SEATTLE | Yapta.com, an online travel shopping service that monitors airline ticket pricing for travelers, today announced a new hotel price tracking services that for the first time will enable travelers to track and compare pricing on national and international hotel properties. Unlike other opaque accommodation booking services such as Hotwire.com which do not allow consumers to see the specific hotel property they are 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. 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.

"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."

Yapta.com now provides consumers with an arsenal of fare and price tracking tools to ensure that they get the best deals on airfare and hotel rates. Some of the key features in the new hotel tracking service include:

  • Daily Price Checks - Every day Yapta.com fetches the lowest published rate of a tracked hotel and creates a dynamic histogram that visually demonstrates the price of a given hotel property over time.
  • Track and Compare Hotels - Yapta.com allows users to track as many hotels as they would like in order to compare prices between similar hotels.
  • Customized Threshold & Target Alerts - Users can customize how often they are alerted to rate changes and set thresholds for these alerts (i.e., only alert if the price of a room drops by more than $20, etc.)
  • Dynamic Filters - Users of the Yapta.com service can sort and search for hotels by several dynamic filters, including property rating (one thru five stars), price, amenities, and hotel brand.

"Given the choice between more or less information, travelers always want more information in order to make smarter decisions," said Nancy Helms, director of sales and marketing for the Renaissance Seattle Hotel, a Marriott property. "We're always looking for new ways to add value to the guest experience and believe that this new rate tracking service from Yapta.com will go a long way toward assuring travelers that they are getting the best deal on their hotel stay."

About Yapta.com | Yapta.com, Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant, was founded in 2006 with the mission to help air travelers receive the optimal value out of their online travel planning. Yapta enables travelers to find their ideal flights and hotel rooms, track airfare and hotel prices, and be alerted when prices drop or when frequent flier miles can be used to book a flight. Bringing to light pro-consumer "guaranteed airfare" policies offered by many airlines, Yapta also helps travelers obtain an airline travel voucher when the price decreases on tickets that have already been purchased. For more information visit: .

Jeff Pecor
206-625-2301
Yapta, Inc.