Frommer’s Turns to Danish Metasearch Site to Help Revamp Frommers.com

Arthur Frommer and Pauline Frommer, who recently reacquired Frommers.com and their guidebook titles from Google, partnered with Denmark-based travel metasearch company Momondo, and integrated its flight search tool into Frommers.com.

Under the partnership, flight searches on Frommers.com using Momondo will lead to search results pages divided up between flight schedules and airfares from Momondo on one side, and Frommers.com destination information and tips on the other.

“When readers search for a flight to a destination on Frommers.com, the Momondo search result will be be delivered side-by-side with the Frommer’s content that pertains to the place where they’re going,” says Jason Cochran, editor in chief of Frommers.com. “One side of the screen delivers Momondo’s charts that reveal the best days and times to fly to find the biggest savings, while the other side delivers access to Frommer’s’ full destination guide materials, including picks for the best hotels, attractions, places to eat, and custom walking tours.”

The flight search is live now, and the plan is to integrate Momondo’s hotel metasearch at a later date. Martin Lumbye, a co-founder and board member at Momondo, sees the blending of metasearch tools and destination content as a next stage in the evolution of travel metasearch and online travel.

The search functionality does not currently extend to Momondo’s hotel, vacation home, or car rental listings. Frommers.com previously integrated Kayak’s booking capabilities on the site.

Halfway There

John Wiley & Sons acquired the rights to Frommer’s in 2001, and sold it to Google for around $22 million in 2012. Arthur and Pauline Frommer reacquired the guidebook titles and Frommers.com after Google decided to phase out the guidebooks, and the Momondo partnership is part of Frommers’ efforts to revamp the website.

Visitors can see the revamp still has a way to go once they click deeper into the site. News stories from last year populate the Deals & News section, tools like the “dream planner” are missing content, and navigation isn’t consistent.

That’s not to say the Frommer’s team isn’t busy. Since it got the rights back in April, they’ve managed to get new guidebooks in stores in less than seven months, a difficult task for any print business — especially a new one. On Frommers.com, they will also be replacing content written before the Google sale with updated or completely new content.

It’s older hotel, restaurant, and attraction listings were integrated into Google Plus. As Frommer’s releases more titles in its new Easy Guide series, the reviews from print will migrate online.