SOURCE: UpTake

 

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwire - July 28, 2008) - Vacations are supposed to conjure up images of care-free days and fun-filled nights. But this year, with a recession looming, gas prices skyrocketing, and basics like food and housing at premium, many Americans are on tight budgets that are tainting their travel plans for the summer and beyond. In fact, rising gas prices alone have forced 33 percent of Americans to change their summer vacation plans, add to that the fact that vacation costs generally were up 3.7 percent in 2007. With figures like these, Americans are being forced to look at ways to cut back considerably on their travel expenses, while still planning something fun for everyone in their party.

So what's the cure for the "feelin' broke blues"? Travel search and discovery engine UpTake (www.uptake.com) has compiled the largest collection of affordable hotels and free or cheap activities from around the Web, including beaches, parks, museums and campgrounds to help vacationers focus on fun, rather than funds, during their time off. Frugal-minded travelers can now plan their trip by simply going to http://www.uptake.com/cheap_vacations and selecting an activity or 'lodging' for the city or town of their choice, and then click on the "Feelin' Broke" button, to get a list of free, affordable and fun suggestions.

"Taking a fun vacation doesn't mean having to spend a lot of money," said Elliott Ng, co-founder and vice president of marketing of UpTake. "But less expensive lodging, like motels and campgrounds, and free attractions like beaches and parks, are often just not easy to find on the Web when vacation planning. We're hoping that UpTake's 'feelin' broke' theme helps frugal travelers save money but also discover new experiences they might not have considered otherwise."

UpTake (formerly known as Kango) brings together content from thousands of trusted web sites like Expedia, Fodors, goCityKids, Travelocity, Virtual Tourist, and Yahoo! Travel, offering more than 400,000 U.S. hotels and activities. In addition to being comprehensive, UpTake provides tailored recommendations based on analysis of more than 20 million travel reviews, ratings, and opinions from over a thousand web sites. For example, UpTake recommends hotels for different travel themes based on a deep understanding of the reviews in its database. The site recently added "History and Culture" to its current "Family Friendly," "Romantic," "Girls' Getaway," and "Pet Friendly" travel search themes, providing travelers more ways to personalize the search and discovery process.

UpTake was developed to be complementary to existing travel sites. Like Google, it only provides a relevant abstract of the information and then offers a direct link to the site to find additional information. UpTake is also supplier friendly, providing a link to hotel websites, hotel phone numbers and addresses, photos from sites such as Hotels.com, Virtual Tourist, and Yahoo! Travel, as well as descriptions and reviews from other trusted online travel resources.

About UpTake

Founded in 2006, UpTake has collected and organized more than 20 million traveler reviews, ratings, blogs and articles from across the web to help travelers to make better decisions about where to go, where to stay and what to do. UpTake uses a travel ontology and natural language analysis to extract meta-tags from the collective intelligence it has collected and returns unbiased, personalized recommendations based on travelers' facts and feelings. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, California with global engineering teams in Beijing and Moscow. More information can be found at www.uptake.com.

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