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VFM Leonardo Selected by White Lodging to Better Merchandise Hotels Online


Hotel Management Company to use VFM Leonardo’s VBrochure Online Merchandising System
to better merchandise its entire portfolio of hotels online with photos and virtual tours
across largest online visual content distribution network in the industry.

Toronto, ON & Merrillville, IN -- September 21, 2009 -- VFM Leonardo, leader in online visual content distribution for hotels, today announced that it has been selected by White Lodging Services, Inc. to distribute photos and virtual tours for their entire portfolio of hotels throughout the United States. White Lodging is one of the fastest growing independent ownership, development and management companies in the country with a diverse portfolio of branded hotels.
 
Using the Premium edition of VFM Leonardo's VBrochure Online Merchandising System plus additional media units for the distribution of photos and rich media, White Lodging will better merchandise its properties online by distributing 15 photos and 5 virtual tours per property to thousands of electronic channels and websites in the VNetwork™ - the largest online visual content distribution network for the global travel industry including all four GDSs as well as Pegasus, online travel agencies Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline and thousands more.  
 
“The scope of VFM Leonardo’s distribution network reach far exceeds any other. In a time when a majority of our guests are finding us online on a countless number of websites, getting maximum visibility of our properties is absolutely essential,” said Michael J. Bennett, Corporate Director of E-Commerce, White Lodging Services, Inc. “We believe, and our results support, that virtual tours are highly influential on traveler’s purchase decisions and is the most effective way to ensure our beautiful properties stand out online and drive bookings.”
 
“Distributing virtual tours has a positive impact on bookings. When viewing virtual tours, a travel shopper’s likelihood of booking increases by 67% as proven by a study of over one million online travel shoppers. The impact is even greater when combined with video.” said Paolo Boni, President and CEO, VFM Leonardo. “By merchandising their hotels online with hotel virtual tours in front of in-market travel shoppers across the internet, we believe White Lodging will achieve impressive returns.”
 
About White Lodging
White Lodging Services Corporation was established in 1985 and is headquartered in Merrillville, Indiana. White Lodging is a fully integrated hotel ownership, development, and operations company – a recognized leader that has defined and cultivated the ability to achieve consistent, sustainable growth among mid- to large-scale hotels across the country. Their current portfolio consists of 143 hotels in eighteen states and encompasses representation of the following leading brands: Marriott International, Inc., Hilton Hotels Corporation, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, InterContinental Hotel Group, and
Carlson Hotels Worldwide.
 
About VFM Leonardo
VFM Leonardo is a technology leader in online visual content management and distribution systems. VFM Leonardo's VScape® and VBrochure™ products leverage the distribution capabilities of the VNetwork™, the most universally accepted and largest online visual content distribution network for the global travel industry including all four global distribution systems (GDSs), Pegasus and travel-related channels including online travel agencies, travel research and supplier web sites, search portals and major travel intermediaries. VFM Leonardo offers the hotel industry the most effective digital asset management and online merchandising systems available today and efficiently delivers over 1,000,000 visual images (photos, virtual tours and videos) to more than 30,000 travel channels and websites in the VNetwork including Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre, Worldspan, Pegasus, Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline, Tripadvisor, Yahoo! Travel, Kayak, Google and many more for 90,000 hotels worldwide. For more information about VFM Leonardo, visit www.vfmleonardo.com. Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/VFMLeonardo.

Contact:

VFM Leonardo Inc.
Julie Vieth
Communications Specialist
www.vfmleonardo.com
111 Peter Street, 5th Floor
Toronto, ON, M5V 2H1 Canada
Toll free: 1-877-593-6634
Phone: 416-263-5446
Fax: 416-593-7572
[email protected]


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Also See: Travelport GDS and VFM Leonardo Extend their Relationship to Include Worldspan; New exclusive agreement will enable Worldspan users to access the same visual hotel content as Galileo users / September 2009

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New VTV Episode: The New Luxury – Merchandise, Don’t Sell / September 2009

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New VTV Episode: VIDEO - Visual Content Decisions - What? How Much? Why? / September 2009

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StarCite Partners With VFM Leonardo to Enhance Online Meetings Marketplace With Rich Hotel Visual Content; VFM Leonardo to be Exclusive Provider of Rich Content Showcasing Hotel Properties to Corporate Buyers Within StarCite’s Online Marketplace / August 2009

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VFM Leonardo to Power Visual Content Management and Distribution for Rosewood Hotels & Resorts; Rosewood Hotels & Resorts adopts VScape® Digital Asset Management System to efficiently manage and deliver hotel visual content to online channels / August 2009

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This Week on VFM Leonardo's VTV: "The New Luxury - Experience, Not Status" with Bonnie Knutson, Professor at the Michigan State University School of Hospitality Business / August 2009

This Week on VFM Leonardo’s VTV: Experiential Marketing - What It Is and Isn't; Educational video blog featuring weekly interviews with hotel and travel industry experts launches new episode: Experiential Marketing - What It Is and Isn't with Laurence Bernstein of the Bay Charles Consulting Company and host John McAuliffe, VFM Leonardo’s Chief Marketing Officer / August 2009

VFM Leonardo Expands VNetwork™ to Include Travel Deals & Sales Consumer Site Voyij.com; VFM Leonardo enables hoteliers to better merchandise their properties to travel shoppers on Voyij.com (recently launched by the creators of SideStep.com) by providing the site with hotel photos, virtual tours and videos / August 2009

VFM Leonardo Expands VNetwork™ to Include Gekko.com; The largest distributor of visual content for hotels worldwide expands distribution network to enable hotels to display their photos in front of more prospective guests online on unique hotel recommendation website, Gekko.com / August 2009

Pegasus Solutions and VFM Leonardo Form Strategic Partnership; Pegasus Chooses VFM Leonardo's VScape® Digital Asset Management System to Power All Visual Content for ODD and Content Hub / June 2009

Utell® Hotels & Resorts Signs Up Hundreds of New Members in 2009, Around the Globe, 471 Hotels from
65 Countries Have Selected Utell Since the Beginning of the Year / June 2009

Pegasus Solutions Teams with Rubicon to Launch New MarketVision Competitive Intelligence Reporting: Visit HITEC Booth #1054 or twitter.com/pegexec, Hotel Users Switch to MarketVision to Take Advantage of Pre-eminent Market Intelligence / June 2009
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