Airfarewatchdog.com, the source for hot airfare deals, has expanded into the hotel market.

» Name: Hotelwatchdog, www.airfarewatchdog.com/hotels

» What it does: It’s a hotel search engine that gives you a top 20 list of hotels based on price, TripAdvisor ratings and key attractions, restaurants and nightlife.

» What’s hot: I love the top-20 approach to search results. The prices are clear, and you don’t have to click through to a second page to see photos of the hotel. You also can click through to see the complete list of hotels. Even better, the search remains deal-focused; beneath each hotel name you’ll see stats such as "This hotel’s price is 64 percent less than rates at other nearby, similar hotels" or "This hotel’s price is 21 percent off its 45-day historic average."

» What’s not: There’s a pop-up box in the lower right-hand side of the page that invites you to sign up for hotel value alerts by email. That’s fine, but even though I entered my email, the box continues to pop up with every page refresh. Annoying.

Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times