HotelSweep, a new Hotel Search Engine, has vastly increased the size and quality of its hotel room database.

Cambridge, Cambridgeshire -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/04/2012 -- In the course of 2012 and beyond, the process of hotel search is being significantly transformed. Business travelers and tourists hoping to book a room are presented with more selections than at any other time. Countless hotel search engines and comparison sites contend for their attention on the web, each one with its own selling point. Even so, in spite of the congested online market for hotel search, it would appear that there is always space for more web based expansion when you have a bright idea.

According to PhoCusWright Inc., a market research company, $33.8 billion was spent in booking hotel rooms online last year. Out of that total, a stunning 55% of bookings, over half, were still placed on hotels' own websites, instead of through an online travel agent or hotel search engine. The share claimed by online travel agents is rising quickly, but the point is that there's still plenty of space for new hotel search engines to make a name for themselves.

From HotelSweep Co-Founder Chris Doman, "We asked ourselves why most people are simply going direct to the hotels' own websites to secure their booking. It seems as though most hotels around the globe still save their best prices for their own websites, and do not necessarily give their cheapest rates to web based comparison engines like Expedia."

HotelSweep is a brand new Hotel Search Engine aiming to capitalize on this state of affairs for the benefit of both tourists and hotel budsinesses. With the help of direct information extraction technology, it grabs rates and data direct from the Hotel websites themselves.

Introduced in February this year, HotelSweep has been featured on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, KDSK and several travel blogs. While HotelSweep covers a myriad of different hotels, the unique selling feature is powerful, no-nonsense budget room search, aiming to bring holidaymakers the best deal possible just by showing more of the less well-known hotels than any other website in the industry.

Due to a rise in media & customer interest, HotelSweep is evolving fast - "After the achievements of Version 1, the team are well on the road to releasing the next version of the website" reports Chris. So, what can we expect?

"The debut of potential game changers into the Hotel search sector, like Google Hotel Finder and Roomkey, encouraged us to formulate serious expansion plans" says Richard Lewis, Co-Founder. "To start with, we are expanding our hotel coverage from 50,000 hotels to three hundred and fifty thousand - a 7 fold increase. We're extending our geographical coverage as well - from now on, aside from just covering the USA and the UK, we'll also cover Asia, Australia and Europe. We'll also be substantially improving our search resolution for outlying regions of the USA, so expect more great deals in less well known towns and villages across the USA".

The HotelSweep team will also be taking measures to boost the usability of both the website and the android app, which they'll continue to support and develop. There are plans to incorporate considerably more information about Hotel facilities in the upcoming version, although as Richard and Chris highlight, "it will be really important to find the correct balance between quick, no-nonsense searching & richer information content - we hope to give travelers what they need most in order to make the ideal decision, never to flood them with less-than-useful infographics". In addition, HotelSweep will begin to feature user aggregated reviews for many of the hotels it covers, which is very good news.

HotelSweep will be going through some major changes in the coming weeks and months, but one thing that will not be changing is the original purpose of the hotel search engine. HotelSweep will stay true to its original commitment to budget travelers and independently owned guesthouses - there'll be no fees for inclusion, and the emphasis of the website will continue to be the budget traveler, although many high end stay options will also be included in the upcoming version.

"The pricing database we work with is unique, incorporating multiple hotel data sources - there's no other that can match it" says Richard. "We believe we have the technology and the incentive to offer the biggest and best coverage found in the world of Hotel Search".

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Cambridge, Cambridgeshire -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/24/2012 -- In times of mounting competition in the online hotel search industry, HotelSweep is hoping to make its mark by using innovative information extraction technology to deliver a superior user experience with increased speed, precision, search detail and diversity.

http://www.hotelsweep.com serves as a pricing web-site featuring a very large quantity of independent hotels, guesthouses and B&Bs which are often missed by established search providers dominated by the major traditional hotel chains.

"The user experience is paramount and while HotelSweep features the bigger hotel groups we offer a far more varied search so that people are more likely to obtain a less costly, better value room, simply through a superior variety of results," explained Chris Doman, co-developer of HotelSweep.

HotelSweep also wants to make life easier for Google android owners on the move and searching for a low-cost, high quality value room in a Hotel, Guesthouse or B&B. It has just recently released an Android app which is designed to simplify and boost Mobile Hotel Search by means of its sophisticated data store and lightning fast loading speed. Just the most appropriate data is included - the Android user still gets every detail they require, but their screen isn't cluttered with a plethora of unwarranted options. Simple, well executed hotel search with the backup of a superior database of rooms and prices is exactly what the HotelSweep smartphone app for Google android is focused on.

A large proportion of smaller B&Bs save their best costs for their individual web-sites and are unpublished on the big sites like Expedia. But many of these businesses, particularly independent B&Bs, simply aren't aware how to improve their online presence or don't wish to pay listing fees. HotelSweep goes direct to the establishment's website, extracts the appropriate information and informs the owner who has the chance to adjust the data independently.

"HotelSweep is a win-win solution for holidaymakers who desire a broad choice and the best rates and for independent hotel, guesthouse and B&B owners who get increased internet visibility free of charge - precisely what the hotel industry needs going into 2012," explains Chris Doman, co-founder of HotelSweep.

The hotel search marketplace has always been competitive but new start-ups are sprouting up more quickly than any other time. Newcomers to the field include Room77 and Mobissimo, each with its own take on hotel search. Well-known players such as Marriott & Hilton have also joined forces to build the new booking engine RoomKey.com in a second attempt at reaching holidaymakers directly. And in July 2011, Google introduced Hotel Finder which is expanding into a significant competitor in the hotel search engine market.

"Start-ups & incumbents equally need to get creative and distinguish themselves to ensure a chance of gaining and holding market share," said Chris Doman. "A mixture of a fast, straightforward interface with the advanced hotel 'deep search' capability which embraces small hotels, guesthouses and B&Bs is what makes HotelSweep special in the market. We hope that the good results will speak for themselves."

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Hotel rates are inflated but smaller hotels are often offering typical rack rates.

Cambridge, Cambridgeshire -- (ReleaseWire) --02/10/2012 -- There are over 100,000 hotel rooms across London, but already it can be hard to find a hotel room at a reasonable rate during the Olympics. These inflated prices may put off tourists who aren't coming just for the games.

UK tourism minister John Penrose said: "The principal trap is that potential domestic and foreign visitors who aren't avid sporting fans can be put off visiting an entire country for the whole of an Olympic year."

Despite evidence that some hotels have increased their July rates from less than £100 to nearly £200 (€120 to €240), VisitBritain's David Leslie insisted prices "pretty much reflect" what would be usually charged in London during peak season.

Shadow minister for London and the Olympics Tessa Jowell claimed prices across London were averaging an increase of 315%, as she called for action "on behalf of those already struggling families across the UK who want to be able to afford to come to London and enjoy the Olympic and Paralympic Games".

Speaking during Commons Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport questions, Ms Jowell cited the case of a woman from Exeter who, she said, was having to pay £1,000 a night for a room with a hoist to be able to take her disabled daughter to the Paralympics, a room for which at Easter she was paying £375 - a 167% increase in price

Not all the fault can be put on the hotels however. Hotel groups are complaining that the discounted rooms they have provided to Olympics organisers are being resold at massively inflated rates.

There are still many rooms to be found, particularly now that the Olympic games commitee to cancel a reservation fo 120,000 hotel rooms. A quick search on HotelSweep.co.uk, a hotel search engine that searches hotels directly rather than just travel agents like Expedia, returned a guest house in Acton with rooms from £24 and a hotel in Victoria with rooms from £34 during the games.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Cambridge, Cambridgeshire -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/02/2012 -- Hotel search is hotting up - last year saw the birth of lots of new start up enterprises devoted to the hotel booking experience - Room77 & Mobissimo to name but a few. Most of these startups had formulated interesting ideas which may or may not stand the test of time. This year will be, if anything, more active than 2011 in terms of start-up activity. HotelSweep is the latest effort which aspires to transform the Hotel Search world for the better.

It's not just newcomers to the hotel search market which are causing hype. A few online giants and incumbent hotel chains are reinventing their online search options using sleek new websites and interfaces. The most noteworthy case study is RoomKey, which is the outcome of collaboration involving major hotel groups like Marriott & Hilton.

What could explain this trend in new efforts to re-define the hotel booking sector? Much like many other sectors, the explanation might be Google's internet superpower status. In late summer 2011, it launched its own hotel search function, and its continued development & expansion has prompted newcomers and incumbents alike to begin innovating for fear of getting eclipsed or blocked out of the market by the search leader.

The business of hotel search has been evolving, ever since its conception, to address the problem of how to set up the ideal user experience. What precisely does this entail? Factors like search speed, information reliability, search depth & usability with reference to a search website interface are key. The challenge confronting newcomers to the hotel search sector is this: how can the responses to these points find balance with each other to give rise to the optimum all-round user experience?

HotelSweep is one of the latest attempts at getting the right balance between search speed, search depth, precision and ease of access. The most stand-out element is search depth - lots more results from a wide pool of hotels will often dig up the very lowest prices & best value for the end user while, of course, safeguarding quality.

HotelSweep is presently in beta, and strategies for new development and evolution of the concept are well underway. First and foremost, HotelSweep's goal is to cover more great value hotels than anybody else out there. The theory is simple: the more diverse and numerous the hotel search results are, the more potential there is for a quick deal for the customer. The web site currently includes an impressive 50,000 hotels, guesthouses and B&Bs, but there's definitely scope for growth. Using cutting edge forms of information extraction, the creators hope to unearth even more of the small-scale, good-value hotels which the larger search engines constantly forget about. There are also plans to partner with more booking operators to implement a real-time pricing database.

HotelSweep has two websites, one for the USA and one for the UK. Right now, all major towns and cities in the USA and UK are covered. The American site lists around 50,000 hotels, and there are plans to at least double this number in the very near future with the help of new information extraction techniques. At present, the major cities have extremely good coverage, but there's more to be done when it comes to less urban spots.

In the words of the developers , "The notion of creating HotelSweep came about because we felt that the majority of hotel search engines, while having extensive listings, were dominated by the same limited group of comparatively expensive brands. We felt that there had to be an effective way to list smaller, less visible & better value hotels, guesthouses & B&Bs. This was the reasoning behind our information extraction systems".

So, how is HotelSweep different to its rivals in how it gathers its data? Rather than using second-hand sources or data from other hotel search engines, HotelSweep goes straight to the source and gets data straight from the hotels' own websites. Small hotels, guesthouses & B&Bs don't have to pay or even ask to be listed - they're automatically covered. The end result is a larger and, most importantly, more diverse hotel database which increases the likelihood of a customer discovering a fantastic deal on a room. Novel information extraction techniques (patent pending) and verification systems were designed to make this practical, and they're still being broadened & updated, hence HotelSweep still being in beta.

Hotel search engines are all about enhancing the experience of the consumer, who fundamentally desires to find the best value room suited to their wants & preferences as quickly as possible. The fresh style of hotel search championed by HotelSweep helps to produce an enhanced experience using its greater diversity and, particularly in the cities, superior amount of search results.

The groundbreaking information extraction systems being used by HotelSweep lead to more small, independent hotels & guesthouses being showcased. It means that consumers who use HotelSweep are more prone to hit gold, finding a great deal for a room which had been missed by the more conventional existing hotel search engines.

Similarly, HotelSweep's deep search functionalities help small independent hotel businesses acquire extra visibility in a tough economic climate. Very small guesthouse / B&B operations may be unable to find the money for integration with the pre-existing hotel search engines, or they might not have learned to start raising their online profile. The unique technology behind HotelSweep makes a speciality of digging up these small-scale operations, which makes them more accessible to the online consumer.Hoteliers can also effortlessly modify their details by themselves as they need to, making the hotel database very adaptive.

'Hotelsweep' is a technology start-up located in Cambridge, UK. The continuing expansion of the website & hotel search concept is being led by creators Christopher Doman & Richard Lewis.

For more information, email contact@hotelsweep.com

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm