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New travel website predicts changes in hotel prices

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Travel booking sites have become so sophisticated that some say they can save people money by predicting future prices.

Bing and Kayak, for example, offer price-predicting features that forecast airfares in the near future.

The latest travel website to offer soothsaying powers is TheSuitest, a hotel booking site that includes a feature called the Hotel Time Machine. Once you pick a room, the feature tells you the chances that the rates will rise or fall within the next 30 days and the likelihood that the hotel will sell out.

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“We developed this so people would have an idea of whether they can save money by booking now or waiting to book in the future,” said Jeremy Murphy, a former analyst at Goldman Sachs, who co-founded the website with Michael Aucoin, a former senior engineer at Microsoft.

The website uses 10,000 pricing models as well as past rate trends and real-time information to estimate rates at individual hotel rooms, he said.

The website’s predictions are not a guarantee, and Murphy won’t refund users’ money if they pay too much based on a faulty prediction.

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“We are not making a definitive statement because we don’t literally have a crystal ball where we can see the future,” he said.

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