Hotwire Online Travel Site to be 'Powered by Pegasus-TM-' for Hotel Reservations
Pegasus Solutions Joins Eland Technologies, Sabre and Scient on Hotwire's Best-of-Breed Technology Team
Dallas-based Pegasus Solutions, Inc.
Formed by the Texas Pacific Group with investments from six major U.S.-based airline carriers, Hotwire enables consumers to easily obtain the best-negotiated prices for airline tickets, hotels and rental cars and plans to launch its online hotel booking capabilities in fourth quarter of this year. The airline reservations portion of www.hotwire.com is expected to be fully available late October, followed by rental car capabilities by end-of-year 2000.
Under its agreement with Hotwire, Pegasus joins Eland Technologies, Sabre TSG and Scient SCNT on the best-of-breed technology team assembled by Hotwire. "Pegasus is a terrific addition to our top-quality group of technology partners. They are helping us to quickly and efficiently launch our Web site's hotel component, so the needs of consumers and hotel suppliers will be effectively met in an economical fashion," said Gregg Brockway, Hotwire's co-founder and executive vice president, corporate development. "Pegasus has extensive experience in the online travel arena and brings us broad direct connectivity to the worldwide hotel industry. Pegasus represents one-stop communications access to hotel partners worldwide and will enhance our ability to deliver the best prices and a hassle-free experience to travelers."
To protect the integrity of participating hotels' room rates and to provide consumers with the lowest rate available for their chosen date and type of hotel, Hotwire will utilize a unique "opaque bid" method of having suppliers compete behind a "brand shield" for each customer. The selected hotel brand and precise property location will be shielded from the consumer until after the consumer has provided a credit card and purchased a room. This methodology will enable Hotwire to provide rate deals that are consistently lower than published prices, making travel more affordable for consumers.
The flexibility of Pegasus' service allows Hotwire to access exclusive discounted rates at any of the 36,000 hotels in Pegasus' Online Distribution Database, once hotels have agreed with Hotwire to participate. When a consumer enters their date of stay, quality of hotel based on five-star system, and general geographic preference within a city, the Pegasus Electronic Distribution Switch directly queries the participating hotels' central reservation systems, ensuring that the rate and availability are accurate and provided in "real-time." "That's one of the beauties of working with Pegasus – we do not have to create a separate database of inventory to store hotels' rates. When a consumer searches for a rate on Hotwire, they are actually accessing the hotel's own inventory directly – providing the most up-to-date rates and availability," Brockway said.
Hotwire also will have the ability to fully integrate Pegasus' hotel information/content and booking engine into the www.hotwire.com Web site design, allowing for customization of Web content.
According to John F. Davis III, Pegasus Solutions' president and chief executive officer, the agreement with Hotwire for aggregated supplier direct connections reflects a strategic opportunity for Pegasus to not only leverage its central connectivity position in the hotel industry, but also to participate as a supplier of hotel inventory from the Pegasus-owned brands of Utell, Summit Hotels & Resorts, Golden Tulip Worldwide, and Sterling Hotels & Resorts. "Through our technology arrangement with Hotwire, we will be supporting a fresh distribution channel for our hotel customers, including Pegasus-owned representation brands, to better manage and sell their perishable excess inventory," Davis said. "We are pleased to join the stellar group of folks on Hotwire's technology team in helping to build a new line of distribution that has great potential to cost-effectively serve travelers and hoteliers alike."
Through its customers' affiliates, Pegasus Solutions "powers" the online hotel reservations on more than 1,000 Web sites, providing detailed property information, photographs and real-time reservations at thousands of hotels. A sampling of online travel agency sites Pegasus "powers" includes TravelNow.com, Lastminute.com, TravelWeb.com and Expedia.com. According to industry analyst Forrester Research, online hotel sales are expected to grow to $5.7 billion in 2004.
Company Information
Hotwire (www.hotwire.com) has created a new way to buy leisure travel that allows flexible consumers to gain access to the best deals, easily and without exception. Hotwire's unique method of having suppliers compete for each customer means it will provide deals that are consistently lower than published prices and make travel more affordable. Hotwire's founding airline partners are American, American West, Continental, Northwest, United, and U.S. Airways. Headquartered in San Francisco, Hotwire was established in 1999 with an initial $75-million investment from Texas Pacific Group and its founding airline partners.
Dallas-based Pegasus Solutions, Inc. (www.pegs.com) is a leading provider of end-to-end reservation distribution solutions to the hotel industry worldwide. Its services include central reservation systems; third-party marketing and reservation representation services, including Utell, Summit Hotels & Resorts, Golden Tulip Worldwide, and Sterling Hotels & Resorts; electronic distribution services that connect more than 36,000 hotels to the Internet and to the global distribution systems (GDS); commission processing and payment services; the consumer travel Web site TravelWeb.com (www.travelweb.com); and data warehousing and database marketing and consulting services. Pegasus' customers comprise more than 100,000 travel agencies around the world, including nine of the 10 largest U.S.-based travel agencies(1); approximately 38,000 hotel properties around the globe, including 18 of the 20 largest hotel companies in the world based on revenues and total number of guest rooms(2); and 181 Web sites/services have contracted to have their hotel reservations Powered by Pegasus(TM). In addition to its corporate headquarters in Dallas, Pegasus has 39 offices in 25 countries, including regional hubs in Phoenix, London and Singapore. The company's stock is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol PEGS.
(1) Travel Weekly, June 26, 2000, "Top 50 Travel Agencies" (2) Business Travel News, May 29, 2000, "The Top Hotel Companies"
Michael Brophy
(214) 234 4400
