Received this e-mail from IHG...seems to be a collaborative effort between a half-dozen chains:

11 January 2012

Roomkey.com, innovative new hotel search engine, launched by venture founded by six of the world's leading hotel companies

Comprehensive Website for Hotel Searching Offers Consumers
Greater Flexibility, Accuracy and Assurance in their Booking Decisions

Provides Powerful, Cost-effective Booking Channel to Industry Participants

DALLAS, January 11, 2012 - Room Key, a new venture owned by six of the world’s leading hotel companies, today announced that it has launched Roomkey.com, an innovative new online hotel search engine that will provide the simplicity, transparency and breadth of choice consumers expect from a search engine, while delivering the flexibility, accuracy and assurance consumers expect from the hospitality industry.

Founded by Choice Hotels International (NYSE: CHH), Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H), InterContinental Hotels Group (NYSE: IHG), Marriott International, Inc. (NYSE: MAR) and Wyndham Hotel Group, part of the Wyndham Worldwide Corporation (NYSE: WYN), or their respective affiliates, and led by a highly regarded management team, Roomkey.com provides travelers a search and book experience tailored for ease of hotel shopping through an uncluttered and trustworthy site. It will give consumers confidence that they have made the right choice by providing accurate hotel information straight from the source. From searching through to booking directly with the hotel, Roomkey.com enables consumers to search, book and relax.

 

I received this email as well. The big question is...will bookings made through this engine afford us points/qualifying stays/status recognition/etc?

I also don't understand why the world needs yet another booking engine...

 

Probably to save the chains some coin on comission charges...

 

I received this email as well. The big question is...will bookings made through this engine afford us points/qualifying stays/status recognition/etc?


Great question...I wonder if they've thought about that?

 

True

I'm sure they have. They just haven't told us about it

 

What I am seeing is that Marriott, Hyatt and Intercons are participating in this.

I can't book directly at roomkey and all it does is to provide a link to the actual programme's website with my selected dates loaded for me.


I checked for hotels in SIN and it loaded, Ritz, GH, Marriott and Intercon.

Is this just for comparison purpose or are you really allowed to check & book through this website?

I also have the same concern with the rest, qualifying stay or not?

 

The page clearly has "Beta" written on it, so maybe you can't book just quite yet?

 

I don't see any reason to think you will be able to book through it anytime soon. They specifically call it a "search engine" not a "booking" engine or site. Seems like this is exactly what Lack said, a way to avoid paying commission by redirecting to their own booking pages.

 

Well they're (and the OP is) calling it a search engine, so logically what else would you expect other than to use it to locate the hotel (stay) you want, then transfer to the provider to book?

You don't buy things on google, you find them then go to their seller's site to purchase...

 

Right....that makes sense. Still it seems like a good idea since most of these hotel companies are the major players with loyalty programs?

 

Well, mainly it's a good idea for the chains, as mentioned earlier - currently paying $$$$ to booking engines and seach engines alike in affiliate revenue (10% of room rate or more) I'm sure that a cartel-like mentality can help drive down marketing costs nicely...

 

Hmm, no email here...

 

Right...it's just a way to direct users to their hotels and internal booking mechanisms. It's not a new travel agency.

 

That makes sense now. ^

 

Didn't you anser your own question? Since it sends you to the actual program's website, you're booking at the actual program's website, so the actual program's website qualifying rules (which you should already know) still apply!

While you can use this to search for hotels anywhere, in the SoCal area it presented with a dizzying list, which was a little tricky to filter (too many different types of hotels lumped in in 2 stars, from HIX down to Days Inn).

I would guess this would be most useful when looking at an area which you're not familiar with, and what you want to see is simply how many hotels belonging to any of these programs are available in that area. That can be a bit time consuming without this tool. To be really thorough, you have have to search each program independently. Alternately, you can try to do a general third-party booking engine search and scan the list to see what you recognize, but the problem is that some programs (tho I'm not sure whether this happens in IHG) have hotels that don't have a chain name in the hotel name. So if you're not familiar with that particular hotel, you may not realize it belongs to a program you participate in!

There may be a few "mileage manager" type programs which might let you do something similar, but you'd have to sign up and teach them about what programs you belong to. This site might not feature every last program, but it's much simpler to use if you belong to most of the programs it supports.

... As to who gets the email and who doesn't: I'm not quite clear on what the purpose is of informing all Priority Club members of this. For many, it would simply call attention to all the other programs out there! Thus Priority Club may be being selective as to who they notify. (Of course, they didn't count on FlyerTalk to spread the word far and wide! )