Montreal, Canada – November 14, 2003 – Accovia^tm Inc., the global leader in dynamic packaging technology for the travel industry, today announced "HotelConnect," a new interface for the company’s Selling System Platform that enables travel wholesalers and retailers to purchase hotel inventory in real-time and dynamically package hotel products with additional travel services.  With the addition of HotelConnect, Accovia provides the industry’s most complete dynamic packaging technology solution commercially available for procuring, selling and distributing multi-component travel services online.

Many consumers regularly book airfares online today, and the trend toward booking hotel rooms online is expected to increase dramatically in the next few years.  U.S. online travel agencies posted gross bookings of $14.9 billion in 2002, up 52% from 2001, according to PhoCusWright Inc., the leading independent strategy and research company for the online travel marketplace. (Source: TRAVstats Top Three Online Travel Agencies Control 75% Of Market - 4 April 2003).  Jupiter Research predicts that online hotel bookings will grow from $5 billion in 2001 to $14.8 billion by 2007. (Source: Jupiter Research Forecast Report: Travel, 2003)

The Accovia HotelConnect interface is designed to facilitate a connection between travel package providers and major hotel suppliers through a direct link to their CRS or PMS, or to various hotel distribution providers for online procurement.  Travel wholesalers and retailers can then offer automated packaging of hotel rooms with airfares or other travel services, and sell online under a single price. 

“The ability to dynamically package travel products and sell them under a single price provides a clear advantage to remaining competitive in today's travel marketplace,” said Claude Guay, president and CEO of Accovia. “HotelConnect provides real-time, online procurement of hotel components, pricing and inventory for a travel package and maximizes hotel distribution revenues.”

HotelConnect easily integrates with any hotel distribution channel that is compliant with Open Travel Alliance standards, (OTA XML), facilitating future expansion.    HotelConnect is Web Service enabled, using SOAP technology with XML formatting and structuring to expose travel query and response messages related to targeted products and services.  HotelConnect integrates easily into open source, and new generation travel selling applications. 

Accovia HotelConnect will be available in the first quarter of 2004 with a contract and dynamic pricing rule engine module that guarantees responses according to seller specifications and preferences. 

About Accovia

Accovia^tm, Inc. is the global leader in dynamic packaging technology for the travel industry. The company offers the industry’s only travel automation and management product suite for procuring, dynamic packaging, selling and distributing multi-component travel services through GDS, call center, and Internet channels. Accovia’s technology solutions enable travel wholesalers and retailers to significantly increase profit margins through the ability to dynamically create and customize travel packages, which are then sold under a single price. The company provides the only complete travel distribution service that cost-effectively connects travel marketers and distributors to GDSs and Internet travel channels using a single connection. Accovia’s technology solutions can be fully customized and privately labeled to accommodate diverse business models. More than 40 travel companies in 10 countries use Accovia’s technology to send over 25 million people on trips each year. Founded in 1985, the company has offices in the United States, Canada and France. For more information about Accovia visit www.accovia.com.

Accovia is a trademark of Accovia, Inc. Any other marks used in this document are trademarks or registered trademarks of the manufacturers or marketers of the products with which the marks are associated.

Reichert Communications, LLC
 Juliette Donohue
juliette@reichertcom.com
    650.938.7400