Room Key's New Travel Shopping Tool Scout Encourages Consumers to Book Direct

Travelers are often confused by where to find the best hotel deal. Nearly every travel site claims to offer the lowest price. So consumers end up visiting six to eight travel sites before booking. However, the lowest rates are often available when travelers book directly with a hotel and not through a travel site. To encourage consumers to book direct, Room Key created Scout. Room Key is a travel search site where customers can shop and compare low rates for the world's largest and most well-known hotel brands.

Scout can be installed for free with one click at Google roomkey.com/scout or the Chrome Web Store. Once installed, Scout remains out of sight and activates only when a user views a hotel on popular travel sites such as Expedia, Priceline or Booking.com. Scout then instantly begins “scouting” for lower prices for the same hotel and date. When it finds a lower rate, Scout immediately notifies the user along with a button to book it, whether that lower rate is via a different travel site or via booking directly with the hotel.

Scout searches for lower rates for 60 of the world’s most popular hotel brands including Hyatt, Marriott Hotels, Holiday Inn, Comfort Inn, Westin and many more. Scout is available as a browser extension for Google Chrome and will soon be available on additional browsers, including Safari and Firefox.

Room Key was founded in 2012 by Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International, Inc. and Wyndham Hotel Group, part of the Wyndham Worldwide Corporation or their respective affiliates.