Groupon, Expedia team up for new travel discount site

Ready to sign up for another discount travel website? Groupon Getaways With Expedia launched Tuesday with discounts on hotels, airfare and other travel. The website looks a lot like members-only travel sites such as Voyage Prive and SniqueAway but operates on the Groupon model: Buy a voucher within a limited time to use for future travel.

Expedia and Groupon said in an earlier news release that they hope to leverage more than 50 million combined members with the new service. Here are some of the 14 inaugural deals that I like:

Deals:

-- Honolulu: Four nights at the Lotus at Diamond Head for $499. The room promises views of Diamond Head or the ocean and comes with a private patio. On a quick check of dates in August, nightly rates for the same type of room ran from $167 to $185 a night, excluding tax. So you can definitely save with the voucher.

-- Orlando, Fla.: Three nights for a two-bedroom suite that sleeps up to six people goes for $369 at the Lake Buena Vista Resort Village & Spa near Walt Disney World. The family-friendly room comes with a full kitchen, washer-dryer and Jacuzzi tub -- and a $50 credit at the resort spa. I checked a few weekends in August and found that two-bedroom suites started at $209 a night plus tax. Again, you save with the voucher.

-- Tahiti: Pay $500 to get a $1,000 credit toward a package to Tahiti from Classic Vacations. The credit can be applied to airfare, hotels, transfers and tours.

Details: To get started, register at Groupon Getaways With Expedia. (Groupon members use their usual sign-on.) Note too that Groupon has changed its privacy policy in the quest for more personal data from users.

Caveat: As with any online deal, make sure you read the fine print (in fact, they call it “fine print”) about blackout dates and voucher expiration dates.

Let me know what you think of the new Groupon-Expedia site in the comments section below.