Orbitz and priceline.com announced a multi-service travel marketing agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, priceline.com will be Orbitz’s exclusive partner for opaque travel services effective January 1, 2006. The agreement also restructures the hotel marketing contract between Orbitz and priceline.com’s Travelweb hotel business unit to allow Orbitz to establish direct relationships with hotel chains and properties. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“This agreement aligns two of travel’s best-known brands in their respective fields,” said Mitch Truwit, President and Chief Executive Officer of Orbitz. “Our opaque partnership with priceline.com will give Orbitz customers access to a broad inventory of their Name Your Own Price travel services, so customers who are flexible in their travel plans can maximize savings. By directly negotiating with hotels, such as Marriott, Starwood, Hyatt, Hilton, and Intercontinental, Orbitz will have the flexibility to provide our customers with even more hotel options.”

“We’re pleased to have Orbitz as a marketing partner,” said Jeffery H. Boyd, priceline.com’s President and CEO. “Orbitz is one of the nation’s fastest growing retail travel services and we believe that the promotion of priceline.com by Orbitz and its affiliated companies using the Orbitz platform, Cheap Tickets and Lodging.com, should enable priceline.com to reach an even larger base of potential customers for our opaque hotel rooms, rental cars, airline tickets and vacation packages.”
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