Orbitz making beach travel smarter

For those of us who’ve used a lot of the Web services such as Orbitz or Travelocity (picked at random, btw) to book travel, we’re aware that they do some things really really well (sorting, picking certain features, distances from locations, etc.), and don’t necessarily do everything the way you would love (Kayak might have some airlines that the others don’t, for instance). All that said, any improvement using their existing engines is a welcome one, which is why it’s pretty awesome to see Orbitz’s latest and greatest, My Ideal Beach.

My Ideal Beach combines a graphically appealing UI, asking just three important questions - what “type” of vacation do you want, e.g. family friendly, honeymoon; which four activities do you want to go on, e.g. shopping, gambling, scuba/snorkeling; and last, but most certainly not least, what type of hotel you’d want, ranging from private beaches to gay friendly to all inclusive. What I thought was pretty awesome about the results (they wash up on the beach, by the way), was that for choosing only one or two options at the last two questions, it did pretty well. The “sorting” isn’t quite the same as what you were used to from the traditional side of an Orbitz, but it does let you play with locations, ratings, and price. What it doesn’t do is let you “remove” options if you’ve already stayed there, don’t like the hotel chain, and so on, but it’s not the end of the world.

All that said, the way that My Ideal Beach differentiates itself is in its simplicity. After clicking on an option, it offers three “breakdown points,” I’ll call them. This feature alone makes it worth using for a beach vacation, even vs. the traditional Orbitz site.

• Why it’s a good match for you
• What’s missing
• Extras you might enjoy

As some of our significant others might say, it’s simple enough for any of us to use it and get a heads up on planning a honeymoon or beach-based getaway.

[Found via Gadling]