As part of its strategy to take advantage of consumers` growing attraction to online hotel bookings, priceline.com

this week is executing a major shift in its advertising strategy as it unveils a multi-million-dollar TV, radio and online ad campaign focused entirely
on its hotel reservations business.

 
The campaign marks another “first” for priceline.com. For the
first time in its advertising, priceline.com compares its hotel
savings with room rates offered by leading online hotel booking
services and shows how priceline.com customers can save up to 40
percent for the same top-of-the-line hotels. The additional savings
are possible because priceline.com customers are flexible in their
travel plans—they give priceline.com the caliber of hotel they want
and the exact neighborhood they want, then let priceline.com pick the
hotel from its inventory of major-brand, quality hotels.

 
The hotel campaign is one of priceline.com`s largest in recent
years. The TV element covers both national cable and spot network in
selected major markets. The TV spots, with William Shatner narrating,
feature a series of vignettes where travelers compare priceline.com`s
hotel room quality and savings with Hotels.com

, Expedia.com

and
Travelocity.com

. Priceline.com plans to complement its TV coverage
with national and local radio and online campaigns.

  “Hotel reservations represents one of the fastest growing segments
of the online travel industry and we want to make it known that we
provide superior value and savings in that category for leisure
travelers,” said Priceline Hotels President Chris Soder. Priceline
Hotels has sold over 8,000,000 hotel room nights, with about half of
those room nights being booked in the last 12 months.

 
Priceline.com operates a global hotel service, with over 9,000
hotel properties covering the U.S., Europe, Asia, Canada, Mexico and
the Caribbean. All of the country`s major hotel chains work with
priceline.com, giving priceline.com inventory across multiple star
quality categories from the economical 1-star properties to luxurious
5-star properties and resorts.

 
Related stories on ITN:

(04/12/2002) Airlines Serve Up Special Savings Through Priceline.com

(29/10/2002) Priceline.com Hotel Service Expands To Asia

(21/10/2002) Priceline Launches New Last-Minute Travel Service
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