SAN FRANCISCO Hotwire, a new travel website for price-conscious consumers, launched today bringing added competition to the discount travel market.
The site is currently partnered with leading airlines to offer discounted fares, and plans to add hotel companies to its distribution within the next few months.
We will be launching with hotels in the top 25 markets, including downtown, suburban, and entrainment locations, said John Savage, director/hotel relations at Hotwire. We have hotels with various numbers of stars, although 3 star [hotels]are most commonly requested.
Hotwire hopes to provide a vehicle for suppliers to discount and sell inventory that would otherwise go unsold.
By allowing the specific brand of product to remain anonymous during the pricing process, Hotwire helps generate incremental demand and permits the hotels to discount more aggressively than they can in their traditional channels. (10/24/00) Diana M .Rodriguez