Gómez Performance Index For Hotels: May 15 - June 15, 2004

The Gómez Performance Index (GPI) for Hotels benchmarks end-to-end response time and availability performance of leading hotel and third-party travel services Web sites executing a multi-step transaction -- the ubiquitous hotel room search. The steps measured consist of navigating to the homepage; initiating a search query; and gathering room details and rate information.

To read the complete methodology for the Hotels GPI, please click here.

Data Analysis
Marriott continues to be the leader in Response Time category in the most recent Gómez Performance Index (GPI) for Hotels. With a site upgrade during previous measurement period, Travelocity showed improved response time at the beginning of this measurement period. However, its response time gradually increased, and is approaching its historical average.

Response Time
Marriott showed an average response time of 4.68 seconds and maintained top rank in this GPI category. With a 1.12 second increase in average response time, Choice Hotels dropped to the third rank. In contrast, response time for Expedia averaged 0.70 second less than the previous measurement period, enabling the site to vault into second place. Hotels.com ranked fourth with an average response time of 10.03 seconds, and was the only other site to outperform the benchmark average.

Success Rate
The Hotels GPI showed an average success rate of 98.77%. Historical comparison shows that success rate continues to improve across all participating sites. Ramada achieved the top rank with an impressive 100% success rate. Expedia maintained its second rank with 99.40% success rate. Hotels.com and Orbitz tied for the third rank at 99.38% success rate. Marriott closely followed, ranking fifth in this category.

Gómez, the Internet Performance Management Company, is a trusted leader in measuring effectiveness of corporate and e-commerce Web sites for the world's largest companies. Since 1997, Gómez has provided performance measurement, benchmarking and strategic insight to help build successful e-businesses. From the industry's strongest, most respected heritage of Internet performance measurement, Gómez -- via the Gómez Performance Network -- is the only company to monitor across last-mile connections, delivering faster, actionable intelligence through its proprietary service. To learn more, visit www.gomez.com.

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Gómez helps companies understand the impact of performance as well as usability and functionality relative to the online customer experience. The site elements we benchmark are instrumental in shaping overall customer satisfaction, and drive customers' willingness to utilize the online channel. Gómez follows the travel, retail and financial services industries, measuring the business effectiveness of Internet offerings.