Six of the largest hotel companies have joined forces to develop a new online search engine that aims to simplify the process of hotel booking.

 

Called Roomkey.com, the search engine enables guests to search properties by city and date and provides results in varied formats – by map, grid or listing, ordered by criteria including by distance, highest price, hotel name, and star rating. Bookings are made via the property or company’s own site via a link on the search engine.

 

 

Roomkey.com was founded by Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International, Inc. and Wyndham Hotel Group. It is led by a management team including John F. Davis III, Stephany Verstraete, and J.Kurt Zimmer.

 

The hoteliers explain that they decided to launch the search engine after considering the question ‘how can we make it easier for our customers to find the right hotel?’. The aim was to make hotel searches simple, fast and fun as well as easy on the eyes, they said.

 

 “Finding the right hotel is complex and, unlike booking a flight or reserving a car, it is a personal decision process - one which no one understands better than hoteliers.  We believe Roomkey.com will provide consumers with an innovative resource that will give them unprecedented confidence in their booking decisions by fulfilling their hotel search needs with comprehensive and trusted content, and over time, through additional features such as the ability to connect and share their plans with family and friends - all provided through a simple and flexible site experience,” commented Davis.