Sydney, 9th November, 2009 - Travel comparison site Wego.com.au today launched a revolutionary new type of hotel review product, empowering travellers to quickly pull hotel reviews from all across the internet – but only read the ones of direct interest to them.

 Wego’s new cutting-edge review system aggregates and sorts reviews from across hundreds of websites.  It then drills down to determine how positive or negative the review is … and why.  The result is an overall “guest satisfaction” score, as well as separate sub-scores for filters such as “rooms”, “location”, “cleanliness”, “family friendly”, etc.

 Some of these filters are fixed and present for all hotels. Others appear only when they are often mentioned in reviews.  A hotel with a great spa, for instance, will have a separate score for “spa.”  These filters appear in an intuitive tag cloud, allowing users to simply click on any term of interest. 

 All reviews and guest satisfaction scores are supported by review snippets, in which the relevant bits can be read quickly and easily.  If a user wants to read the full review, they simply click on the snippet. 

 The entire interface is designed to put the relevant information front and centre, and allow the user to simply point and click to learn more about topics of interest to them.  Wego does all the hard work for the traveller by pulling reviews from hundreds of leading sites and presenting a snapshot of opinion.

 Wego founder and Chief Commercial Officer, Craig Hewett said, “Wego’s new hotel reviews fill a massive gap in the online travel shopping experience.  Consumers don’t like being forced to wade through hundreds of reviews to find one that seems relevant to them.  No other site can get as many relevant reviews in front of the user so quickly.”

 “We believe this offering will also benefit hotel operators as they can see a valuable snapshot of the experience their valued customers have had with their business.”

 “We are excited to be launching this offering and giving consumers access to the best information available on hotels. It is part of our continued investment in the Wego product and our commitment to delivering travellers with the best experience available online,” Mr Hewett said.  

The new hotel review product can be viewed at: www.wego.com.au/hotels

For more information, please contact:

Kate McQuestin ‐ Wego.com.au

T: 02 8114 7552

M: 0419 591 150

kate@mcqmedia.com

About Wego.com

Wego.com allows travellers to search for flights, hotels, packages, travel deals and travel

research across 100+ travel websites in the time that it normally takes to search just one. Wego searches travel

websites in real‐time so that the latest pricing and availability are shown. Travellers are then linked through to

partner websites to book. Wego.com was founded in 2005 by former executives from Intercontinental Hotels

Group (NYSE: IHG), Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN) and ZUJI. News Digital Media, the

Australian digital arm of News Limited and part of News Corp (NYSE: NWS), is an investor. For more information,

please visit http://www.wego.com/about.

Its been awhile since Wego launched a feature called “Guest Satisfaction”. If you have seen it and am wondering what is this all about, well basically we analyze hotel reviews from across the web and boil them down into a simple score (Guest Satisfaction).

How do we compute Guest Satisfaction Scores?

We examine hotel reviews and opinions from different sites around the web. Semantic analysis of these reviews are done and by using sentiment analysis techniques, they’re grouped into Positive, Negative, and Neutral reviews.

Each hotel is then assigned a raw satisfaction score. This score takes into account the number of Positive/Negative/Neutral reviews. The raw scores are then normalized by computing their standard scores (also known as z-scores) within each destination. For example, all the hotels in Tokyo are compared to one another and their resulting scores normalized. The normalized satisfaction scores are then reduced to a scale of 5. This is the final satisfaction score that you see on Wego.

Why do we assign satisfaction scores within each destination instead of comparing hotels worldwide?

The reason is simple: assigning satisfaction scores by comparing hotels within each destination allows for a larger spread of scores. We want to make it easy for you to see which hotel is better reviewed within a destination.

If we’d compared hotels worldwide instead: most hotels in Wonderful Hotel City would end up with scores around 4 to 5. Most hotels in Rundown Hotel City would end up with scores around 0 to 2. This makes it really hard to compare hotels since the scores are so close. Imagine comparing hotels when they are mostly scored around 2.1-2.3!

Take a look at our Guest Satisfaction at work

Dubai is one of the seven emirates and the most populous city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Well-known as the playground for the rich, Dubai has a wide range of luxury 5 star hotels for one to indugle and relax in.

If you are visiting Dubai in the coming weeks and visiting the city for the 1st time, here’s a list of 5 star Dubai hotels that might be of use.

1. Le Royal Meridien Beach Resort & Spa is located at Sheikh Zayed Road, set amidst beautifully landscaped gardens and the golden sands of the famed Jumeira strip. The resort hotel inspires guests to explore the natural splendor of Dubai, while enjoying a relaxing spa experience.

2. The Metropolitan Hotel has a Wego popularity rank of #2 among all 5 Star hotels in Dubai. With its own beach resort, broad array of sports facilities and close proximity to the commercial centers and world trade center, The Metropolitan is an ideal choice for both business or leisure travellers.

3. The Hotel Dubai Creek Hilton has a Wego.com user satisfaction score of 4.4 on a maximum score of 5. The Dubai Creek hotel is set in the Deira Business District and located just 10 minutes from Dubai Airport and the Airport Free Zone. Get to dine at the award-winning restaurant Verre by Gordon Ramsay.

4. The Fairmont Hotel situated on Sheikh Zaed Road in the heart of the City financial district, provides a unique blend of comtemporary design which makes the building an iconic landmark. The hotel boasts 10 contemporary dining and entertainment venues which will satisfy the taste buds of all who visit.

5. Moevenpick Hotels & Resorts, with 232 well appointed rooms and suites is  conveniently located in the heart of the city. The hotel is close to major shopping and entertainment centres of Wafi City and Lamcy Plaza, and is about 15 minutes away from Jumeirah Beach.

For more 5 Star hotels in Dubai (90/676), check out Wego’s Dubai 5 Star Hotels. Feel free to conduct a live hotel search for real time pricing and availiability.