'Mystery Hotel' identification method/tool!

mparf on 13/12/2012 - 07:37
Last edited 13/12/2012 - 11:43

Hi all,

No idea if people already know this, but you know how there are mystery hotels on wotif.com/groupon etc, and they seem like a good deal, but you never really know?

WELL.

Google Images has this handy search function, where you can search by PICTURE. This is super handy to find the source!!

What you need to do is to go to the mystery hotel page, find a picture of the interior, save it to your computer. Go to images.google.com and drag your picture into the tool bar. Now don't click Search, Click the little picture of the camera!
This will take you to all pages displaying the same picture.

For example..
http://www.groupon.com.au/deals/travelcity/Top-Secret-Hotel/…

Right? See that sweet little interior picture further down?
Drag and dump and search….

http://www.hotels.com/ho175089/radisson-blu-plaza-hotel-sydn…
(i just c&p the first link that came up)

Now it seems like a pretty amazing deal, non?

I can't guarantee this is 100% accurate, but it's better than not having any idea as to what you're booking in the first place!! =D

EDIT: User Scotty suggested another method without needing to save the image!
1. Having your web page opened in one tab, and having Google Images search opened in another tab.
2. Drag the image you wish to search from content of first tab, over to the second tab.
3. Now Google Images search tab will become active, and you continue to drag the image into the content. A drop area will open up saying "Search by Images: Drop image here". Yeah, just drop whatever you are dragging there.

Travel

Comments

  • mnicola on 13/12/2012 - 09:20
    +4

    You, sir. Yes you, sir, are a genius. Many thanks.

    • mparf on 13/12/2012 - 09:42
      +1

      No problems, good luck on future hotel bookings!! =D
      The Raddison's a pretty damn good deal as well.

  • bluedufflecoat on 13/12/2012 - 09:23
    +1

    Not sure if it would work on wotif. They don't post any photos on the mystery hotel options.

    • mparf on 13/12/2012 - 09:43

      Aw damn, I should have checked- Sorry, posted right before leaving for work. This might work with the group buy sites then?
      (until they catch up on this, anyway)

  • retiredfeline on 13/12/2012 - 09:25
    +2

    Another way is to pick a few odd features of the hotel, e.g. 24 hour concierge, underground parking and pool bar and search the web for that. Less chance of success with this though.

  • scotty on 13/12/2012 - 11:16
    +4

    Been using Google Images quite a lot to find the origins of the pictures :) One way to use it without saving to your desktop first is:

    1. Having your web page opened in one tab, and having Google Images search opened in another tab.
    2. Drag the image you wish to search from content of first tab, over to the second tab.
    3. Now Google Images search tab will become active, and you continue to drag the image into the content. A drop area will open up saying "Search by Images: Drop image here". Yeah, just drop whatever you are dragging there.

    Google would start searching after you've dropped the image. No intermediate storage is needed to save the image :)

    • mparf on 13/12/2012 - 11:42

      Oh Sweet- I didn't realize you could do that! I'll edit the post!

    • [Deactivated] on 02/01/2013 - 15:33

      this (Mparfs original post & Scotty's how to do it easily) has got to by one of the best tips of the year!….I know I know it's only 2 days old.

  • aedeau on 13/12/2012 - 14:49

    I've noticed on wotif they don't have images anymore for their mystery hotels, just pictures of question marks.

  • voteoften on 13/12/2012 - 15:26
    +2

    I saw one in Melbourne where they actually named the in house restaurant.

  • Coops1 on 13/12/2012 - 23:28

    I was excited for a while………..still nice to know. Cheers OP

  • weberkshire on 14/12/2012 - 18:30

    And get this Chrome plugin for even quicker searching

    https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/search-by-image-by…

  • OzViper on 01/01/2013 - 18:53

    Another tool to use to identify mystery hotels from the popular US mystery hotel booking site hotwire is http://www.hotwirerevealed.com.

    It attempts to match facility descriptions from hotwire to the hotel's web description.

  • zooter on 19/07/2013 - 21:42
    +1

    amazing…i also came across the site www.tripraider.com on ozbargain

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