ShermansTravel.com is a relative newcomer to the travel deals business, but they're quickly making up for lost time. Like Travelzoo and SmarterTravel, they're making a business out of finding cost conscious consumers and selling these leads to the online travel agencies and direct to suppliers. Like SmarterTravel, ShermansTravel.com is a publishing business with editors and writers on staff.

However, the Sherman's site is owned by WestEnd New Media. West End was an Internet strategy consulting firm, begun in 1998. After working with firms as diverse as AOL, Marvel Enterprises, Sony Music, and MOMA, the founder of Shermans (Jim Sherman) began to recognize the value of unique, unbiased content.

Thus ShermansTravel.com was born. The site was built to capitalize on a growing need by consumers for independent advice on good travel values in the market. Shermans is different that the offerings of sites like priceline or Orbitz. These sites provide access to booking great deals, but have limited editorial as to what’s really a good opportunity. It is in this niche of deal rating that ShermansTravel.com really earns it's keep. The editors are adept at screening deals and presenting the best, most interesting ones to the list and site audience. Like Travelzoo, Shermans has two ways of interacting with consumers, their site at www.shermanstravel.com and their e-newsletter, Sherman’s Top 25. Both vehicles are designed to quickly present the best deals and thus save customers time and money in their travel research.

The Shermans website is well designed. The site has pages that show off the deal content in air, hotel, packages, cruises, and rental cars. In addition, the site's destinations tab highlights the excellent content produced by the staff. The site has information on top hotels in cities around the world as well as interesting bits about travel to the Southwest USA. But as we said above, the main thrust of the business is advertising. The pages neatly incorporate banner and skyscraper advertising for big name clients like Delta or Expedia. But the site also shows the consumer the deal options the site is known for. Lastly, each page has a small area that encourages visitors to join the ShermansTravel mailing list for a long term relationship.

Shermans wants you to join their list, so if you find a deal you're interested in, you'll be asked to sign up for the Top 25 before getting the full info on the deal you're interested in. The Travelsites team thinks it's worth it to sign up for the list -- you'll find a deal at ShermansTravel.com!

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