Choicehotels.com, worldwide lodging franchisor Choice Hotels International`s (NYSE:CHH) proprietary web site, has received the #1 ranking for transactional success rate and the #2 ranking for transactional response time in the inaugural Gomez Performance Index for Hotels, the industry`s first and only monthly measurement of transactional performance.
According to the index, travelers searching and viewing rates for a hotel room at Choicehotels.com experienced the industry`s most reliable site with an average transactional success rate of 99.97%, exceeding the benchmark average of 98.39%.
Choicehotels.com also provided this information faster than all proprietary chain sites in 5.7 seconds and finished second overall in the monthly benchmark. The benchmark average for all sites was 10.6 seconds.
The Gomez Performance Index for Hotels measures a multi-step online task that includes the following: access the company`s homepage; navigate to the hotel section of the Web site; initiate a search request for a hotel room in Boston on a date greater than three months away; select the first hotel presented in the search results; click to view rates; and end the transaction.
“Throughout the development and evolution of Choicehotels.com, our mandate has been clear - to make the site user-friendly for travelers,” said Mary Beth Knight, Choice Hotels` vice president, e-commerce. “This validation of our effectiveness, from the industry`s oldest and most trusted measure of application performance, is tremendously rewarding.”
Launched in 1995 as one of the lodging industry`s first proprietary web sites, Choicehotels.com markets the company`s Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, MainStay Suites, Econo Lodge and Rodeway Inn brand hotels to travelers worldwide. The site offers content in English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese, a special online rate and an e-rate guarantee.
Choice Hotels International is one of the world`s largest lodging franchisors, marketing more than 5,000 hotels open or under development in 48 countries and territories under the Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, MainStay Suites, Econo Lodge, and Rodeway Inn are brand names. For more information on Choice, visit the company`s web site at www.choicehotels.com.
Gomez, the Internet Performance Management Company, is a trusted leader in measuring effectiveness of corporate and e-commerce Web sites for the world`s largest companies. Since 1997, Gomez has provided performance measurement, benchmarking and strategic insight to help build successful e-businesses. From the industry`s strongest, most respected heritage of Internet performance measurement, Gomez—via the Gomez Performance Network—is the only company to monitor across last-mile connections, delivering faster, actionable intelligence through its proprietary service. Visit the company`s web site at www.gomez.com; the Gomez Performance Index for Hotels can be viewed at http://www.gomez.com/main.aspx?m=5&s=3&x=5.
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