Gadlinks for Wednesday 7.15.09

by Brenda Yun on


Joyous hump day! I’ve never looked forward to Wednesday as I have this particular week. There’s a good deel to look forward to when it comes to travel stories as well. Take these, for example.

More Gadlinks HERE.

DealBase.com – It’s like having a travel agent you don’t have to talk to

by Annie Scott on

We always try to let you know when there’s a great new way to find travel deals, and DealBase is one of the best yet.

The fashionistas among you may be familiar with a site called ShopItToMe.com — this is that for travel. I’ll explain.

Basically, you go to DealBase.com and tell them what you want. Four or more star hotels in Vegas for under $300? Any hotel in New York for under $100? Whatever you’re looking for, you can customize your preferences into their system. Then, not only will they search immediately for deals for you or trips that match your criteria — they’ll e-mail you a “Deal Alert” if when they find another one!

“In this time of amazing travel deals, everyone wants to be the first to know about the best savings and insider discounts,” says Sam Shank, CEO. “DealBase.com’s comprehensive deal alerts empowers travelers by sending relevant offers and insider savings opportunities, so you can get these deals before they sell out.”

We think this is awesome. It’s like, the laziest easiest way to search for travel you can afford ever, especially since it often doesn’t matter when you travel — you’re just waiting for the right deal. If there’s somewhere you’ve always wanted to go, but think you can’t afford, plug in the details and who knows? Maybe two months from now, a deal will pop up!

So, go set up your DealBase account already.

KeyToss updates their offering with mobile hotel searches

by Scott Carmichael on

Late last year, we took a look at mobile information portal KeyToss. Back then, they were offering everything from flight status updates to the latest news through an easy to use mobile site.

Last month, KeyToss added hotel searches and reservations to their lineup, and after playing around with it for a bit, I’ve got to say that I am very impressed. The portal is extremely easy to use, and is filled with small touches that make it a breeze to find a hotel.

Things like being able to enter a check-in date or “days from today” mean you won’t be messing around on your phone to find what you need.

The site pulls information from Hotels.com which means you get access to their extensive database of hotel information, including photos, reviews, maps and of course any available discount rates.

You can make a reservation on your phone using a 2 step form, or if you plan to make multiple reservations you can add all your information to your KeyToss secure wallet and breeze through the booking process without having to dig up your credit card for each booking.

When you find a hotel deal, you are presented with all the fees and fine print involved with the price. All in all a fantastic update to an already impressive site. If you are regularly on the road, I highly recommend adding m.keytoss.com to your mobile bookmarks.

Frommers dot WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?

by Grant Martin on

Those of you who cruise through your bookmarks and RSS feeds religiously every day are in for a surprise when you reach Frommers.com. The travel site just relaunched it’s site, featuring an all new frontpage, reengineered for the web savvy reader of 2009. Our insider at Frommers, David Lytle, explains it as follows:

“We gave the site a facelift to make it even more visually appealing. The most significant change can be seen in our wider pages that allow us to accommodate large striking images and widgets that help us contextualize our content further. We didn’t mess with what already works on Frommers.com – lots and lots of in-depth current content to help travelers plan their trips, from our authors and our own savvy readers.”

And striking it is. The landing carousel of five, sweeping images now dominates the frontpage, and now you can directly and easily link to popular facets from Arthur Frommer’s personal blog to the volumes of information all stored within the pages of Frommers.com.

Don’t forget to stop by the Behind the Guides blog while you’re at it, where you can pick up dispatches from all of our favorie guidebook editors.

Oyster.com launches today

by Annie Scott on

Oyster Hotels is a brand new website for hotel lovers and business travelers alike. They offer undoctored hotel photos and candid reviews on over 200 hotels and are continuing to grow.

How have they accomplished this? They’ve been sending journalists to hotels since March of last year — and they happen to be run by a team which includes Bing.com alumni Andy Laucius and Eytan Seidman. And what are they big on, besides honesty? Integrity. “Oyster Hotel Reviews adheres to the highest editorial standards; it does not accept compensation or incentives from hotels, and pays for all travel expenses.”

(You can find job info here.)

“Quite simply, travelers today have no reliable source to rely on for hotel information,” says Elie Seidman, founder and CEO of Oyster Hotel Reviews. “The vast majority of hotel descriptions and photos circulating on the Internet originates in the hotel’s own marketing departments and gets reproduced over and over as legitimate truth — but it’s often highly misleading.”

Naturally, you know you can trust Gadling (or why are you reading this?), but sometimes the only information you can find on a hotel is an anonymous review or an incomplete website. So, whether you’re staying at a schmancy hotel or the cheapest place you could find, it’s worth searching your lodgings on Oyster.com, even if just for a quick gander at the pros and cons before you book — or after, to make sure you don’t miss out on some great amenity!

P.S. Pop culture addicts click here and check out their Celebrity Sightings sections.