Chicago, IL (January 30, 2002) - The electronic distribution of hotel rooms is now a $15 billion marketplace, so hotels must understand tools required to maximize their booking performance in order to compete. To underscore the critical business importance of e-marketing, TravelCLICK has identified four hotel marketers for "E-Marketer of the Year" recognition. The four are: The Peninsula Hotel New York; Hilton Back Bay, Boston; the Sheraton Suites Orlando Airport; and The Savoy Hotel Group, London. 

TravelCLICK teamed with the Hotel Sales & Marketing Association International to present the first annual E-Marketer of the Year Award to The Peninsula Hotel, New York.  Dianna Balabon, Peninsula Director of Sales accepted the award from TravelCLICK, on behalf of General Manager Nikolaus Leuenberger and the Peninsula staff, at the HSMAI Awards Gala in New York on January 29th.

"The winners are recognized as leading-edge adopters of e-marketing practices," said Bruce W. Mainzer, senior vice president of marketing, TravelCLICK. "Thousands of hotels are proactively using electronic marketing to increase revenues and profitability. These four winners in particular use every resource available. This is the leadership that this HSMAI award category has been established to recognize."

Each of the award recipients has demonstrated a special e-marketing strength or discipline. The 241-room Peninsula Hotel earned the attention of the E-Marketer Award committee for its smart maniplation of the oldest form of electronic marketing - the GDS systems - which account for 30-40% of all hotel bookings and represent greater commercial value than all Internet transactions combined.  The Peninsula retains all of its negotiated rates within its GDS channels and runs GDS advertising campaigns during need periods, directly targeting its key customers to promote special rates or negotiated rates.

The 385-room Back Bay Hilton Hotel has leveraged the e-marketing leadership of the Hilton Hotels chain by maximizing programs such as "Hilton Values" and "Hilton Savers." Hotel sales executives proactively call on leading travel agent and corporate booking producers they identify in their TravelCLICK Hotelligence reports. In addition, the hotel links with the other Boston-area Hilton Hotel Web sites for cross-selling; and created a direct link with the Boston Symphony Web site, which produced a significant number of  room nights in just three months. 

The 150-room Sheraton Suites Orlando Airport holds daily yield management meetings to keep track of its rate performance against its competitive set.  The hotel "religiously" uses PHASER Complete Access and Hotelligence reports to benchmark their performance versus competitors.

The Savoy Group is recognized for having doubled its GDS bookings over the past two years, thereby significantly increasing its revenues from electronic commerce. Additionally, after The Savoy Group installed an enhanced and customized new booking engine from Amadeus and made booking the Savoy, a 237-room luxury property in London a more customer friendly experience, online bookings increased 294%. The Savoy Hotel Group applies its e-marketing savvy to the other four U.K. hotels in its group as well:
Claridge's, The Connaught, The Berkeley and The Lygon Arms. 

"All four of the award recipients share the consistent quality we looked for in selecting the TravelCLICK/HSMAI E-Marketer of the Year: vision," said Mainzer. "The winners' e-marketing decisions were - and are-based on their ROI. They continue to demand evaluation measures from their e-marketing partners. And they insist that whatever solutions they implement maximize their control over their business: they never give away control of their rates and inventory.  E-business is not a special science. It doesn't change marketing principles, it just makes them more effective."

TravelCLICK  is the leading provider of digital media and data solutions to the worldwide travel industry. The company's products help hotels and other travel industry suppliers improve profits through electronic distribution channels.