Has anyone tried SideStep software? What did you think?

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Michael Steinberg
Editor
BizTrip
http://www.biztrip.com

I use it -- along with Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Travelweb, Google, Hotwire, Priceline, etc. I like it especially for hotel rooms, since it gives you the price up front and allows you to rank the results by price, distance from a specified address, or by the number or stars. It seems to include a lot of chains, but, as with all of the other travel web sites, it does not include them all. It seems to sometimes find lower prices for a property than do the other web sites, but sometimes not. In other words, I think it is a useful site, but no one site can be used exclusively.

My biggest complaint about it is that software for it has to be downloaded and stored on a local computer. Thus it cannot be used if you are traveling and trying to make additional travel plans from a library or web cafe.


[This message has been edited by amanuensis (edited 07-09-2002).]

I also liked it for hotels, but decided to uninstall it anyway. I didn't like that it ran as a browser add-in, and that it invoked itself without asking when I ran a search on another site (e.g. expedia, travelocity).

If they ever introduce an html-only interface, I might try it again...

I like it as it is one of the few searches that brings up Southwest flights. Although I did have a bad experience when I booked a 1 bedroom Residence Inn. The price quoted was equal to the studio price on the Residence Inn web site and $10 less than the 1 bedroom on the Residence web site. When I checked into the hotel, they put me in a studio and would only move me to a 1 bedroom if I paid the extra $10. Even when I showed the manager the printout from SideStep, they said that it was wrong and that the price shown is for a studio, even though the paper clearly said 1 bedroom.

Hard to tell if this was really a SideStep mistake or Residence Inn, but goes to prove that in this particular instance the hotel did not honor what was quoted by SideStep.

Have not used it much, but it gave me some excellent prices for hotels in San Antonio. Better than any other travel site, with the exception of Hotwire.

I would defenitely recommend using it as part of your price hunting tools.

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Another evil plot for world domination through the use of points and miles.

I used it a while back, but stopped because I found that the lowest quoted air fares were not really available, and I stopped using it. I did not use it for hotels. I thought it was kind of a pain the way it would automatically pop up in order to compare its research with the site you are searching on...

I stopped using it a while ago because it kept popping up all the time when I didn't want it to, and the clicking noise was driving me insane. It never really did come in any better then the usual other sites, so I got rid of it.

It is a slight nuisance but I haven't zapped it yet. I let it keep popping up and just x it to make it go away if I don't want to see competitive anything. I use dream maps more often now. I think when it runs it does slow down my intended airline web place.