Site tries to take frustration cost out of travel

People still want to travel in a recession, and if flying across the country or an ocean or two and then staying in a hotel room found on the Internet -- only to find it's not as clean a room as the hotel promised -- can lead to frustration.

TVTrip.com is a Web site that's trying to take the guesswork out of finding out if the $99 Internet deal on a hotel room is really a place you want to stay, by allowing travelers to watch videos of hotels around the world and possibly "trade down" in their hotel stays by seeing more of a hotel before they book a trip.

Whether or not that saves them money is debatable, especially with Internet deals everywhere. But seeing the videos should save travelers money, said Steve Stollerman, North America vice president for TVTrip.com.