Hotel Booking Site Alerts Travelers; Hits Milestone — Gives Back Over $100,000

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Tingo™—the hotel booking site that watches travelers' reservations and refunds them when prices drop—today announced that it now alerts customers when free room upgrades become available. This unprecedented watchdog functionality evaluates all rooms at the originally booked hotel and only emails the customer when upgrades are available during the same travel dates.

"Our obligation at Tingo is to maximize savings and value for travelers. This enhancement represents our latest effort and it will certainly not be our last, as we are constantly looking for new ways to help travelers save even more money on their booked trips," said General Manager David Krauter.

How the Alerts Work:

• Tingo evaluates and monitors rooms in the hotel where the customer has booked.
• When Tingo notices that a more expensive room has dropped its rate, and it's less than — or equal to — the original rate booked by the customer, Tingo emails the opportunity to the customer.
• The customer can make the decision to continue with his original booking or change to the new room.
• The customer now has a better room at a lower rate than the original room.

$100,000 and Counting

After less than 6 months, Tingo has saved travelers over $100,000 by rebooking their rooms when rates dropped. On average, Tingo puts almost $650 back in consumers' pockets every day. Tingo provides its travelers with a simple proposition: book a "Money Back" room, and if the price drops, the site will automatically rebook that same room at the lower rate and refund the difference to the booking credit card. Travelers do nothing but book, wait and save.

"We're very excited to hit this $100,000 milestone, and it reaffirms our belief that consumers need a product like Tingo to watch their backs after they book hotel rooms," said Tingo Watchdog George Hobica. "Our product stands on its own and we're very proud to be able to share these savings with the traveling public."

Recent Tingo Refunds:

• $1,274 to John for a Caribbean booking.
• $584 to Robert for a Las Vegas booking.
• $395 to Corinne for a San Antonio booking.

On average, travelers who receive a refund are getting $43 back in their pockets per stay, but refunds can be much higher, as noted above.

About Tingo

Tingo^™ is the only site that automatically rebooks its travelers hotel rooms at the lower price if rates drop — and then automatically refunds the difference to their credit cards. Tingo is part of Smarter Travel Media LLC, a subsidiary of TripAdvisor, Inc.

About TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor® is the world's largest travel site,* enabling travelers to plan and have the perfect trip. TripAdvisor offers trusted advice from real travelers and a wide variety of travel choices and planning features with seamless links to booking tools. TripAdvisor branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, with more than 60 million unique monthly visitors*, and over 75 million reviews and opinions. The sites operate in 30 countries worldwide, including China under daodao.com. TripAdvisor also includes TripAdvisor for Business, a dedicated division that provides the tourism industry access to millions of monthly TripAdvisor visitors.

TripAdvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRIP) manages and operates websites under 19 other travel media brands, and together the sites attract more than 74 million unique monthly visitors.** TripAdvisor, Inc.'s travel media brands include www.airfarewatchdog.com, www.bookingbuddy.com, www.cruisecritic.com, www.everytrail.com, www.familyvacationcritic.com, www.flipkey.com, www.holidaylettings.co.uk, www.holidaywatchdog.com, www.independenttraveler.com, www.onetime.com, www.seatguru.com, www.sniqueaway.com, www.smartertravel.com, www.tingo.com, www.travel-library.com, www.travelpod.com, www.virtualtourist.com, www.whereivebeen.com, and www.kuxun.cn.

*Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor Sites, Worldwide, July 2012

**Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor, Inc. and its subsidiaries, Worldwide, July 2012

©2012 TripAdvisor, Inc. All rights reserved.

SOURCE TripAdvisor

Tingo and the Tingo logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of TripAdvisor, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

For Tingo
Toby Streett, +1-617-886-5545
Sr. Manager, Communications
toby.streett@smartertravelmedia.com

Source: Tingo

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