London, 7th December 2006: Announced today in the UK, Best Western hotels will be bookable via a direct interface on the online hotel reservation platform www.travelres.com - powered by German-based hotel.de.  By this, more than 4,200 hotels of the Best Western group can be booked directly and immediately, with no delay, via www.travelres.com. 

Best Western is the first hotel group disposing of a direct interface to the online hotel reservation service www.travelres.com. Any reservation of a Best Western hotel activated through www.travelres.com will be transmitted directly into the hotel chain’s reservation system, i.e. CRS (Central Reservation System). Until now, the reservation was handled via the switch partner Pegasus. 

“The advantages for the booking customer resulting from this strategic partnership between www.travelres.com and Best Western are obvious“, says Reinhard Wick, CSO of hotel.de AG.  “The direct connection without any intermediate steps first of all guarantees a quicker availability check and in addition, assures a direct and thorough transmission of all relevant data.“ By means of so-called “direct connects“, all rate types and conditions are automatically displayed and the booker can use www.travelres,com as if he booked via the hotel’s own website. 

Bookers can now access Best Western early-bird rates, daily-updated best price rates and negotiated company rates. ”Besides process optimization achieved by a centrally operated data administration, the direct connect partnership with www.travelres.com supports our price and distribution strategy in an excellent way. Hotel rates, conditions, hotel information and availability are now displayed on www.travelres.com in the same way as on our own booking pages. With this direct interface www.travelres.com ensures an attractive and – above all – a customer-friendly display of our hotels,” says Carmen Dücker, Head of Electronic Distribution and Information at Best Western Hotels Germany. “Hotel descriptions are at the customers` disposal in eight languages, for example.  He explains: “We have declared www.travelres.com as our Preferred Partner in the segment of online sales, as this reservation platform presents our hotels in an adequate way, and at the same time supports our strategy of ensuring rate parity and reducing distribution costs.” 

Company Background:

** September 2006: Over the past five years, having implemented successfully hotel reservation service hotel.de in all German-speaking countries, the free-of-charge online service - offering 180,000 hotels worldwide – announced pushing ahead with its international programme under the domain name TravelRes. 

As a priority, the new UK office was set up in London / Wimbledon, to be followed by other important countries, including France, Italy and Spain in 2006 and 2007 (under the domains travelres.fr, travelres.it and travelres.es).

Heading up the UK TravelRes operation is Managing Director, Philipp Dostal, supported by Country Manager, Roger Niemeyer. Additionally, the UK sales team comprises Owen Easteal and Jolyon Harris.

** Established in 2001, hotel.de AG, based in Hamm and Nürnberg, Germany and London, UK runs a free of charge hotel reservation service for companies and private users on www.hotel.de, www.travelres.com, hotel.at and www.hotel.ch. TravelRes offers 180,000 hotels worldwide to be booked online. Compared to other booking channels, TravelRes customers benefit from considerable cost savings. These partially result from the very low hotel rates which TravelRes is able to negotiate with hotels, thanks to its high booking volume. Additionally, TravelRes always displays all rates available for every single hotel (e.g. promotional rates, corporate or weekend rates), so that the customer can choose the lowest or best-fitting rate. Another major advantage of TravelRes is the fact that booking confirmations are sent right into the hotel’s computer - making a reservation fast, safe and reliable. This is enabled by TravelRes’ unique integration of the hotels' central reservation systems (so-called CRS) under one consistent user surface. Well-known companies, such as Wella AG (subsidiary of Procter & Gamble), SAP AG, ThyssenKrupp AG, degussa AG, Logica CMG GmbH, Ernst & Young AG, Wal-Mart, Texas Instruments Inc., Deutsche Börse Group, Munich Re Group and others already use the TravelRes corporate application.

Best Western, counting more than 4,200 hotels (320,000 rooms) in 80 countries, is the largest hotel chain of the world. Best Western Hotels Deutschland GmbH, based in Eschborn, takes care of 162 hotels in Germany, Luxemburg and Poland, which have earned a turnover of 401 million Euros in 2005. All Best Western hotels are individually managed and independent, as far as the entrepreneurial side is concerned. The portfolio of the group offers city hotels, business and conference hotels as well as leisure hotels in popular holiday regions.

For further information:
TravelRes Ltd
The Old Church
89B Quicks Road
Wimbledon
London SW19 1EX
Philipp Dostal / Jill Faulds / Roger Niemeyer
Telephone: + 44 (0) 208 545 2678
Email: press@travelres.com
www.travelres.com