Pegasus Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: PEGS) announced today that it has signed a ground-breaking Internet distribution agreement with the world`s 10th largest hotel company2: Carlson Hospitality Worldwide. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn., Carlson`s hotel brands include Radisson Hotels & Resorts, Country Inns & Suites By Carlson, Regent International Hotels and Park Plaza and Park Inn hotels in North America, Asia and Australia. Pegasus Solutions is a leading provider of technology services to the hotel industry.
Under the agreement, Pegasus and Carlson will jointly develop a direct connection to Carlson`s central reservations system (CRS), for the first time enabling all of Carlson`s 800-plus hotel properties in 63 countries to be instantly available for online real-time booking via the thousands of sites that are “Powered by PegasusTM”. Through its direct connections to the CRSs of more than 42,000 properties, Pegasus provides extensive hotel property information and online booking capabilities to online travel agency sites and Internet services around the world such as Orbitz, TravelWeb.com, HDS LLC, Lastminute.com, HRS, TravelChannel.de, Hotwire, and Ebookers.com.
“We are absolutely thrilled to have won Carlson as an Internet distribution customer,” said John F. Davis III, chief executive officer and chairman of the board, Pegasus Solutions.
“Consumers worldwide will now have the ability to book Radissons and other Carlson hotel brands via our site, as well as on the thousands of other sites that we power. With this signing, we can now offer Web sites and their consumers booking access to all of the 50 biggest hotel brands in the world , along with thousands of smaller chains and independent properties. This agreement represents a major milestone for Pegasus Solutions,” Davis said.
Christine Brosnahan, vice president, reservations and distribution services, Carlson Hospitality Worldwide said, “Radisson was the first hotel company to create the `Seamless` online booking process. As more and more travelers make their plans online, we want Carlson`s hotels to be available wherever consumers may go searching on the Web. This link to Pegasus gives us even more reach to more sites on the Internet.”
“Plus, the online content that we can provide via Pegasus is superior to that which we can provide through the GDS-powered sites. Content is really what rules in the hotel world. Internet sites need consumer-friendly property and rate descriptions, unlimited photos, streaming video, maps, and more. Our hotels are excited about this new agreement with Pegasus,” Brosnahan said.
By the end of third quarter 2002, all of the Carlson properties are expected to be added to Pegasus` extensive Online Distribution Database, which is the database that feeds photos and detailed property information to all the sites in Pegasus` Online Distribution Network. All of Carlson`s properties are expected to be available for online booking at that time.
According to Carlson, during the first quarter of 2002, its Internet bookings represented 10 percent of its total reservations. Additionally, Carlson`s first quarter 2002 Internet bookings were up 81 percent over the same period in 2001.
According to Forrester Research projections, the number of Americans making online travel purchases in 2002 will grow to 23.3 million U.S. households. Forrester also predicts that online leisure travel sales will total $20.4 billion in 2002, and hotel reservations booked online will reach $3.8 billion.
According to ComScore Networks, sales at U.S. travel sites reached $7 billion in the first quarter of 2002, an impressive increase of 87 percent versus the same period in 2001, and accounted for 41 percent of total consumer e-commerce sales.
——-