Hotel giants launch uncluttered search site

Do travelers need another Expedia.com, Travelocity.com or Priceline.com?We'll soon find out. Last week, six well-known hotel giants including Marriott, Hilton and IHG launched their own version of a hotel shopping site designed to lure customers who aren't loyal to specific hotel brand sites.The site certainly has plenty of people talking, if my Facebook page is any indication. Canada Goose When I posted HotelNewsNow.com's article about it last week, the posting sparked a surprising 33 comments - and a really interesting conversation.No question, RoomKey - if a hit with travelers - could shake up the high-stakes hotel booking world by steering some business away from the third party sites that represent a priciest sales channel for chain hotels."You now have a venture that, by different estimates, could represent about half of the inventory for room nights in the U.S.," says Chuck Sullivan, a top Hilton exec who helped work on RoomKey's formation.At this point, RoomKey represents hotel rooms run by founding partners Marriott, Hyatt, Choice, Hilton, Wyndham and Holiday Inn-parent IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) as well as new partner, Best Western.One giant - Starwood - is absent from the mix right now, so that means a search on RoomKey in Chicago won't reveal any of Starwood's 17 hotels such as the W Chicago City Center, Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers, or the Westin Chicago River North.