Oyster Takes a Shot. Actually, Hundreds of Thousands of Them.

NEW YORK, June 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Oyster.com, the Internet's top destination for unbiased hotel advice as well as the only online source for expert hotel reviews and real hotel photos, announces the launch of the first-ever photo-powered hotel search engine, Oyster Shots. With more than 500,000 photos of countless hotels, Oyster Shots is a seamless way to explore Oyster.com's quickly growing database of exclusive high-resolution, undoctored photos of vacation destinations around the world. Oyster Shots represents an entirely new way to discover, explore, share, research and book hotels online.

"The idea of a photo-powered hotel search has been in development from the first photo we shot," says Elie Seidman, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Oyster.com. "With Oyster Shots, we editorially tag and identify all of the photos in our database and make them fully searchable based on any individual's preferences. Oyster Shots is our unique solution to a travel problem that, until now, remained unsolved."

Oyster Shots works with thousands of search terms. For the first time ever, descriptors and desires like "Kid Friendly Hotels" "Miami Pools," "Jamaica Balconies" or "Hawaii Beaches" are discoverable within photo-powered search. 

The Oyster Shots database lists up-to-date pricing information allowing customers to book directly from the photo. Additionally, Oyster.com's growing audience can vote on and share photos with friends and family across all social networks. Because of the strict quality guidelines for Oyster photographers, each photo is guaranteed to be an authentic representation of the hotel, pool, guest rooms, restaurants and all other hotel amenities. All photos are viewable in 20 distinct resolutions and automatically scaled to fit monitors of all sizes. 

"Too often, hotel guests are misled by doctored marketing photos, which leads to disappointment and dissatisfaction in accommodations," Seidman says. "Oyster Shots lets our visitors see exactly what to expect before it's too late. So there are no unpleasant surprises – just perfect vacations."

About Oyster.com

Oyster.com (www.oyster.com) is the web's hotel truth serum. Oyster.com's mission is to deliver unbiased, expert information about hotels and make it easy to discover the perfect destination. Oyster sends trained "undercover agents" to visit, comprehensively photograph, critique and rate each hotel reviewed on Oyster. Featured on and in hundreds of media outlets including The Today Show, 20/20, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Economist and many more, Oyster's hotel investigators visit every property in person and take hundreds of honest photos so that travelers know what to really expect when they arrive.  There are in-depth reviews of New York hotels, Miami hotels and Los Angeles hotels to name a few, with plans to increase the destinations covered nearly ten-fold over the next year.  Additionally, there are five (and counting) international Oyster sites, including Spain, Germany, Italy, Brazil and France. Management includes Microsoft alum Eytan Seidman, formerly of Microsoft's Bing.com; and two highly accomplished serial entrepreneurs, Ariel Charytan and Elie Seidman. Oyster is funded by Bain Capital Ventures and The Travel Channel.

SOURCE Oyster.com