If you’ve ever tried to book a hotel for a large event such as a wedding or a bachelor party, you’ll know the experience isn’t always pleasant.

Head over to the booking sites of most of the major chains, for instance, and you’ll see that booking more than a couple of rooms gets complicated, especially when it comes to pricing and changing your mind when one guest drops out.

This week, travel startup Groupize.com launched a new Expedia-style booking engine for those looking to organize large trips and events.

Expedia claims it’s selling rooms at “unpublished rates”, but what does this actually mean and how can travelers take advantage of it?

“Unpublished rates” are the minimum prices that hotels will sell a room at if they haven’t been able to sell it at the standard rate.

The travel giant announced October 25 that it would dramatically expand its unpublished rate inventory to include 25,000 hotels around the world, claiming that travelers could book hotels at up to 50 percent off the standard online price.

Travel suggestion site Wanderfly officially launched October 19, providing a new way for travelers to get trip suggestions when looking to plan their next holiday.

The site, which has already seen considerable praise from journalists and bloggers testing the service prior to launch, asks key questions about a trip to provide personalized recommendations of a destination.

Users must ask key questions about the amount that they want to spend, dates, holiday themes such as environmental credentials and nightlife and other preferences, before submitting their requirements.

TripAdvisor-owned Smarter Travel Media has launched its own private sale site, following in the footsteps of Kayak and Travelocity.

SniqueAway promises to combine the exclusivity of a private sale with crowd-sourced approval courtesy of TripAdvisor, mandating that all properties featured must have earned four or five out of five stars from customer reviews.

Hotel reviews are shown alongside limited-time offers available only to members and like other such sites, sign-up is by invitation only — members who invite friends who subsequently book receive $25 (€19.60) credit towards a trip.