TravelWeb Records Best Month Ever, Celebrates One-Year Anniversary with First Million-Dollar Month

DALLAS, December 19, 1996 - November marked TravelWeb's (www.travelweb.com) first month to process $1 million worth of Internet hotel reservations, Dallas-based Pegasus Systems, Inc. announced today. Just one year ago, TravelWeb was the first travel Internet site to launch on-line, real-time hotel booking. Since then, consumers have used the Web site to book more than $5.5 million in credit-card guaranteed hotel reservations.

"This is a clear indication of the acceptance of electronic commerce on the Web," said John F. Davis III, CEO of Pegasus Systems, "Even more encouraging is the pace in which it is growing. November's bookings represent nearly 20 percent of TravelWeb's total volumes for the year, and we're seeing this trend continue in our December bookings as well. This is phenomenal growth."

Daily, TravelWeb receives about 16,000 individual visitors living in more than 110 countries. The consumer-friendly Internet site is owned by Pegasus Systems, whose shareholders comprise most of the world's largest hotel companies, including Best Western, Choice, Forte, HFS, Hilton, Hyatt, ITT Sheraton, La Quinta, Marriott, Promus and Westin. TravelWeb is the world's leading hotel and airline reservations site with photos and descriptions of more than 13,000 hotels in 125 countries.

"Recently on TravelWeb we've experienced a surge in international usage and an increasing shift to business-related bookings. It's an interesting indicator of how and where the Internet is being used," Davis said.

Nine months ago, 15 percent of TravelWeb users were accessing the site from outside the U.S. Today, this number has increased to 31 percent with the majority of TravelWeb's international bookings coming from users in the following countries:

1. Japan

2. Brazil

3. Canada

4. Germany

5. South Korea

6. Italy

7. United Kingdom

8. Hong Kong

Over the last several months, TravelWeb bookings by individuals reserving a hotel room for one person are also on the rise, indicating increased usage of TravelWeb for the booking of business trips. During May and June, only 28 percent of all TravelWeb reservations were for single travelers. This increased to 43 percent of all bookings made during November and October.

Latest Offerings from TravelWeb

TravelWeb recently launched a new discount program called Click-it! Weekends. This new feature changes weekly and offers hotels' lowest published rates for the coming weekend. With this feature, TravelWeb is the first site on the World Wide Web to offer last-minute weekend discount hotel rates that can be instantly reserved on-line. In August, TravelWeb added airline reservations and will add car rental reservations in 1997. "TravelWeb has proven itself to be the perfect Web site for the 'book-it-yourself traveler' who needs 'one-stop' travel reservations," Davis said.

Dallas-based TravelWeb(sm) Inc. (www.travelweb.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Pegasus Systems, Inc., enables consumers to reserve and purchase airline tickets on more than 300 airlines and make secure, credit-card guaranteed reservations at nearly 13,000 hotels in more than 125 countries worldwide, including 67 different hotel brands and 12 of the world's largest hotel chains. TravelWeb users in more than 110 countries access more than 2.5 million pages per month. Pegasus Systems, Inc., the parent company of TravelWeb, Inc., THISCO (TM)and HCC(TM), is the leading provider of global hotel distribution technology solutions. Owned by 15 of the world's leading hotel and travel companies, Pegasus Systems recently sold $7.5 million in stock to investment company Trident Capital, whose largest investor is Dun & Bradstreet.

TravelWeb is a service mark of TravelWeb, Inc. THISCO is the trademark of The Hotel Industry Switch Company.