Farecast, the airfare price prediction site, has expanded its coverage and price prediction tools to a new beta service for hotels. For the launch the new hotel price predictions work in the top 30 U.S. destinations and pull in data from partner sites like Orbitz, Cheaptickets, and ReserveTravel, as well as Farecast's own information.
The results for a hotel search are displayed on a color-coded map with price and other details. Red pins indicate good deals, while blue ones stand for over-priced results. Clicking on a hotel will display a graph of prices over time — particularly the fluctuation on either end of your intended stay. The data is a nice Ajax overlay that also provides photos and reviews (when available).
One thing to keep in mind when using the new hotel service, Farecast's definition of the best deal, does not always mean the cheapest price. For instance, if a normally $500 a night hotel is offering rooms at $250, while a normal room at another hotel has no discount, but is only $150 a night, Farecast will flag the $250/night hotel as the better “deal.”
Unlike the airfare component of the service, Farecast's hotel listing aren't so much predictions as they are an indication of the local market. Much of the time it's difficult, if not impossible, to tell when you're paying too much for a room since you generally don't know the local market.
But with Farecast's new tool you can get an idea of the market at a glance and when combined with more traditional tools — like a wide variety of reviews — Farecast's hotel price finder should help you save money on the rooms you need.
Now if they would just expand their airfare predictions to the international market, they would be my one-stop reservations destination on the web.
