Ever heard of Hotel Haggle?

HotelHaggle.com, a new site that lets consumers negotiate hotel prices, has been launched.

Launched by Ronan Carr, an entrepreneur based in Cork, Ireland, the company says its site’s value lies in the consumer-driven travel itinerary and the consumer-tailored results. Rather than putting the burden of finding a hotel bargain squarely on the shoulders of the consumer, HotelHaggle creates a collaborative approach to finding the best deal.

Users create an account, log in, share the details of their travel itinerary and the price they are willing to pay for lodging. HotelHaggle’s software filters the results, contacts the appropriate hotels and then puts the user’s business up for ‘bid.’ The resulting list of hotels that meet the location, schedule and price parameters is supplied back to the user for final decision and online booking.

The site says it offers a safe environment for confrontation-free bargaining and puts the customer back in the driver’s seat. Hotels in turn, enjoy a broader reach, receive valuable insight on consumer priorities and can book unsold rooms at an acceptable rate.

The site says it is possible to save anywhere up to 70% on a single hotel stay, with some bidding as low as $20 per room.

HotelHaggle.com will focus solely on hotels in the beginning, but will soon expand to include B&B listings, vacation rentals and timeshares. There are more than 120,000 hotels in the HotelHaggle.com database, according to the company.

www.eyefortravel.com reported on this yesterday, could be a great way for customers to save money on their hotel bookings, but more interestingly for the industry its a very innovative way for hotels to reduce distressed inventory!