hotelcanary

Hey FT folks,

I have asked and received permission from Jabez to post this here. I would like to receive feedback/opinions on the following browser extension that I have developed.

For those of you who love finding deals in Priceline, I have developed a Google chrome extension that can benefit you.

When you place your mouse on a deal, the browser extension will reveal the short list of hotels that match the criteria for that deal (neighborhood, stars, guests ratings, amenities, availability, etc.). Often, the short list contains one or two hotels only. This way you can compare deals in few seconds without need to open new windows/do additional searches.

I would love to receive feedback on it. Specially, if you do some booking with priceline, please let me know how it worked out for you.

You can install the browser extension from the Google Chrome Store with the following link:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...jokdpggfcefigk

After installing it, you will see a ring bell icon on the top right corner of your chrome browser (only when you are in the Express Deal section of priceline.com). Press on it and place your mouse over the deal that you want to see.

If you like the concept, please check it out! I will be happy to answer any question here.

udontknowme

Where does the info for the "short list" come from?

hotelcanary

It's all from Priceline's own website. The extension queries Priceline website and filters the results based on location, star level, guest ratings, amenities, availability,etc.

WillTravel

Is this extension making the presumption that if a hotel is an Express Deal, it is also a regularly priced hotel on the non-opaque Priceline side?

This is not exactly fair, as I'm looking at this from my software testing experience, but I found an interesting occurrence. I did a search on Seville, Spain for Dec. 30-January 3. This displays a 3* and 2* in Seville Town Centre, neither with listed amenities. Although there must be some Priceline-regular-side hotels that fit these criteria, the extension tells me there are no matching hotels.

hotelcanary

Yes, the presumption is that all hotels in Express Deals are also available through the non-opaque priceline side. This is based on my own experience with Priceline, all the hotels I got through express deals in the past were always listed on the non-opaque section.

You actually found is a bug in the extension. Because the deals you were choosing had no amenities associated, the extension was doing a wrong query and obtaining no results in return.

I have corrected the error and pushed the update to the Google Chrome webstore. Your extension should be updated in the next few hours or you can always reinstall it directly.

Thanks for the feedback! Please let me know if you find more discrepancies.

jaguar

Love your Chrome extension. Found a great Express deal for my stay at EWR.

Doc Savage

I'll give it a try, thanks!

jackal

Great idea. The process of comparing things in multiple tabs to try to figure out what hotel will be booked is annoying. This promises to make that much easier. Installed!

sonofzeus

Very slick!

rrgg

This is an awesome time saver.

skymatty

Not sure if I'm doing something wrong. But when I place the mouse over an area, nothing pops up on the extension.

I have to click through to the details and then click on the bell for the shortlist to show up.

hotelcanary

Make sure you click on the bell first and then place the mouse over the name of the deal (without clicking). For now it works only when you see deals from the list, not from the map. Let me know if the problem persists.

skymatty

Nothing shows when I do that. I am on a Mac if that makes any difference. I notice in your screenshots that you're on Windows.

I don't see the URL on the bottom of the screen if I click on the bell and then hover on an area. It only shows once I've cleared away the bell message saying to place the mouse over an area.

hotelcanary

What is your version of Google Chrome? I will try to replicate the problem.

Anyone else on Mac experiencing the same issue?

rb.sr

OS 10.6.8. Chrome Version 45.0.2454.101 (64-bit)

Works only if procedure in post #11 followed. (clicking bell on search results page brings up dialog box and disables links until closed)