Roomkey to Oz but, wait, now there’s Tingo
Room Key has expanded its presence outside of the United States by launching its first international websites in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
These four new sites will offer travellers the same tailored search and book experience offered on roomkey.com with consistent inventory, design and functionality. Additionally, all sites will now offer consumers the ability to view hotel rates in the currency of their choice for increased ease of hotel shopping.
Room Key, founded by Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International, Inc and Wyndham Hotel Group, part of the Wyndham Worldwide Corporation, or their respective affiliates, launched its first site in the United States in January of this year.
“The launch of our first international sites demonstrates Roomkey’s continued growth and development since our initial launch just two short months ago,” stated John F Davis III, chief executive officer of Roomkey.
Concurrent with this international expansion, we are rapidly increasing the breadth of hotel offerings available to consumers on our sites through recent commercial partnerships with well-known hoteliers including Best Western, Preferred Hotel Group and Worldhotels. We have been extremely pleased with the overall reception from the hospitality industry and look forward to announcing several new commercial partnerships shortly.”
Roomkey can be accessed in the UK at roomkey.co.uk in Canada at roomkey.ca in Australia at roomkey.com.au and in New Zealand at roomkey.co.nz. When consumers visit a Roomkey site, they will see hotel prices displayed in the currency of the country of the site domain. In addition, consumers have the ability to change the currency displayed, based on their preference, through a drop down selection list. This functionality will continue to make the hotel shopping process simple and customised, further providing consumers confidence that they have made the right choice through Roomkey’s delivery of accurate hotel information straight from the source.
And, in another move that could potentially corner the travel/hotel booking market, Smarter Travel Media launched Tingo last week, a hotel booking site that automatically re-books travellers at the lower rate if their hotel room drops in price.
Tingo is the first hotel booking site that automatically rebooks travellers at the lower rate if their hotel drops its price. The site conveniently eliminates the factor of trying to “time” a hotel reservation in order to get the best price possible.
By offering its customers a selection of “money back” rooms, Tingo provides the service of watching the room’s rate to see if it changes. If the price of the room drops, Tingo re-books the same room at the lower rate and refunds the difference to the credit card on file.
Although other hotel booking sites like Orbitz promise to refund you the price difference in case your room’s rate drops, Tingo Travel Watchdog George Hobica said that the Tingo system is easier to use and has less conditions to be met.
“The difference between Tingo and sites like Orbitz is that with other sites, if you book a hotel room and the price of the room drops, another consumer must book the identical hotel stay (room and dates) at a lower rate in order for you to get money back,” Mr Hobica said.
“Another consumer booking the same stay at a lower rate is not a requirement with Tingo. If the price of the room drops more than $1, you get that much back, plain and simple.”
The site, which made its debut on the World Wide Web Wednesday, offers an extensive international hotel inventory that is powered by the Expedia Affiliate Network. In doing so, consumers may see many of the same hotels offered on Tingo being offered on other hotel booking sites.
Tingo also offers a site comparison feature that allows you to compare rates available on other sites with those found on Tingo. If you see a cheaper rate on another site, which Hobica said is unlikely, then you are free to take advantage of the other offer. But Tingo’s Travel Watchdog doesn’t suggest you do that.
“By booking a hotel on another site, you run the risk of not getting any money back, if the rate of the room drops. Why take that risk?” Mr Hobica said.
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