World's leading hotel brands guarantee Amadeus Best Available Rate

Madrid, 9 February , 2006: Amadeus, a global leader in technology and distribution solutions for the travel and tourism industry, today announced that thirty-seven leading hotel brands have signed up to its Best Available Rate programme. Participating hotels guarantee to supply Amadeus with rates that are the same or lower than those available through other distribution systems, branded websites or the hotel’s own call centre.

“Hotels are regaining control over their rates after the dark days of 2002 when they were forced to get rid of distressed inventory at rock-bottom prices. Since then, demand has returned and increasingly advanced Revenue Management technology has given hotels the leverage to direct their bookings through the higher-yield travel agency channel,” explains Antoine Medawar, Managing Director, Amadeus Hospitality Business Group.

As well as securing the Best Available Rate, Amadeus hotel bookings offer more flexible cancellation policies than bookings made through hotel websites, online travel agencies or hotel wholesalers. In Amadeus, 76% of the available rooms can be cancelled up to 24 hours in advance without incurring a charge. This compares with 52% for hotel websites, 40% for online travel agencies and just 20% for online wholesalers. The ability to cancel at late notice is essential to keeping down the cost of business travel, where schedules often change at the last minute.

The following world-leading hotel brands have signed up to the programme:

Abba Hotels Hilton International Radisson
AC Hotels Hotusa Regent Hotels
ACC Nifos Hyatt Red Lion Hotels
Accor Kempinski Hotels Romantik Hotels
Atel Hotels Keytel Small Luxury Hotels
Carlson Mandarin Scandic Hotels
Ceasar Park hotels Maritim Hotels Stamford
Chateaux and Hotels de France Movenpick Steigenberger
Columbus Oberoi Supranational
Country Inn Otedis Westocoast Hotels
Fiesta Americana Park Plaza Worldhotels
Golden Tulip Park Inn
Graves Hotels Quality Reservations

About Amadeus
Amadeus distributes 58,000 hotels to 75,000 online and offline travel agency locations in 217 countries around the world. Hotel bookings through Amadeus doubled from 2001 to 2005, precisely the most difficult period for the travel industry, and continued to grow steadily throughout 2005. This performance is testament to Amadeus’ dedication to securing additional revenues, occupancy and therefore RevPar to our partner hotels. During 2005, Amadeus completed the development of Direct Connection technology and the implementation of nearly 4000 additional properties, many of them through our Otedis connectivity platform.

Amadeus is the chosen technology partner for providers, sellers, and buyers of travel. The company provides distribution, IT and point-of-sale solutions to help its customers adapt, grow and succeed in the fast changing travel industry. Customer groups include travel providers (airlines, hotels, car rental companies, railway companies, ferry lines, cruise lines, insurance companies and tour operators), travel sellers (travel agencies) and travel buyers (corporations and travellers). Solutions are grouped in four solution categories – Distribution & Content, Sales & e-Commerce, Business Management and Services & Consultancy.

Amadeus has central sites in Madrid (corporate headquarters & marketing), Nice (development) and Erding (Operations – data processing centre) and regional offices in Miami, Buenos Aires and Bangkok. At market level, Amadeus maintains customer operations in 75 countries covering more than 215 markets. The company has over 6,500 employees worldwide, representing 95 nationalities. For the six months ended 30 June 2005, Amadeus reported revenues of €1,226.1m and net income of €154.2m.

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