HotelRooms.com shares expansion plans

Following the expansion of its worldwide membership base of hotels and resorts, HotelRooms.com has announced the opening of its first European office in Paris. As part of its expansion plans, the company is planning on opening a London office in early 2006.

"After six, exciting months leading to trial and annual agreements with select properties, or entire portfolios of established hotel brands -- Choice, InterContinental, Accor, Sol Melia, NH-Hotels, Summit/Preferred, Warwick International, Boscolo ... Hilton International -- HotelRooms.com is adding additional resources to bolster direct sales efforts to small and mid-sized regional hotel chains and independent hoteliers in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Benelux, and Northern Europe in 2006," said a release.

Avi Goldstein, president and chief executive officer, HotelRooms.com, suggests that "While the impact of strong North American recommendations and the value of 80% renewal rates dating back to 2000 can not be underestimated, the better than expected rate of adoption throughout Europe is a clear indication of the growing industry trend away from net pricing and third party resellers and toward a model of price parity and direct distribution."

Andre Privateer, MD, Europe, HotelRooms.com explains that "HotelRooms.com is uniquely positioned to offer travelers the lowest available hotel rate in practically any city, without jeopardizing the hotels' pricing integrity. This is the future of the online hotel industry, which is slowly breaking away from its dependence on discount, consolidator, and third party websites."

As per the information available, to strengthen its position as the premier international hotel search engine, HotelRooms.com is reinvesting heavily in website enhancements, as well as language localization with several countries/languages to be released throughout 2006.