[trip style = urban + beach + sun]
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Unless you're booking the penthouse, you never know what type of hotel room you'll get until you check-in, go to your room and open the door. Until now. The newest evolution in our obsession with the fine-tuned details of travel is a website {so new, it's still in beta} that can suggest a hotel room based on your preferences and distinguish between the view of a concrete wall or a sunset-drenched cityscape.
The Seat Guru of Hotel Room Search A little while ago I wrote about Seat Guru in Go-To Travel Sites of 2010, indicating it was a fantastic resource to research the best seats on a plane---down to the most granular detail like if the tray table is in the armrest. Someone took a cue from the popularity of this site {owned by Trip Advisor} and decided to create a similar model for hotel rooms. Smart.
Not All Rooms Created Equal
Room 77 is working on the premise that not all hotels rooms are created equally, and I'd agree having stayed in some ugly, mediocre and awe-inspiring rooms. Launching with 425,000 rooms in 16 major cities including London, Honolulu, Maui, Miami, Seattle, New York, Las Vegas and San Francisco, Room 77 is setting out to create the world's first database of hotel rooms. Who wants to pay the same price for a room beside the elevator versus a quiet, corner space at the end of the hall? Not me.
Testing 1-2-3 Once you choose your hotel and desired room category, you can search by parametres like floor height, view, proximity to the elevator and connecting rooms. Doing a search in Seattle at a hotel I've stayed at a few times {The Fairmont Olympic}, I'm pleasantly surprised by the level of detail the website renders: room recommendations tailored to my search criteria, a map of the hotel, a picture of the view I could get, and some general tips for room numbers that could offer partial ocean views. Done and done.
Athough still in its infancy, this is a site I'll be adding to my Trip Styling arsenal, because even in beta mode, it's already a stellar resource.
{Travel Trends are published three times a month on Thursdays. Find them all here.}
[photos by Room77]