Accor Launches The Affiliation Programme For Accorhotels.Com And Boosts It Sales On The Internet

May 4, 2001 . - Accor Launches "Accorhotel Affiliates", the affiliation programme for Accorhotels.com, the Group's hotel reservation portal on the Internet, thus arming itself with a new way of improving its sales.

"Accorhotel Affiliates" offers Internet site partners, those close to the Group's business activities (for example sites focusing on travel, family, senior citizens, golf, sport in general, weather, etc.), to include a link on their web pages directing the Internet user towards Accorhotels.com. In this way, with a single click, surfers can access the real-time, on-line worldwide reservation service, for the Group's 3,500 hotels.

This programme is part of Accorhotels.com's international communications plan, launched at the start of the year. This helps to increase the visibility of Accor's hotel-offering on the Internet and to multiply sales opportunities. The ultimate goal is to achieve 20% of sales from Accorhotels.com via the affiliation platform. Once launched in France, "Accorhotel Affiliates" will be extended to Germany and the United Kingdom next June. Other countries, such as Australia, are being studied.

A service with added value and attractive remuneration Affiliated sites offer their visitors a service with real added value, covering the whole extent of the hotel market (0 to 5 stars) across the world, and helps to obtain additional revenues. Each affiliate is remunerated depending on the number of room-nights generated (6 euros for Sofitel, 3 euros for Novotel, 3 euros for Mercure, 1 euro for Ibis).

Quick and easy online registration and real-time monitoring A site wishing to join "Accorhotel Affiliates" registers online under the heading "Become Affiliate" of Accorhotels.com. After its registration has been confirmed, it then receives a password and access code for downloading the Accorhotels.com link.

Each affiliate can consult its reporting, online and in real-time, with the details of the nightly reservations generated and the amount of remuneration.

A large choice of links that cover all requirements Today, "Accorhotel Affiliates" offers different types of links:

• A link towards Accor's offers around the world, with or without the booking engine. This engine allows you to select your destination city and chosen banner on the affiliated site before being directed towards Accorhotels.com which proposes the list of Accor hotels present at the destination site.
• A link towards the Accor hotels in a city (for example, for city guides the tourist offices...).

Very soon, "Accorhotel Affiliates" will offer links towards each brand-name (Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure, Ibis…) and towards each of the Group's hotels.

Accorhotels.com, the Group's portal for hotel bookings and brand-name sites, had 12 million visitors over the year 2000. Since the start of the 2nd quarter 2001, Accorhotels.com and the sites of the Group's brands have recorded 70,000 visits a day - a figure which is more than double that of the end of last year. Today, across the world, every 17 seconds, a room-night is reserved via the internet in an Accor hotel.

With 130,000 associates in 140 countries, Accor is the European leader and one of the world's largest groups in travel, tourism and corporate services, with two major international activities:

• hotels: 3,500 hotels (400,000 rooms) in 90 countries, travel agencies, restaurants and casinos;
• services to corporate clients and public institutions: each day, 12 million people in 31 countries use a broad range of services (Food Vouchers, People's Care, Expenses Management, Incentive / Events) engineered and managed by Accor.