

An airline mileage sale convinced me that now was a good time to visit London.  But I’ve been spinning my wheels trying to find a hotel I can afford.

Then, moments after I fork over my credit card number for a non-refundable rate that still feels a bit high, I get this email from the folks at Yapta.com about the launch of a new feature:

We’re launching the first hotel price tracking service that will enable travelers to monitor prices on more than 110,000 hotels around the world.  Unlike the “opaque” accommodation booking services (i.e. Hotwire.com) which do not allow travelers to see the specific hotel property they’re bidding on, Yapta enables travelers to designate the hotel they’re most interested in and then sign up to be automatically alerted when the rate drops.

Thanks, guys! One day too late for me to test it in real time for my trip, but a good thing for everyone to know about now that hotels in many cities are fighting to get our business.

Yatpa’s hotel tracking service isn’t the only fresh tool on the market. Tripadvisor recently launched a new flight search tool and Travelzoo just launched Fly.com.

Let’s go!

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