Fresh from its takeover by Cheapflights in March this year, Momondo is adding another string to its bow by launching accommodation metasearch.
Running on a separate domain (but also available on the original website) MomondoHotels, users are able to search for 450,000 different properties around the world.
Inventory is supplied by a range of accommodation retailers such as TUI-owned Hotelopia, Escapio and Hostelbookers, rather than tapping into a stream of hotel content from the GDSs or direct with hotels and chains.
A number of interesting features are included as part of the launch, such as Google Maps-driven tool so users can place a marker to filter results by whether hotels are near to a particular location.
Pop-ups of individual hotels from the result pages include images via the inventory source as well as reviews.
The new hotel channel gives Momondo a wider travel search position, with flight, car rental and hotel search options all featured on the site. The company also recently launched its first mobile application.
The reason to launch hotel search on Momondo is to give users as much information as possible about accommodation, officials say, but the reality is that it is the only major travel metasearch site without hotels and the number of overnight stays in Europe alone is starting to bounce back.
European Union figures indicate there were 21 million more room nights booked in hotels across the continent between June and September 2010 than on the previous period in 2009.
The launch of the hotel search of the newly acquired Momondo comes, ironically, almost five years to the day since Cheapflights offloaded its CheapAccommodation.com hotel search brand to Internet Business Group as part of a deal to focus on its core offering of flight price comparison.
The transaction also included the sale of CheapHolidayDeals and was valued at over £1 million at the time.