ShermansTravel Launches the Sherman Meter

(I-Newswire) August 19, 2009 - New York (August 18, 2009) � ShermansTravel.com (www.ShermansTravel.com), one of the most trusted online sources for editor-reviewed travel deals, hotel reviews, and unbiased expert advice, has launched the Sherman Meter, a first-of-its-kind, proprietary meta-search tool that takes the guesswork and headache out of researching and choosing the perfect hotel.
The Sherman Meter tabulates thousands of international and domestic hotel reviews and ratings � from expert sites such as Concierge, Frommer's, and Fodor's to user generated content (UGC) sites, including Trip Advisor, Yelp, and Yahoo! Travel � to deliver the most accurate overall hotel ratings.
The Sherman Meter functions much like RottenTomatoes does for movie reviews. Each hotel receives a weighted percentage score between 1 and 100, which corresponds with a color code. If the Sherman Meter is green, the hotel reviews are generally positive; yellow means the hotel reviews are mixed; and red indicates that the hotel reviews are generally negative.
All hotels on ShermansTravel.com have already been thoroughly vetted by its expert reporters and editors, so the website factors its own expert rating into the overall score as well. The Sherman Meter ranking also displays the number of hotel reviews that it used to formulate the overall rating. Users can then click on an individual hotel to view Sherman's Expert Review, followed by individual hotel reviews from many different expert and user generated content (UGC) sites, allowing the user to read any and all hotel reviews all in one place. ShermansTravel.com then ranks the hotels according to its Sherman Meter score, with the highest-scoring hotel ranked first, and so on.
In addition to the Sherman's Expert Review, each hotel review features the physical address, neighborhood, city, phone, website, and whether the hotel is considered a "great value" or "smart splurge" by ShermansTravel.com experts. To view a full list of international and domestic destinations with hotel reviews, visit www.shermanstravel.com/hotel_reviews.
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ShermansTravel Announces Sherman Meter / page 2
"With so many competing hotel review sites and the rise of user-generated content, it seems like anyone can be a travel expert these days, said James H. Sherman, founder and CEO of ShermansTravel Media.
It can be extremely confusing to someone who is researching a hotel. In the end, it is hard to know exactly who to trust. The best part about the Sherman Meter is that it takes the guesswork and the time-consuming research out of the equation," he added.
In addition to the Sherman Meter, www.ShermansTravel.com is also chock full of tools and expert content, including more than 1,000 editor-reviewed deals, QuickSearch, which allows visitors to compare airfares from dozens of sites, destination guides, Top 10 lists, video and slideshows, blogs and more.
ABOUT SHERMANS TRAVEL MEDIA
ShermansTravel Media is a leading travel media company that publishes ShermansTravel.com and Sherman's Travel magazine. Founded by James Sherman in 2002 to help travelers make sense of the overwhelming number of online travel specials, ShermansTravel.com is now the web's most trusted source for editor-screened travel deals, hotel reviews and destination advice. Sherman's Top 25, a free weekly e-newsletter published every Wednesday, has surpassed four million subscribers. The company also has syndication partnerships with leading web sites, including MSNBC.com, MSN.com, USAToday.com, AOL and Yahoo!. Building on its trusted online brand, ShermansTravel Media launched Sherman's Travel, the first magazine serving sophisticated, value-conscious travelers, in October 2006.

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Media Contacts:
Roland Alonzi/MMG Mardiks
Tel. 212.219.0759, ext: 6765
ralonzi@mmgmardiks.com

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