Travelzoo Launches Travel Meta-Search

Travelzoo has announced SuperSearch, a meta-search tool for travel sites. It's available at http://www.travelzoo.com/supersearch .

If you've ever searched for travel information this will look familiar. Enter where you want to travel and your date and number of travelers. You may also specify if you want to search nearby hotels and if your dates are flexible.

I searched for travel from San Diego to Houston on August 1, returning August 4. I enter in those dates and Travelzoo recommends six sites including Orbitz, Hotwire, Delta, etc. At the bottom of the page is another pull-down menu which includes CheapTickets, Expedia, and a few other sites. Click on the site in which you're interested and you'll go directly to their search results, from which you can reserve tickets, etc.

I can see that this would be a handy tool for someone wanting to check a lot of travel information at once, but I have one concern. Travelzoo describes the recommended sites this way: "Search recommendations are based on feedback from thousands of users like you, the site's relevance to your search, and Travelzoo's expertise. This saves you time and helps to ensure that your search leads you to the best deal." But in their press release announcing the service, Travelzoo says "SuperSearch is a free service for consumers. Participating travel companies pay on a cost-per-click basis for premium placement." (Press release at http://tinyurl.com/6alah ).

If the recommendations are recommendations based on user feedback and expertise, that's all well and good. But if they're recommendations based even partially on payment, this needs to be denoted.

Posted to World-Travel | TrackBack