SideStep Inc., an Internet search site for travelers, said it is set to announce on Tuesday that it has acquired TravelPost.com, a site for consumers to review hotels and resorts.

The deal, for undisclosed financial terms, is aimed at offering an independent alternative to travel industry-backed sites. SideStep plans to combine TravelPost’s reviews with its own site in the coming months, matching travelers with hotels based on advice from people with similar interests.

SideStep, ranked No. 10 among U.S. travel sites, according to Web audience measurement firm Hitwise Inc., is competing with Internet media giant Yahoo Inc., which this year introduced an upgraded version of Yahoo Travel that combines fare search, mapping and user reviews on one site.

Yahoo ranks No. 5 among U.S. travel sites, behind Expedia, Travelocity, Cheap Tickets and Orbitz.

SideStep, founded in 1999 and based in the Silicon Valley hub of Santa Clara, California, counts 5 million monthly users. It offers the sort of Web search technology offered by Google or Yahoo but zeros in on 150 different travel sites to improve the relevancy of business travel or tourism-related searches.

San Mateo, California-based TravelPost.com, founded in early 2004 and made up entirely of user-generated reviews, has about 700,000 monthly visitors, a SideStep spokeswoman said.

About 250,000 users have contributed reviews on some 50,000 hotels or resorts. The reviews are designed to be integrated with existing blogs.

SideStep is privately held and has raised more than $17 million in funding from Trident Capital and individual investors. Earlier this year, Rob Solomon, former general manager of Yahoo Shopping, took over as president and chief executive of SideStep.

copyright © 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved.