Hotel and Travel Deals Blog

We’re working hard to put the finishing touches on DealBase.com and looking forward to our launch in a few weeks.

One of the unique features of DealBase.com  you’ll be hearing a lot about is our Deal Analyzer. We developed it in response to our mission to demystify online travel deals. Specifically, It’s our interface and tool set for uncovering the true value of a deal, and it works by deconstructing a deal to it’s core elements and then comparing each of these elements to a regular price. The outcome is a very accurate understanding of the actual savings (or extra costs) by a deal price.

The results are surprising – here are some examples for Hawaii: Read the rest of this entry »

We all know that there are lots of legitimate, great travel deals out there to be had.  The big question is whether you have the time to find them, compare them, choose one and book it.  Most of us often “punt” where we spend some amount of time, find a reasonable deal and book it.  Even THAT takes an inordinate amount of time.  But to find the really great deals – the best deals, you need to either get really lucky or you need to quit your day job.  When I say “quit your day job”, I am not kidding.  Read the rest of this entry »

To me the biggest problem with finding a true hotel deal is being able to accurately compare one deal to another.  Hotel deals are often complicated.  They are usually created to fill inventory and that inventory changes constantly.  So at DealBase, we have created a method to normalize all the important data that you need to make an informed decision.  Data like price, dates, extra benefits, availability dates, etc.

Dealbase also has the human element in the form of votes and editors, because it’s really helpful to know what others think of the deal. Opinions of others can be a great measure of how attractive a deal is and can help sort through the morass of data.

We are excited about leveraging web 2.0 functionality to the travel space to help you compare apples to apples and find better deals, faster!

Here’s a sad, but true and typical story of what it’s like to find a deal without DealBase. It was sent to me by one of our colleagues, and I pass it on, unedited:

“Dear David,

How I wish DealBase was around a few weeks ago. Imagine my dismay when I went to book a hotel for six days in Washington DC. I was going to visit my newly born grandchild (and his parents, of course). I started in the usual places, like Travelocity, and Hotels.com, and the best I could find was somewhere in the $1800 range for 6 days. That’s more than my monthly social security check, and more than my monthly rent! So I asked around for other sites. One friend gave me a list of a few sites. One site asked if I wanted to search other sites as well, and before I knew it, I had ‘umpteen’ windows all popping open. I had to go window by window to see if there were any reasonable prices in reasonable hotels at the location I wanted. I also had to start a spread sheet to keep track of each possible hotel that might be in my range, and what the final 6 day cost would be. By now, more than two hours had gone by, and I was weary. It was late at night and I decided to try the next day. I made note of one possible place, forgetting to note which site I found the deal on. Read the rest of this entry »

I always loved deals and believed if there was a better price, I should find it and get it. It’s never been clear to me why I should pay a higher price when I can pay the best price that’s available. I find it fun to  hunt the deal down…sometimes I can even combine them and get a better deal.

But, it does take hassle and time… and sometimes frustration to  find a great deal. That’s why I love DealBase. It takes the hassle out of it, and leaves me with the fun of the hunt. That’s also  why I signed on as one of the founders of DealBase. Now I know I can always find my best deal.