Deal, no deal: Farecast adds hotels to travel site

Seattle-based Farecast.com, a Web site that predicts when air fares will rise or fall and gives users advice on whether to buy airline tickets now or wait for a better price, is adding search tools to help travelers determine whether or not they're getting the best deals on hotels.

Launched today, the beta (test) version of Farecast Hotels lets customers narrow their search to specific locations in various cities, call up a map pinpointing the locations of various hotels, the rates they charge and how those prices compare to rates available in the past several months and 90 days into the future for the same travel dates or days of the week. Based on Farecast's analysis, a color-coded map will indicate whether a hotel at that price is a "deal," "not a deal," or just average.

Farecast Hotels lets users shop for more than 80,000 hotels in cities worldwide, but the ratings data will be initially limited to about 5,000 hotels in 30 major U.S. cities, based on prices quoted by Orbitz.com, Cheaptickets.com and Reservetravel.com. In the future, says Farecast President Hugh Crean, the company plans to add quotes from more sites, including hotel Web sites where consumers often find the best rates.

Farecast, launched a year ago, uses historical data to offer airfare predictions for about 75 cities in the U.S. Farecast doesn't sell airline tickets or book hotel rooms directly, but links users to sites which do.