Hotel giants join forces for new website

A group composed of the world's largest hotel chains has launched a new hotel booking site to help consumers find accommodation across their respective chains.

A group composed of the world's largest hotel chains has launched a new hotel booking site to help consumers find accommodation across their respective chains.

Roomkey.com launched January 11, promising to offer consumers greater "flexibility, accuracy and assurance" when booking a room.

The collaborative effort is founded by some of the best-known accommodation names on the planet, including Choice Hotels International (which runs Comfort Inn and Suites and Sleep Inn, among others), Hilton, Hyatt, InterContinental, Marriott and Wyndham.

The site, which is still in beta, boasts a clean interface that allows users to filter by price and star rating, as well as sorting by distance and viewing their result on a map. The site, which also shows room types in a grid display, then redirects clients to the hotelier's booking sites to complete the purchase.

In the future, Roomkey.com will offer advanced features such as the ability to share trip plans and experiences with families and friends, the founders said -- potentially giving rise to a TripAdvisor-style hotel review site.

Although the site is currently for use by US customers only, with dollars the default currency, an international English version is slated to launch shortly.

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