Web Buzz: Help homeless youths by booking hotel on Rooomr.com

You can help a child at the same time you book a hotel stay — without an added price hike.

Name: Rooomr.com

What it does: Rooomr is a hotel booking site that also seeks to improve the lives of homeless youth by donating 5% of its gross income to Re-Generation USA, a philanthropic endeavor of Virgin Mobile USA, at the same time it delivers hip hotels to style and culture-conscious travelers.

What’s hot: I expected to pay more for a hotel room because Rooomr was donating to a cause, but not so. When I tested hotel rooms for a weekend getaway in Santa Barbara, Charleston, S.C., and New York City, the cost of the room was the same on Rooomr as it was on Expedia. And on a few occasions it was cheaper than booking on the hotel’s website. It has more than 2,500 hotels in its global inventory. Are you looking for its app? Android and IOS coming soon.

What’s not: There’s not a lot of flexibility in fine-tuning your search results. From the home page, the user plugs in the destination, dates and number of travelers. Up pop the hotel search results (listed lowest price first or on a map), but from here there are few sorting options. I also had a problem when I wanted to change my dates in order to find a cheaper time to travel: I had to start over and reenter my info when I hit the back button or “returned to search.” Also, don’t forget the third “o.” It’s not a typo.

— Jen Leo