Park Plaza Hotels Form One Brand

MINNEAPOLIS— Park Plaza hotels, part of Carlson Hotels Worldwide based here, has finalized an agreement with its brand partners, London-based Park Plaza Hotels Europe and Sarovar Park Plaza Hotels of India, to unify many areas of the company, including global distribution systems, marketing and brand management. While the entities will continue to operate within their current leadership structures, each has agreed to work together to create global consistency in reservations, operations, marketing, and employee development. Specific points of the agreement include creating unified graphics standards, sales collateral, website booking capabilities, and signage. In addition, they will work in conjunction to establish a global corporate rate program and marketing consortia to pool marketing resources worldwide. For travel agents, this agreement means they will book the global Park Plaza brand using the chain code “PK” for Park Plaza locations. Also, the inventory for all Park Plaza hotels will be listed in the “Curtis-C” reservation system, which increases the booking and earning potential for travel agents who participate in the Look To Book travel agent relationship program.