Room 77 – A Great Room Every Time

Room 77 is a hotel review website that isn’t trying to compete with TripAdvisor or the hoards of other similar services online. Instead, Room 77 is going deeper. Long after a family has decided how much to spend on accommodations and chosen where to stay on their next vacation, they can visit Room 77 to determine which room to ask for once they’ve arrived. Room 77 is a service that helps people pinpoint the best rooms at resorts and hotels around the world.

Start your investigation by entering the name of a hotel into the search bar on Room 77’s main page, then select a category based on the room type you reserved. Set your room preferences based on how important the floor, view, and elevator proximity are to your stay. In the blink of an eye, Room 77 will determine which rooms match your preferences most closely and present you with a list of options. Color-coded room listings give you an idea of how closely a specific room matches your criteria, with green listings matching the closest and red listings having the weakest match. Click on any room number to see a virtual representation of the view from that room and see additional information such as the room size, smoking status, and bed type. While some room view images are real – generally submitted by users – most are simulated images taken from Google Earth.

When a user finds a room with an agreeable location and view, he or she can click to make a reservation, visit the hotel website, or get information on how to request that particular room. By following Room 77’s step-by-step directions, users should be able to secure the rooms they want and hopefully have a better experience during their upcoming hotel stays.

Practical Uses:

• Find the best room for your upcoming vacation
• Reserve a room that has the best view of the pool
• Make sure your mother in law gets a room that’s far away from the elevator
• Get information on which rooms to avoid at certain hotels

Insider Tips:

• Find the best room overall by not selecting a category or changing the default preferences
• Room 77 provides directions on how to request specific rooms at different hotels
• Users can submit their own photos of the interiors of hotel rooms
• Use Room 77 on an iPhone by downloading the app from the iTunes store

What we liked:

• Room 77 can help people get access to information that was previously unavailable
• People who have rooms with better views usually have a better experience overall
• Instructions on how to reserve specific rooms are very detailed
• People who haven’t booked their hotels yet can do so by clicking on a link on the Room 77 site

What we didn’t like:

• The virtual room views generated by Google Earth may not always be 100% accurate

Alternatives:

• None

Company Info:

• Launched: February 2011
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Sunnyvale, California
• Founded by: Brad Gerstner
• Web site: http://www.room77.com

Costs:

• Free