What is A Cookie?

A "cookie" is a small text file that the website write on your hard disk to store certain personal information that will be needed by other webpages of the website to better assist you. The personal information stored in a cookie is limited to what you have voluntarily provided, such as when you fill out a form, when you make a search, you put an item in a shopping basket, etc. Allowing a Web site to send you a cookie does not give that site or any other site access to the rest of your computer, and only the site that created the cookie can read it. Furthermore, cookies cannot spread viruses since they are text files.

Why do we use a cookie in our Hotel Search Engine?

In our hotel search engine, the cookie helps keep track of the request you have made, for example, if you make a search for hotels in Boston, you want to be able to come back to your search result (list of hotels in Boston) and click on the different hotels to view the info. The cookie we use allows that, without that cookie, you would have to make a new search on hotels in Boston everytime you want to view the list.

If the search engine does not work, it is because...

Your browser (Explorer, Netscape, etc.) does not accept our cookie. This problem is mostly observed on Explorer 6.0 where the default settings (security level at Medium) do not allow to accept third party cookies. Our cookie is considered a third party cookie because the hotel search engine is not hosted under the same domain as Alio. To resolve this situation, you will need to lower the security level of your browser to let the cookie pass and then reload the webpage. Once your computer have accepted the cookie, you may put back the security level to Medium and you will be able to use our search tool as long as you don't delete the cookie.

How to change your browser settings to accept the cookie

In Internet Explorer 6, click Internet Options on the Tools menu, and then click the Privacy tab. These settings replace the cookies settings on the Security tab in Internet Explorer 4 and 5 (and the Advanced tab in Internet Explorer 3). The Privacy settings slider has six settings: Block All Cookies, High, Medium High, Medium (default level), Low, and Accept All Cookies. Choose Accept All Cookies. You will need to reload the page of the search engine by doing a "Refresh". Try to make a request. If it works, you can put back the security level to medium.

For more detailed information, see this page from Internet Explorer website
How to Manage Cookies in Internet Explorer 6