Market Metrix Announces Fourth Quarter 2003 Hospitality Index Results - Membership in Frequent-Stay Programs Doubles Repeat Business; Programs Grow Nearly 12 Percent in 2003

Frequent-Stay Programs on the Rise

Guests are finding frequent-stay, or hotel loyalty, programs increasingly important. The number of guests enrolled in frequent-stay programs grew in 2003 by nearly 12 percent. The number of guests who indicated that membership in a hotel's frequent-stay program was "very important" in selecting their most recent hotel stay rose steadily throughout 2003, with a 25 percent annual increase.

"Features like transferability of points and instant redemption, combined with no blackout dates and no point expiration, are making it faster and easier for members to redeem their points for hotel and merchandise rewards and are helping drive guests to join such programs in greater numbers," said Jonathan Barsky, Ph.D., Market Metrix co-founder and partner and University of San Francisco marketing professor. "This is welcome news for hotels, because members of hotel loyalty programs are nearly twice as likely to return to a hotel compared to non-members. Beyond the repeat hotel business that these programs encourage, club members typically spend more per room, are less sensitive to price increases and are more satisfied with their hotel experience."

Members of a hotel's loyalty program are much more likely to make their reservations online than non-members. Loyalty club members use the Internet 43 percent of the time to make their hotel reservations. Non-members go online only 32 percent of the time to book their hotel rooms. Loyalty club members who make their reservations online are more likely to use the hotel or brand's website versus general travel sites than non-members. Fifty-nine percent of loyalty club members use the hotel or brand's website to make their online reservations. Non-members use these websites considerably less -- only 27 percent of the time.

MMHI Top-Hospitality Rankings Q4 2003

• Hotel - Walt Disney World Resorts
• Airline - Jet Blue Airways
• Car Rental - Enterprise Rent-A-Car

• Luxury Hotels - Hotel IntercontinentalHotel Intercontinental won the "Luxury" segment for the first time, edging out the Ritz Carlton, as well as the Four Seasons, which previously ranked in two "Luxury" hotel brands every quarter, dropping this quarter to fourth place.

• Upscale Hotels - Walt Disney World ResortsBrand has won the category for the last six quarters in a row.

• Upper Mid-Price Hotels - Country Inns & Suites by CarlsonAlthough their rooms are priced at about half that of rooms in the "Luxury" category, Country Inns & Suites scored higher in satisfaction than three out of six "Luxury" hotel brands.

• Mid-Price Hotels - Drury InnsDrury Inns beat four of six "Luxury" brands in customer satisfaction scores, despite selling rooms at less than half the reported rate of those in the "Luxury" category.

• Economy Hotels - La Quinta InnsLa Quinta won the category for the first time.

• Extended-Stay Hotels - CandlewoodCandlewood has placed top in the category for two straight quarters. Candlewood and Homewood Suites have been the top two "Extended-Stay Hotel" brands for the last six quarters.

• Casino - Golden NuggetGolden Nugget won in the overall "Casino" category for the second time in the past three quarters.

• Upscale Casino - BellagioThe Venetian has consistently ranked in the top two among upscale casinos. This quarter, however, the Mirage was the runner-up.

• Hotel Reservations Website -- Hotel Brand - Wyndham

• Hotel Reservations Website -- Travel - Hotwire.com

About MMHI - The Market Metrix Hospitality Index is a quarterly report of customer satisfaction with hotel, airline and car rental companies based on 35,000 in-depth consumer interviews. The MMHI ranks top hospitality brands by industry and, for hotels, by categories such as luxury, mid-price and economy. Detailed, in-depth and customized reports are available for subscribers. No other customer satisfaction index offers MMHI's reporting frequency, volume of customer interviews, cross-industry results or innovative satisfaction measures.

The MMHI contains 135 hotel brands, 25 airlines and 11 car rental companies. The wealth of data is presented in an easy-to-use format, enabling subscribers to quickly identify trends and find best practices. Subscribers can measure their company's stand-alone performance and dynamically benchmark their ratings against those of self-selected competitors and highly ranked companies within and across the other hospitality industries. In addition to standard measures of customer satisfaction, MMHI has pioneered several proprietary measures. Hospitality companies that provide Loyalty Emotions -- select emotional experiences for customers, such as "pampered," "relaxed" or "hip/cool," depending on category and niche -- obtain higher rates and can increase prices with fewer defections. Loyalty Program Strength measures the relative success of a company's loyalty program compared to other programs in the industry. The Secure Customer measures a customer's intent to return and likelihood of recommending the hospitality company, important indicators of satisfaction.

About Market Metrix - Market Metrix, LLC was founded in 1996 by partners Jonathan Barsky, Ph.D., and Lenny Nash to provide the hospitality industry with better customer and employee satisfaction measurement programs and management tools. In addition to MMHI, Market Metrix provides clients with award-winning survey systems and strategic services. Market Metrix also operates the Consumer Research Center, which provides focus group facilities, data entry services and a state-of-the-art specialty call center. Based in San Rafael, Calif., Market Metrix is partner-owned and has 50 employees. For more information, log onto or call 1-800-239-7515. CONTACT: Sarah Conner, 1-800-239-7515, or +1-415-721-1300