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Hotel Rates: New Launching For Farecast

When it comes to accommodation, there is no better customer service strategy than the predictability of its prices in different time periods. Hotel rates have been one of the concerns for most travelers because prices for hotels do increase easily without immediate notice. In some cases, a traveler may keep a certain amount within his pocket for a hotel price that he thought was the same than the previous month he stayed with it. Unfortunately upon arrival to the hotel, the price has gone up unexpectedly, catching the traveler off guard. Indeed, it’s such a pathetic quest for a lone traveler.

Perhaps this was one of the reasons why, Farecast, a start-up online traveler’s assistance guide, have come up with another service extension to travelers. Farecast was known to be able to assist travelers with predictions on the best time to buy flight tickets with its online information. With this, travelers are guided to the best rates on ticket at a certain period of time. Recently, they turned their attention to the assistance information on the hotel rates.

Farecast had launched a beta service that enabled the consumers to search the web for hotels rates and give them their best estimates whether the rate was in a good deal or not. This happens by showing a comparison on the historical and present rates for the similar dates and days of the week and plotting them on the Microsoft Virtual Earth Map with flags that are color coded to determine the price difference. Through this, the consumer is able to know in advance if the hotel is changing its rate or not. The estimates will guide them on the probable current rate of the hotel.

Farecast was just launched last year and is already gaining its ground as the travelers online assistance. The new focus from flight tickets to hotels makes them confident of the company’s goal to be of help to consumer’s confidence. As quoted “the launch was an important next step in the evolution of Farecast to bring transparency and help consumer buy with confidence in another critical category of travel”. The company stated that this new service would initially analyze hotel rates in 30 cities in the US. Its search tools have access to international coverage although it is not known how far the coverage can go.

Indeed, Farecast is a new online business that does not only concern itself with products and services that are highly competitive and common in the market. Its business strategy concerns itself with consumer confidence on its operation as a traveler’s guide. It utilizes the Internet as a tool that determines its success as a new business entity as it builds its credibility on the online market.

An independent consulting firm commented that its prediction was 74.5% accurate. Its website features paid-for-service, which was just launched last February. The feature allows the customer to “lock” the prices of their tickets for a week to protect them of price increase within the time period.