Innovative Vacation Rentals Calculator Shows if a Hotel or Rental is Cheaper

70,000+ FlipKey Rental Listings Featured on TripAdvisor

NEWTON, Mass., March 24 /PRNewswire/ -- TripAdvisor®, the world's most popular and largest travel community, today announced the newest way for travelers to find vacation bargains on tripadvisor.com® with the addition of more than 70,000 vacation rental listings in almost 1,000 destinations. The listings, plus TripAdvisor's Vacation Rentals Calculator, designed to help travelers easily determine if they would save more money staying at a hotel or a vacation rental, are the latest of several new products recently launched to help travelers stretch their travel dollars farther in 2009. Vacation rentals on TripAdvisor are powered by FlipKey™, a leading online vacation rentals service, of which TripAdvisor owns the majority stake.

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New Vacation Rentals Calculator

Whether it's Hilton Head or Honolulu, travelers can quickly uncover the enormous potential savings vacation rentals might offer. With the click of a few buttons, TripAdvisor's new Vacation Rentals Calculator (www.tripadvisor.com/#Calculator), analyzes a destination's average lodging prices, number of guests, length of stay, and dining preferences, to determine if a hotel or rental offers the biggest bang for the vacation buck.

Orlando: Estimated Lodging and Dining Costs for Six Travelers Staying Seven Nights

                  Destination:      Vacation Rental              Hotel
                    Orlando
              Lodging Costs                    $990             $2,180
              Meals Costs                    $1,120             $1,680
              Total Costs                    $2,110             $3,860

Negril, Jamaica: Estimated Lodging and Dining Costs for Two Travelers Staying Seven Nights

                  Destination:      Vacation Rental         Hotel
                Negril, Jamaica
              Lodging Costs                  $2,520               $880
              Meals Costs                      $420               $630
              Total Costs                    $2,940             $1,510

Myrtle Beach: Estimated Lodging and Dining Costs for Four Travelers Staying Seven Nights

                  Destination:      Vacation Rental              Hotel
                 Myrtle Beach
              Lodging Costs                    $610               $960
              Meals Costs                      $700             $1,050
              Total Costs                    $1,310             $2,010

"More than 50 percent of travelers in a recent TripAdvisor survey said they will be staying at a rental property this year, and these accommodations can offer a great bargain alternative for cash-strapped travelers," said Steve Kaufer, CEO of TripAdvisor. "Vacation rentals have sometimes been overlooked as there wasn't significant information readily available from other travelers, but now with the integration of FlipKey's listings and reviews, TripAdvisor will help travelers get the truth on rental properties before they go."

Vacation Rentals Powered by FlipKey

To help travelers find their perfect rental property, FlipKey's tens of thousands of rental reviews and robust research tools have been added to TripAdvisor. The FlipKey research tools added to TripAdvisor include:

• Property "Overview" Details - Learn about rental property amenities and features
• Photos - View nearly 900,000 photos of vacation rental properties
• Availability - Determine when select rental properties are available
• Area Map - Find nearby restaurants and attractions on a local area map
• Booking Tools - Utilize phone numbers and e-mail links to make a reservation. Select rental properties are also bookable online

All vacation rental reviews on TripAdvisor are provided by FlipKey. Working with leading vacation rental reservation software from companies such as Instant Software, FlipKey is able to invite guests to write vacation rental reviews and offer real-time online bookings for many homes.

About TripAdvisor Media Network

TripAdvisor® Media Network, operated by TripAdvisor, LLC, attracts more than 32 million monthly visitors* across 14 popular travel brands: TripAdvisor®, www.airfarewatchdog.com, www.bookingbuddy.com, www.cruisecritic.com, www.flipkey.com, www.frequentflier.com, www.holidaywatchdog.com, www.independenttraveler.com, www.onetime.com, www.seatguru.com, www.smartertravel.com, www.travel-library.com, www.travelpod.com and www.virtualtourist.com. TripAdvisor-branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, with more than 25 million monthly visitors*, 10 million registered members and 23 million reviews and opinions. Featuring real advice from real travelers, TripAdvisor-branded sites cover more than one million destinations, hotels, restaurants and attractions and operate in the U.S. (http://www.tripadvisor.com), the U.K. (http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk), Ireland (http://www.tripadvisor.ie), France (http://www.tripadvisor.fr), Germany (http://www.tripadvisor.de), Italy (http://www.tripadvisor.it), Spain (http://www.tripadvisor.es), India (http://www.tripadvisor.in) and Japan (http://www.tripadvisor.jp). TripAdvisor® Media Network provides travel suppliers with graphical advertising opportunities and a cost-per-click marketing platform. Collectively, the sites comprising the TripAdvisor Media Network have won hundreds of awards and accolades from press and industry worldwide. TripAdvisor and the sites comprising the TripAdvisor Media Network are operating companies of Expedia, Inc. .

TripAdvisor and TripAdvisor.com are registered trademarks of TripAdvisor LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries. FlipKey is a trademark of FlipKey, Inc. Other logos or product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners.

©2009 TripAdvisor LLC. All rights reserved.

*Source: comScore Media Metrix, July 2008

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SOURCE: TripAdvisor