Calgary, Alberta, Canada � October 4, 2004 � Vantis International Corporation, formerly VIP International and Lexington Services, today signaled its intent to redefine the channel marketing category through the consolidation of both companies and rollout of the Vantis name, brand, and escalating suite of services. The newly created company is dedicated to optimizing profitable revenue for hotels, car rental companies and airlines.  Vantis unites the people, services and more than 25 years experience of VIP International and Lexington Services.

�Vantis is a new company that is in the business of optimizing profitable revenue for our channel marketing clients by giving them all the technology and services it takes to accomplish that in one location.  This provides them an advantage they did not have before,� said Kelly Blake, president of Vantis and formerly president of VIP International, who announced the rebranding.  �I think of revenue management for online hotel reservations as a complex game like chess.  To be successful you must know how to use all your pieces to their fullest advantage.  Our clients need to get the best, most profitable mix of business. Through personalized service Vantis helps its clients use all parts of the equation to optimize profitable revenue.  We do that through connectivity, of course, but also through educational coaching and partnering with our clients to put the right person in the right room, car or airline seat, at the right price.�

Blake explained the Vantis brand launch is the culmination of nine months of work resulting in the:

• Introduction of a new Revenue Management Professional Services (RMPS) business unit; 
• Increase in the number of dedicated internal revenue managers to 50, most of whom have received advanced training in practices using the REVolution� content Vantis is making available to its clients; 
• New suite of services that combine technology with business processes designed to give hotel management operators a proven systematic way to optimize profitable revenue and increase the value of their hotels;
• Introduction of a new CARS business unit to concentrate on car rental owners� needs and issues; 
• Formalized definition of sales, marketing and revenue management departments in order to, respectively, service customers, provide new and innovative solutions for clients, and optimize clients� profitability by putting the right person in the right room, car or airline seat at the right price.

Money Talks: Independent Hotels� Revenue Profitability Soars 75% 

Blake cited Victoria, British Columbia-based independent properties Paul�s Motor Inn and Laurel Point Inn as examples of the results realized after one year of deploying the methods Vantis is incorporating.  The sister properties showed an increase of $550,000 in revenue over the previous year.  The following year they increased another $500,000 year-over-year and their profitability on the increased revenue was 75%.

�These two properties benefited, over a period of months, from the logical step-by-step process we are now offering. The process enabled their revenue managers to spot individual markets and learn how to participate profitably in them across all their seasons,� explained Blake. 

Right Idea, Right Time:  Industry Trends Support Vantis

Blake also noted that hotel management companies and independents are now asking for ways to control profitability beyond connectivity, a point supported by the convergence of several key trends:

• Revenue Management has become its own discipline; HSMAI offered classes on the topic at HITEC this year.  The industry�s perishable inventory of rooms that decays daily demands considerable expertise.

• Asset managers, GMs, and hotel management companies now take an active role in selecting channel providers.  They realize it is still difficult for hotels to be profitable; they are engaged.

• Technology is available to automate the convergence of generally accepted revenue management practices and asset managers awakening to the need to optimize profitable revenue.

• Hoteliers are now aware that they are not optimizing yields.  The combined effect of the merchant model, 9/11, SARS, the Iraq war and a slow economy resulted in hoteliers giving up hotel reservations price control for the last three years; that is changing.

�For hoteliers, the ability to know all their options, accurately forecast future demand, and then make informed decisions leads to optimizing profitable revenue.  After the last three years of low revenues and profitability forced down by merchant models and world events, hoteliers are realizing �We are not in the real estate business anymore.  We had better make this a profitable business on its own�,� said Blake.  �Vantis gives them a partner on their side of the table to make this happen by developing the most profitable business mix.�

Kelly Blake

About Vantis

Vantis International Corporation is a marketing and revenue management consulting organization for hotels, car rental companies and airlines.  Founded in 1979, the privately held Calgary, Alberta-based firm partners with its clients to optimize their profitable revenue.  Vantis offers clients a range of products and services in areas such as revenue management, marketing, channel management, website solutions and voice reservations to ensure they consistently use their most profitable business mix. The company helps clients sell the right hotel room, rental car or airplane seat to the right person at the right price for optimum profitability. Vantis is the industry's second largest provider of reservation sales services with more than 5,000 clients worldwide. The organization is a central distribution point to every viable Internet booking site and to all of the major GDS, including Sabre, Galileo, Pegasus, WorldRes, Amadeus and Worldspan. Vantis has U.S. headquarters in Dallas, Texas and significant development office presence in a number of cities around the world, including Denver, Colorado, London, and Hong Kong.