Cendant
Corporation’s Hotel Group today said it has signed an agreement with
Expedia Inc. and Hotels.com to distribute rooms for the more than 6,000
Cendant-franchised Super 8, Days Inn, Ramada, Travelodge,
Howard Johnson, Knights Inn, Villager, Wingate Inn and AmeriHost
Inn hotels worldwide. The agreement will ensure that Cendant-franchised hotels are displayed
prominently on Expedia.com(R) and Hotels.com when users search for rates
and availability, according to Peter Strebel, Cendant Hotel Group senior
vice president of sales and marketing. Cendant’s 6,349 franchised hotels
represent 509,932 rooms worldwide.

A direct connection for rates and reservations will be established between
Cendant’s central reservations system and Expedia(R) and Hotels.com, which
will reduce distribution costs and enable Cendant-franchised hotels to
manage Expedia and Hotels.com inventory on a real-time basis through their
property management systems, avoiding manual methods, Strebel said.

“While Cendant’s brand Web sites continue to contribute the single
greatest number of room nights from the Internet, this agreement provides
greater distribution for our franchisees and ensures that the nearly 30
million customers who shop via Expedia and Hotels.com each month will have
an early opportunity to consider our brands,” he said.

Cendant will approach this distribution relationship “with a mutual
commitment to quality and guest satisfaction,” he said. “Thanks to this
relationship, we now offer our franchisees broader distribution through
our net rate program.”

Cendant now has distribution agreements with eight major third-party
travel Web sites including Cheaptickets.com, Lodging.com, Orbitz.com
Travelocity.com, Travelweb.com and WorldRes.com. “The Expedia relationship
advances our rate parity strategy,” Strebel said.
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