Gopher: A Chrome Extension for Hotel Deals

There is no shortage of search engines for hotel, flight and other travel-related deals. But instead of scouring pages and pages of cheap pricing options, Google Chrome developed an extension you can install directly into your internet browser that will help you find deals without having to click through hundreds of pages.

Named Gopher, the free downloadable extension “digs up” deals better than those you would normally find. To use the service, search for hotels as you would normally on sites like Booking.com or Kayak. Once you have chosen a property and opened that property page, the small cartoon Gopher will pop up on screen if he has found a better deal. This pop-up will display on the right side of the screen and will show the better rate, the difference in price compared to the site you are using and a link so you can go directly to the hotel’s website to view the rate and book.

Not only does Gopher show you how much you will save with the new rate, but you can also earn cash-back rewards for the deal that can be redeemed through PayPal or used to purchase gift cards, to donate to charity or to save and use for a future hotel stay.

The only catch with this seemingly too-good-to-be-true feature is the majority of the best deals are available only to rewards members who enrolled in a specific hotel’s rewards program, and boutique hotel deals are not yet as readily available as the big chains.