I just wrote up the review for Yahoo Farechase for Flights… then I flipped over to the hotel search. It’s ridiculously tasty too. Think of everything that I loved about the flight service and it applies for the hotel search as well, except now that you’re talking hotels (which means static physical locations) you’re also talking maps, JAVAX maps.

The JAVAX maps means you can see where all the hotels are in relation to one another (without having to use some arcane mapping system born in the 1990’s like Mapquest) and to where you need to be.

What do I like?
1. The map, of course! It goes beyond a slick Web2.0 JAVAX map, but what they do with that map. First fiddle with all the refining check boxes until you get the hotel characteristics you’re looking for and then sort by the criteria you want (probably price). Then, look at the map. It has little bubbles for each of the hotels listed in the search results that conform to your specifications. Now scroll the map around and watch the list get updated. If you mouseover the results list, the bubble corresponding to that hotel turns from orange to white. Mouse over the map and a hotel, the hotel information pops up.

2. Sites Searched I put in Boston and the site searched over thirty other sites. I then put in Pittsburgh, also searched thirty or so sites. There is a lot of data out there and it looks like Farechase is pinging a whole lot of them.

What they could do to improve it?
1. Add a method to add your one waypoints on the map, for say the convention center you are going to or your friend’s house. It’d be nice to know, with a little more precision, how far you are from a particular address.
2. Add a smoking/non-smoking preference in the hotel rooms.

I’ve used Expedia and Travelocity in the past (they use the same databases, my choice all depends on whether or not I want to see Travelocity’s roaming gnome, good marketing guys!) but both are about to be supplanted by Yahoo Farechase… because Yahoo uses JAVAX and it’s fast. No more waiting on that “Searching airfare’s screen” that always seems to take forever, I think Farechase is going to capture some of that travel search market until the big boys start using JAVAX.

Here’s what I like about Yahoo Farechase:
1. Yahoo Farechase remembers your searches. How many times have you hit back on any of the other engines and had to tediously enter your information again? I hate it. I hate it with a passion. Yahoo remembers it. And not only does she remember it, when you click it she just populates the boxes so you can change them as you see fit, she doesn’t automatically start running the search again.

2. That progress bar means something. And they show you intermediate results. Farechase searches through all the airlines in its database (American Airlines, America West, US Airways, United, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, Alaska Airlines andContinental) and populates the list as it gets data.

3. That JAVAX filtering is sweet. The “Refine Results” panel allows you to check and uncheck departure times, airports, airlines, and the number of stops - each time updating the results without having to reload the page.

4. Forget the Airport Code? Just type in the city it’s in, slowly, and a drop down box will appear with possible airports and cities that you could be looking for. Very nice.

Basically I see Farechase as a tool I’d use instead of Expedia, Travelocity or any of the other flight search engines but, as with the others, you still need to check Airtran and Southwest Airlines’ websites directly for their fares. Farechase gets two thumbs up from me.

Oh, and if you think this is cool, just wait until you use it for hotels.