I’ve been urging cruisers to arrive a day early in the port of embarkation, especially when taking a Europe cruise.   Not only do you not want your cruise disrupted by airline delays and cancellation, but if your luggage doesn’t arrive on the same flight it gives you time to track it down.  But perhaps most importantly, you won’t spend the first few days of the cruise handicapped by jet lag.

A new website, Airport Hotels.com,  launches to help travelers find and book hotels near airports in the major ports of embarkation such as London, Barcelona and Venice. The hotel comparison ‘meta-search’ site uses Google maps to display 100 airports and 3,700 nearby hotels and simultaneously searches 10 hotel websites to find cheap airport hotel deals.

The new website uses XML price comparison technology to compare hotel rooms and prices from 10 leading hotel reservation websites in one search. Airport Hotels.com combines hotel data from multiple sources giving travelers more availability and prices than individual sites alone. With access to 3,700 airport hotels, bed and breakfasts and guesthouses the problem of finding no availability is rare.

All prices quoted include taxes to avoid nasty surprises and hotels are listed with prices from each of the 10 hotel websites searched to allow fair and accurate price comparison and booking.

Hotel descriptions indicate whether shuttles, Wi-Fi and other facilities are available and customers can review hotels to share their experiences.