Skift Take

Yapta pivoted toward the corporate travel market several years ago, and its hotel-rate tracking tool could be useful for business travelers looking to take advantage of fluctuating hotel rates.

Yapta already lets travel management companies (TMCs) monitor drops in airfares with FareIQ, and soon they will be able to do likewise for hotel rates.

RoomIQ has been released in beta, and among the early adopters are Travizon and Ultramar.

James Filsinger, president and CEO of Yapta, said that in an early data analysis, RoomIQ found savings at 10% of hotels that were tracked. Of those hotels, savings of up to 40% off the original booked room rate were found.

The hotel price tracker works similarly to FareIQ, with a series of alerts sent to clients as soon as a room rate drops after a booking. In addition to sending alerts about rate drops at the property that was booked, RoomIQ will also alert clients to comparable room types at lower prices, including preferred and non-preferred properties that are chosen by the TMCs.

The price drops include lower promotional rates as well as finding lower negotiated rates that become available post-booking. And because RoomIQ was built specifically for the corporate travel market, it doesn’t provide alerts for non-refundable room rates.

Amenities such as parking, internet access and breakfast can also be tracked with RoomIQ, allowing for a more comprehensive comparison of various properties.

While leisure travelers can use FareIQ, Filsinger says that group won’t have access to RoomIQ in the foreseeable future.

“RoomIQ was built specifically for corporate travel and to provide a seamless experience for users of FareIQ,” he said. “Due to this alignment with the way corporate travel is booked and the tight integration with our existing solution, RoomIQ’s applicability today is laser-focused on our managed corporate clients.”

Filsinger says he expects RoomIQ to be subject to an official launch later this year.

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Tags: hotels, yapta

Photo credit: Yapta's RoomIQ tool is geared to alert clients when hotel rates drop after a booking is made. In this November 13, 2002 file photograph, David Davila, right, of Le Meridien hotel's front desk, checks in a customer. Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune/MCT

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