Expedia.com introduced a new hotel and flight deals product, and it says the offerings shown are "user-generated."
Expedia Last-Minute Deals takes your auto-detected point of origin and displays flight and hotel deals which other Expedia customers in your nabe have found enticing.
Expedia refers to the dynamic involved as "crowd-sourcing," "user-generated," and other flashy terms, but essentially the company is using its deals engine to present popular deals as evidenced by the booking patterns of other people close to your home.
In this reporter's case, Expedia displayed deals for the Monumental Movieland Hotel Orlando ($50) starting tonight, the Riviera Hotel and Casino ($42) in Las Vegas, and roundtrip flights to Newark-Las Vegas ($253) and Newark-Atlanta ($163).
These are not flash sales, with the rates expiring within hours. And, you can book the same hotels and flights elsewhere on Expedia.com at the same rates.
Joe Megibow, general manager of Expedia.com, says the company can deliver this sort of service based on data from millions of customers.
"In a sense, the millions of people who come to Expedia are now serving as your own personal travel agent, helping you find the best and most popular deals from your home city," Megibow says.
Last-Minute Deals apparently is currently on Expedia.com only and not other country sites.
Expedia is cashing in on the discounting trend in several ways.
In addition to this new Last-Minute Deals offering, Expedia launched ASAP flash sales more than a year ago, and the company is bullish about its partnership role in the "hugely successful" Groupon Getaways, with its vouchers and steep discounts.