Jun. 19, 2003 -  Some of the nation's largest hotel chains have combined their lodging power to sell discount reservations online. 

In a nod to the growing number of travelers searching the Web for room deals, Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Hotels, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and InterContinental Hotels Group launched Travelweb.com on Wednesday. 

It's the latest in a crowded field of discount sites offering deals on hotels rooms. In addition, the hotel groups and their individual chains each have Web portals where reservations can be made online. 

More than 10,000 properties representing nearly 100 brands are offering rooms at Travelweb.com, including many not operated by the site's owners. 

InterContinental, which has its North American headquarters in Atlanta, has about 850 hotels participating on the site, 750 of which are in the United States. InterContinental operates Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts and InterContinental Hotels & Resorts chains. 

The site's founders say it was developed, in part, to offer another booking option. It's also intended to reduce the number of lost reservations and human error. Travelweb has direct access to the hotels' reservations systems, while some online discounters fax reservations to the hotels. 

"It's a nightmare," said Scott Hyden, general manager of Travelweb.com. "The customer is standing there in front of the hotel person, not the Web site person (who booked the reservation)." 

Travelweb.com also gives hotels more control over the inventory they sell to online discounters, Hyden said. He said the site's competitors buy rooms in bulk and can return inventory that they can't sell at the last minute, leaving hotels with rooms they don't have enough time to move. With Travelweb, travelers can book rooms right up to the last minute. 

Jim Young, senior vice president of global distribution for InterContinental, said the idea is to offer rooms through several different channels, just as a food company puts its products on the shelves of Publix as well as Kroger supermarkets. 

"Our job is to be on as many shelves as we can," he said. 

-----To see more of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.ajc.com 

(c) 2003, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. MAR, HLT, HOT, IHG,