Utell, a subsidiary of Pegasus Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: PEGS), today announced it will be one of the first hotel suppliers to be distributed through newly formed Hotel Distribution System (HDS), LLC. Announced yesterday, HDS is a venture of Pegasus Solutions and five hotel chains - Hilton Hotels, Hyatt Corporation, Marriott International, Six Continents Hotels and Starwood Hotels - that will market hotel rooms over the Internet through multiple online sites using a “merchant” business model. The HDS venture is owned equally by the six companies.

Utell is the hotel industry’s largest third-party marketing and reservations provider.

“Through the HDS venture, Utell hotel members will be able to electronically supply discounted rates to HDS and its affiliates, such as Orbitz, through Utell’s Web-based NetRez system,” said Mark Wells, president and chief operating officer of Utell. “No longer will our member properties need to provide their discounted room inventory manually. Through NetRez, properties will dynamically open or close access to their discounted room inventory based on their last-minute occupancy needs.”
According to Forrester Research, the number of Americans making online travel purchases increased nearly 17 percent in 2001, to 17.8 million U.S. households. Forrester also predicts that online leisure travel sales will total $14.2 billion in 2001, despite a 20 percent drop in overall travel industry revenues for the year.

www.pegs.com

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