"Based on the input of our Priority Club members and non-member guests, we've made our online reservation process an almost effortless exercise in booking for today's busy traveler," said Del Ross, director of Global E-commerce Services for InterContinental Hotels Group.  "We continue to raise the bar on industry standards and meet the needs of our guests from the moment they start thinking about planning a trip."

One of the significant changes to InterContinental Hotels Group's online reservation system is the reduction in the number of clicks required to book a room to four from six.  This is nearly half of the industry average, according to recent studies published by Forrester Research.  According to Henry H. Harteveldt, principal analyst for Forrester Research, Forrester's 2002 mail travel survey shows that nearly 71 percent of Americans who book hotels on the Internet do so because they find a travel site easy to use, and four in ten use a site because they can store personal information, such as a credit card or their travel preferences.  Travelers use the Web for control and convenience, so the fewer clicks it takes to make a reservation online, the better.

InterContinental Hotels Group communicates regularly with its guests to learn what they think would make online booking easier, more convenient and valuable to them, while at the same time making it easier and more beneficial for non-members to join Priority Club.

New Web site features include:

• Management of all current guest reservations, regardless of how reservations were made (online, telephone, via a travel agent)
• Customer-controlled favorite destinations based on prior travel and Priority Club member preferences
• Customer-defined Room Type and Rate Preferences saved in profile, including specialized discount programs and corporate rates
• Full-featured Priority Club account maintenance and point status
• More convenient user interface and simpler layout (fewest clicks-to-book of any site online that offers hotel reservations)
• Streamlined, yet advanced search capabilities, including the ability to filter by hotel amenities and location
• Descriptive and comprehensive hotel and room information, making our Web sites the place to research travel plans

"InterContinental Hotels Group was the first hotel company to offer direct reservations via the Internet (1995) and more recently to offer the first Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee (2002)," said Ross.  "We are continuing to invest in technology, but we understand that the best high tech also offers 'high touch'.  By offering these special features to our guests, we've personalized what some consider a very impersonal medium and are building stronger relationships with our guests.  At InterContinental Hotels Group we build our Web sites to meet our customers' needs, interests and goals, and they've told us they appreciate the effort."

These enhancements have already delivered higher conversion rates and improved customer satisfaction, and soon we will be offering more features, according to Ross.

Online booking for InterContinental Hotels Group in 2003 is up 80 percent in revenue in the first 12 months following the introduction of the Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee and other Web site improvements.  Business and leisure travelers are increasingly booking their own travel, and the fastest-growing segment of that traffic is booking online.

"InterContinental Hotels Group plans to continue being an innovator and market leader in using technology to simplify and improve the guest experience at all ends of each transaction," Ross said.  "Ultimately, the company's Web sites are not only a method of doing business with its 3,300 hotels worldwide, but a reason for doing so."

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC of the United Kingdom (NYSE: IHG;
London)(ADRs), owns, manages, leases or franchises, through various subsidiaries, more than 3,300 hotels and 515,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories around the world (http://www.ichotelsgroup.com).