Europe's Largest Hotel Companies and Worldres Form New Joint Venture Accor, Six Continents and Hilton International Invest in WorldRes Europe to Distribute Hote

BERLIN 9. 3. 2003 (ots/APROTEXT) - Three of Europe's largesthotel companies - Accor, Six Continents and Hilton International- have invested in WorldRes Europe, a new joint venture createdto market and sell hotels online throughout Europe. WorldRes iscontributing its reservation technology and European subsidiary.This agreement is currently under review by the EuropeanCommission regulatory approval.

"We have been a WorldRes partner and investor since 2000.They continue to interface with our central reservation system,thus using the best technology for selling our hotels online,"said Jean-Marc Espalioux, CEO of Accor. "We have agreed toinvest and promote WorldRes Europe as the optimal means to findand book our hotels online. WorldRes Europe will make our hotelbrands available to anyone with online access, including Websites, call centers, tour operators and travel agents".

The hotel companies have agreed to offer very competitiveinventory and rates through WorldRes Europe, making it easy forweb sites around the world to market and sell Europe's leadinghotel brands. WorldRes Europe will sell the hotels through avariety of methods, including commissionable retail rates,wholesale net rates, packages and private negotiated rates.

"We need to distribute our hotels online as broadly and asefficiently as possible," said Richard North, CEO of SixContinents Hotels "WorldRes Europe has demonstrated itsability to establish a fully automated, low-cost, high qualitymulti brand distribution outlet that is attractive to hotelsuppliers, internet retailers and consumers alike. These are thevery qualities that Six Continents Hotels seeks when selectingdistributors to sell our rates and inventory and WorldresEurope fits that bill perfectly.

WorldRes has been a leading online hotel distribution networkin Europe since it began operations there in 1997. The networkpowers top European travel web sites and search engines,including Opodo, AOL UK, Lycos Europe, Virgin Airlines,Accommodation Search Engine (ASE), Freeserve and Hotel.de.WorldRes' booking engine operates in seven languages includingDutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

"Hilton International acknowledges the growth in the onlinetravel market. Our investment in WorldRes, will ensure thatonline travel in Europe remains competitive and offer the bestvalue for our customers." said David Michels, CEO of HiltonGroup plc.

WorldRes Europe is also working with other major Europeanhotel companies, distributing their hotels through the sameplatform and network of web sites on the same terms as Accor,Six Continents and Hilton International. Thousands ofindividual hotels throughout Europe are already selling throughthe same network, simply by accessing the WorldRes system(www.worldres-europe.com)

Online hotel bookings are the success story of e-commerce andEurope is the world's largest hotel market--this jointinvestment in WorldRes Europe is a very important step for allof us.," said Wolfgang Kitza, CEO of WorldRes. "We have beenworking with the world's leading hotel companies for years.Through our links to their reservation systems and our jointinvestment in WorldRes Europe, we will continue to work closelytogether to further improve the technology and efficiency ofonline booking."

About WorldRes WorldRes is a leading online hotel reservationnetwork with more than 30,000 properties. The network includesover 2,000 Web distribution partners, travel agents and globaldistribution systems. WorldRes.com also owns and operates theconsumer Web site PlacesToStay.com (www.placestostay.com).Founded in 1995, WorldRes.com is headquartered in San Mateo,Calif., with global offices in France, Germany and the UnitedKingdom.

About Accor With 150,000 associates in 140 countries, Accoris the European leader and one of the world's largest groups intravel, tourism and corporate services, with two majorinternational activities: - hotels: 3,835 hotels (418,000 rooms)in 90 countries, casinos, travel agencies, and restaurants; -services to corporate clients and public institutions: each day,13 million People in 32 countries use a broad range of services(food vouchers, people care and services, incentive, loyaltyprograms, events) engineered and managed by Accor.

About Hilton International Hilton International (HI), anoperating division of the UK based Hilton Group plc, owns therights to the Hilton brand name throughout the world, with theexception of North America. HI operates over 400 hotels, withsome 250 branded Hilton, over 150 under the mid-market Scandicbrand plus 15 luxury Conrad hotels. Hilton International employsover 44,000 staff in over 70 countries. A global marketingalliance between Hilton International and the North Americanbased Hilton Hotels Corporation (HHC), extends the number ofhotels operated by both companies worldwide to over 2,400 - over500 of which are branded Hilton. For more information on HiltonGroup, please visit our corporate website, at:www.hiltongroup.com

About Six Continents Six Continents Hotels is a leadingglobal hotel group whose brands include InterContinental Hotels& Resorts, Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn, Expressby Holiday Inn and Staybridge Suites. It owns, operates orfranchises more than 3,300 hotels and over 515,000 guest roomsin nearly 100 countries and territories around the world.

The following are some of the service marks owned by SixContinents Hotels, Inc., its subsidiaries or affiliates: HolidayInn(R), Crowne Plaza(R), Express by Holiday Inn(TM), Holiday InnSelect(R), Holiday Inn Garden Court(R), Holiday Inn SunSpree(R)Resort, Staybridge Suites(R) by Holiday Inn, Holidex(R),Priority Club(R), InterContinental(R), Forum(R), Parkroyal(R),andCentra(R). Six Continents Club(R), Six Continents(TM), and 6Continents(TM) are service marks of Six Continents PLC and usedunder license.

Six Continents Hotels, Inc. offers information andreservations capability on the Internet -www.sixcontinentshotels.com, www.intercontinental.com forInterContinental Hotels & Resorts, www.crowneplaza.com for CrownePlaza Hotels and Resorts, www.holiday-inn.com for Holiday Innhotels, www.hiexpress.com for Express by Holiday Inn hotels,www.staybridge.com for Staybridge Suites by Holiday Inn, andwww.priorityclub.com.

For the latest news from Six Continents Hotels, visit ouronline Press Office athttp://www.pressoffice.sixcontinentshotels.com/.

ots Original Text Service: WorldRes Internet:http://www.presseportal.de

For further media information please contact Heike Hoerdemann@ WorldRes on: 0033 6083 22225 or Leslie McGibbon, Hilton Groupplc on: 00 44 7974 229 143.

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