OBSERVATIONS

Reservations Volume

• Worth noting, the Internet channel realized a significant spike of 79.5 percent in hotel reservations volume for the 2001 Thanksgiving holiday.  Rather than representing incremental reservations for the holiday period, the dramatic increase most likely reflected the redirection of travelers' phone reservations typically made to call centers or direct to the property.

• For the 2001 Thanksgiving holiday period, hotel stays booked via the GDS declined 19.8 percent compared to the same period in 2000.

• For hotel reservations made through the GDS channel for Thanksgiving in 2001, average daily rate (ADR) declined 10.4 percent to settle at $120, down $14 from an ADR of $134 for hotel bookings made for the same holiday period in 2000.

• The ADR for room reservations made via the Internet for 2001 Thanksgiving guest stays plummeted 16.7 percent or $16 to land at an ADR of $80, significantly down from an ADR of $96 for the same four days in 2000.  

• The ADR rate gap between the two electronic channels slightly widened year-over-year for Thanksgiving, moving from a $38 variance for the holiday period in 2000 to a $40 difference in 2001, with the Internet consistently lower than the GDS channel. 

• GDS: Consistent with Thanksgiving in 2000, the $51 - $100 room-rate range was the most popular price category with travelers whose hotel reservations were made through the GDS for 2001's November holiday travel.  In addition, Pegasus did not detect any year-over-year movement in the ADR of $75 for the $51 - $100 rate segment.  The second most popular rate category was $101 - $150 with an ADR of $123, down $1 from $124 in 2000.

• Internet: For the Internet channel, the $51 - $100 rate category maintained its year-over-year leadership position for hotel reservations tied to Thanksgiving holiday guest stays.  This room-rate segment had an ADR of $71, down $1 from $72 in 2000.  The $50 or below rate category displaced the $101 - $150 segment as the second most popular room-rate range booked via the Internet by travelers.  The ADR of $41 was down $2 from year 2000's ADR of $43.  The rate category popularity shift potentially reflected hoteliers' efforts to discount rooms to further combat the downturn in travel following the tragic events of September 11 and law enforcement's frequent high alerts regarding threats of more terrorist attacks.  

• Consistent year-over-year and for both electronic reservations channels, Pegasus discovered that the majority of bookings for Thanksgiving holiday stays were made within the same week of guest arrivals.  The same-week lead time secured 29 percent of guest reservations made through the GDSs for Thanksgiving 2001 and 34 percent of those booked via the Internet channel.  In addition, as the booking lead time shortened, average daily rates dropped. 

• For both electronic channels the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving continued to be the most popular day for guest arrivals.  In 2001, the ADR for Wednesday guest arrivals was $125 for reservations made through the GDS channel and $77 for those booked via the Internet.  Thanksgiving Day was the second most popular arrival date.  Worth noting, Thanksgiving Day in 2001's ADR dropped to $113 for the GDS channel when compared to the ADR for Wednesday arrivals, and rose to $79 for the Internet.  

The travel snapshot was conducted by Pegasus Solutions and is based on cleansing and analysis of electronic reservations transaction data stored in Pegasus' data warehouse.  This data was captured from thousands of Internet hotel reservations booked around the world through thousands of travel-related Web sites whose online hotel reservations are Powered by Pegasus(TM), as well as from thousands of electronic GDS hotel bookings that are processed through the Pegasus Electronic Distribution System.  The GDS bookings originated from travel agents using GDSs such as Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo and Worldspan, or from Internet sites that are powered by GDSs such as Travelocity.  By being Powered by Pegasus, a Web site gains seamless access to the central reservations systems of nearly 200 hotel brands, providing online travelers with real-time rates, availability and booking capabilities with instant online confirmations.  

Dallas-based Pegasus Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: PEGS) (www.pegs.com) is a leading provider of hotel industry transaction processing and technology services.  The company processes GDS and Internet reservations on behalf of more than 42,000 hotels around the world.