Hotels.com launches first for travel industry

Hotels.com, the world’s most-visited online accommodation website*, has launched an exciting new search tool offering travellers an innovative way to find their perfect hotel. The Hotels.com Visualiser, a first for the travel industry, is a new visual approach to searching for hotels that allows travellers to use their “VisualDNA” to find hotels that match their needs.

Travellers simply start by selecting from a set of pictures that represent the type of hotel stay they are looking for. They then continue through a series of further images designed to gather information on their hotel preferences and hone the selection of properties returned by the search. These steps include the style of hotel and restaurant they are looking for, the types of activities they plan to do plus whether they are travelling alone, with friends or with a family.

The Hotels.com Visualiser then cross-references the selection of images chosen with the Hotels.com database to recommend a choice of hotels that perfectly match the users’ unique “VisualDNA” profile. Customers can then click through directly to book a stay at any of the recommended properties. Taking less than a minute to complete, the Hotels.com Visualiser takes into account the needs of the traveller (over 30 billion combinations are possible) and immediately returns a refined set of hotels that best suits their character and travel circumstances.

Not only does the tool save time, it also enables users to share their search with their travelling companions to simultaneously view the possible choices and instantly vote on their preferences. Additional features of the Hotels.com Visualiser include:

A ‘surprise me’ function that provides inspiration by matching requirements to destinations around the world, when users don’t have a specific location in mind.

A ‘share feature’ that enables travellers to save their searches, send them on to friends or family, and poll their favourite choices. For group travel, this completely removes the need to spend additional time copying and pasting links into an email to collate opinions.

An easy-to-use slider bar to refine searches even further – users can choose to narrow the selection of hotels returned towards the no frills or luxury end of the market, or towards more modern or traditional properties.

The Hotels.com Visualiser has been developed by Hotels.com in partnership with technology company Imagini, and launches in the UK on 9th September 2008.

Nigel Pocklington, Managing Director of Hotels.com, says: “We are always looking for new and innovative ways to improve our customer experience and help our users to choose a hotel that perfectly matches their requirements. This is the first time that travellers have been able to make their hotel selection based solely on their visual responses. The speed and functionality of the Hotels.com Visualiser, coupled with the vast array of hotel accommodation on Hotels.com, means that we are able to make the user experience faster and more efficient than ever before.”

Imagini Founder and CEO Alex Willcock says: “We’re thrilled that Hotels.com is using our VisualDNA technology to further develop its search experience. Together we’ve created a really great new way to find the perfect hotel.”

The service is accessible from the hotels.co.uk homepage.

*Hotels.com website is the most visited in the ‘Hotels/Accommodation provider’ category, according to comScore Media Metrix (Jan-Dec 2007).