With hotel room prices steep and getting higher, especially in the big tourist-trap cities, would you opt to share a room with another traveler?  The drastic idea wasn’t so unusual until just over a century or so ago, before hotels or motels existed. Then roadside inns didn’t rent rooms, just beds. The more fortunate guests got a bed with only two or three other snoozers in it.

A start-up online hotel room-sharing program called Easynest is now booking people willing to share at many hotels and resorts. Potential clients are required to fill out personal data, choices, schedules and other information. Then, matches are offered. So far, the service is totally free, but if the program evolves successfully, a fee is a certainty.

Cruise lines have offered share-your-cabin service for a long time, but this may be the first it's available for hotel rooms. For more information about the new website that identifies itself as "Airbnb for hotels and resorts”, go to www.easynest.com