LivingSocial offers local discounts

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Discount coupons are available online, but all you need to do is sign up at LivingSocial .

The deeper discounts give you everything from cheaper prices at dinner, to massages and even facials.

SegCity Segway City Tours is the latest way to tour the town, but the premium cost puts it out of the price range for many. However, that is where LivingSocial comes in to help.

"I had never heard of LivingSocial before,” said DeAnn Dowell, with SegCity Segway City Tours.

She signed SegCity up for the deal and became the first deal offered in the Austin area by the discount Web site. The Web-based deal offered a $75 tour for less than half the price.

"It discounts the price enough to where people who are usually put off by the price, it's now affordable to them," said Dowell.

Just a day on LivingSocial brought in to the downtown tourist business 100 customers wanting to enjoy the tours.

"How else could you get in front of thousands of people in a 24-hour period and be featured, be the sole business that all of these Facebook, Twitter and LivingSocial users are looking at each and every morning," said Colleen Hannifin, with LivingSocial Austin.

The group-buying program is just a few months old in Austin and is similar to another Internet group-discount Web site, but LivingSocial is already having an impact in a tech-savvy market, especially with a team that knows the area.

"We are physically in the city, and we know the city very well,” said Hannifin. “We have lived here for years and years and years, and we know the market. Most of our competitors are not here in the city."

This is the seventh city that LivingSocial deals has entered, and they don't just plan to offer deals on tours but also on everything from the theater to meals at your local restaurant.

The Austin market is quickly catching on to the deals and benefits, and LivingSocial is satisfying a number of purses during a time when extras are premium.

“It's great exposure to use,” said Dowell. “I think they reach hundreds of thousands of people, so it just gets our name out there. If people haven't heard of us before, now they have."

LivingSocial offers daily deals, but you have to sign up at LivingSocial . There is also an iPhone app for the company.