Hotwire Hotel Sales Triple
Hotwire, the premier discount travel site, today announced its hotel sales grew 300% from September 2001 to February 2002.
In addition, Hotwire hotels posted two consecutive record weeks in February, topping all prior sales and revenue levels since the product`s launch. Contributing to record sales and revenue, Hotwire hotels added the following components since September.
4,000 new hotel partners, including all Six Continents Hotels brands in the United States. Hotwire`s total hotel partner base now stands at more than 6,000 U.S. hotels.
100 new cities and resort destinations. Hotwire Hot-RatesSM are now sold in 150 U.S. cities.
“Consumers continue to show an overwhelming preference for our posted price model over Priceline`s bidding model” said Spencer Rascoff
, Hotwire vice president of hotels. “Our proven ability to deliver room nights is why we were able to add 4,000 new hotel partners and more than 100 cities in the last several months.”
“Hotwire has grown into one of the largest and most important distribution channels for a hotel company like ours,” said Chris Heinz, senior vice president of distribution for Wyndham International
. “Not only do they help us sell our excess inventory, but their opaque model allows them to do it without impacting our brand-loyal customers”.
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Hotels use Hotwire to target new customers who are brand indifferent. Hotwire`s `brand-shielded` model hides the name of the hotel until after the customer purchases a room. By discounting anonymously through Hotwire, hotels improve occupancy and comfortably avoid price dilution of their published rates.
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