Utell Hotels & Resorts (a service of Pegasus Solutions) and Milestone Internet Marketing have entered into a five-year renewable partnership to augment Utell’s market-leading representation support with Milestone’s award-winning online marketing services. As the world’s largest third-party hotel marketing, sales and representation company, Utell serves more than 11,000 member hotels, which can now benefit from Milestone’s top-rated, revenue-driving Internet marketing services.The partnership was forged to relieve the burden on hotels to achieve visibility in a crowded marketplace suffering from dwindling demand, according to Ric Leutwyler, president of Utell.

“Utell’s member hotels, which already employ Pegasus’ distribution and booking solutions, are facing an incredibly difficult task in 2009, along with the rest of the industry,” said Leutwyler. “While travel demand may shrink or stagnate, we know that online bookings are actually expected to increase. Given our responsibility to help our hotels succeed, we’ve aligned with Milestone to provide its award-winning search marketing strategy to our members so they can break through the online noise.”

 

Milestone, which offers Internet marketing services including Web site design, search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, social media optimization and email marketing, was honored with 11 awards in 2008, including three Adrian Awards for its creative brilliance and best practices in Internet marketing. The company will focus on offering Utell customers tailored solutions that complement their current offering from Pegasus, according to Anil Aggarwal, CEO of Milestone.

 

“With Pegasus’ leading solutions provided via Utell, from booking and connectivity to representation, the company is already focused on driving the greatest revenue from the Internet for hotels,” said Aggarwal. “Milestone’s market-leading Internet marketing services take this online offering to the next level. Our online marketing technology and innovative approach to promoting Web sites - including advanced Web 2.0 elements like online videos, blogs, and social media - make these sites among the most advanced in the hotel industry. As a result, they drive significant return on investment. With a tough economic outlook for the lodging industry in 2009, the combined forces of Utell and Milestone will enable hotels to grab a larger market share and minimize negative effects from damaging market forces.”

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