Continental Chooses Travelweb For Online Hotel Offerings

DALLAS & HOUSTON—Continental Airlines has announced that it will be offering hotel rooms from Travelweb’s inventory on its website, continental.com, starting in the first quarter of 2003. Travelweb’s net-rate hotel room inventory will allow the airline to offer discounted airfare and hotel packages, all branded to consumers as a Continental product. This will allow the airline—the sixth-largest in the world– to tap into the lucrative online hospitality market, which is expected to reach $7.9 billion in 2003, and to market hotel packages to some of the estimated 40 million Americans who have already purchased travel online. Travelweb’s system allows hoteliers to offer consumers the most current discounted hotel rooms directly from hotels central reservations systems, and to dynamically allocate net-rate inventory. The direct connection to the reservations systems is intended to reduce booking errors and offer more flexibility to both the consumer and hotelier. Travelweb, which is jointly owned by Hilton Hotels Corporation, Hyatt Corporation, Marriott International, Six Continents Hotels, Starwood Hotels, and Pegasus Solutions, has also recently expanded its upscale inventory through distribution agreements with Omni Hotels and Kimpton Boutique Hotels.