Search Engines and Content Penalties

[skunker]

Hi everyone,
I am in the final stages of a new travel related website that is about to embark into the world wide web. The site allows visitors to rate and review local hotels and condominiums in my local city (much like the way Amazon lets you review products). The site contains lots of fresh and original guides that have been written for people interested in exploring the city.

However, I am concerned about one thing: Content Duplication.

I am importing hotel and condo data from hotel affiliate websites that make the content available for people like me. No doubt, there have been thousands of other people copying and pasting just like I am doing. Will Search Engines penalize my site for copying and pasting this content that hotel affiliates make available? Does anyone know if I should re-write this content in my own words rather than just copying and pasting the info from the affiliates? There are like 100s of hotels and condos descriptions that I'd have to re-write.

Any thoughts? Tips? Opinions? Thanks.

[ska_demon]

I don't think you can avoid the duplication issue really. Saying that, one hotel room description is going to be pretty much the same as any other. It is the reviews, write ups, testimonials and guides that will set your site apart from everyone elses. I wouldn't worry about the dupe content filter too much and would concentrate on providing some original work that will be of benefit to your users.

Ska