Pegasus Solutions Powers Online Hotel Bookings for German Hotel Reservation Service HRS
DALLAS & COLOGNE, Germany - Pegasus Solutions, Inc.
HRS provides its corporate clients with password-protected access to the HRS corporate travel management system so that corporations' employees can make their hotel bookings online. Companies can integrate the HRS booking system into their company-wide Intranets and also arrange for company-negotiated hotel rates to be stored in the HRS system. More than 8,500 companies use the HRS system for online hotel bookings, including Electrolux, Unilever and Zeiss. As a result, all of these companies can now have access to Pegasus' technology through HRS for their online hotel bookings.
The agreement between HRS and Pegasus Solutions allows HRS' Web sites' users to select and book accommodations online by providing direct access to the central reservations systems of the hotels represented in Pegasus Solutions' Online Distribution Database that have specifically signed a negotiated rate agreement with HRS. Ranging from luxurious five-star hotels to independent family-run properties, more than 40 percent of the hotels in Pegasus' database are located outside the United States, and more than 1,200 of the hotels are located in Germany.
Kevin Short, Pegasus' senior vice president of operations and reservation services, said, "Our hotel customers encouraged HRS to sign an agreement with us. Previously, our hotel customers had to publish their hotel content in both the Pegasus database and the HRS system. Now that we have an interface to the HRS system, our hotel customers only have to load their property data into one system: our database, making it easier for them to leverage the distribution opportunities that HRS provides."
Other European Web sites that are Powered by Pegasus include United Kingdom-based ASE.net, Hotelnet.co.uk, LastMinute.com, , , Ebookers.com, LateRooms.com, and . Frankfurt, Germany-based Deutsche Bahn, Germany's National Rail Company, also recently signed with Pegasus Solutions.
Industry Statistics
- PhoCusWright reports the European online travel market is expected to more than triple from an estimated $2.9 billion worth of bookings in 2000 to more than $10.9 billion in 2002.
- According to Jupiter MMXI, Germany is the second largest online travel market in Europe, with 5.1 million unique visitors in January 2002.
- Jupiter MMXI estimates the European online travel market will be worth more than 20 billion EURO by 2006.
Company Information
Cologne, Germany-based Hotel Reservation Service (HRS) ( ; ) provides online hotel reservation services. Founded in 1972, HRS specializes in hotel reservations for business and leisure via its own worldwide reservation system and is available to customers through call centers, the Internet and Wireless Application Protocol (). HRS operates a self-developed electronic hotel reservation system that allows for direct reservations online.
Dallas-based Pegasus Solutions, Inc. (www.pegs.com) is a leading global provider of hotel reservation technologies. Its services include central reservations systems; electronic distribution services that connect more than 42,000 hotels to the Internet and to the global distribution systems (GDS); travel agent commission processing and payment services; the consumer Internet site TravelWeb.com (www.travelweb.com); the Utell marketing and reservation representation service (www.Utell.com); and PegasusCentral(TM), a Web-based enterprise solution with property management applications. Pegasus' customers comprise the majority of travel agencies around the world, including the top 10 largest U.S.-based travel agencies1; more than 46,000 hotel properties around the globe, including 48 of the 50 largest hotel brands in the world based on total number of guest rooms2; and thousands of Web sites/services have their hotel reservations Powered by Pegasus(TM). In addition to its corporate headquarters in Dallas, Pegasus has 22 offices in 16 countries, including regional hubs in Phoenix, London and Singapore. The company's stock is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol PEGS.
This statement contains references to future events and projected results, including anticipated transactions involving the Company and its service offerings. There can be no assurance that the referenced future events or projected results will actually occur or that the future financial performance of the Company will be as projected. Actual occurrences, results and performance may differ substantially and materially from those projected as a result of a number of risks and uncertainties, such as adverse changes in general market conditions for business and leisure travel as a result of additional terrorist activities, action by U.S. military forces, changes in hotel room rates, capacity adjustments by airlines, trends in the overall demand for travel, and the inherent difficulty in making projections during this period of uncertainty, as well as other risks and uncertainties mentioned in this statement or detailed in the Company's periodic reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2000.
1 Travel Weekly, June 25, 2001, "Top 50 Travel Agencies"
2 Hotel Business, February 7, 2001, "The Top Hotel Brands"
Michael Brophy
(214) 234 4400
Pegasus
