Accor, Six Continents and Hilton International invest in WorldRes Europe
Three of Europe’s largest hotel companies –Accor, Six Continents and Hilton International- agreed to form WorldRes Europe, a new joint venture aimed at marketing and selling its hotels all across the Old World. The European Commission is currently reviewing the agreement for its final passage.
The trio of hotel chains has come to terms to offer a great assortment of offers at very affordable prices through WorldRes, thus narrowing down marketing and sale procedures for some of Europe’s leading hotel trademarks uploaded on websites around the globe. WorldRes Europe will sell hotels using such methods as commissioned fares for agencies, net fares for wholesalers, packages and negotiable fares for individual purchasers.
“Since the year 2000, we’re both partners and investors in WorldRes. WorldRes is in permanent computer-linked contact with our reservation center, so we count on the best technology money can buy to sell our hotels online,” explained Jean-Marc Espalioux, CEO of Accor Hotels
“We’ve come to believe in the project of investing and promoting WorldRes Europe as the most efficient tool to spot hotels and make reservations online everywhere under the sun. WorldRes will put our hotel chains within reach of any netizen, including portals, websites, call centers, tour operators and travel agencies.”
“We need to sell our hotels online in the broadest and most efficient way possible,” said Richard North, CEO of Six Continents Hotels. “WorldRes has proved its ability to dole out an array of top-quality online products at very low costs. This makes it a highly luring means for hotel providers and Internet portals alike, even for end users. These are the features Six Continents is after when it comes to picking its own distributors to sell our hotels. And WorldRes Europe suits us down to the ground in this respect.”
WorldRes has been Europe’s leading online hotel dealer since it started up back in 1997. the network offers its services through all major websites and search engines across Europe, including such Internet giants as Opodo, AOL UK, Lycos Europe, Virgin Airlines, Accommodation Search Engine (AES), Freeserve and the hotel booking system Hotel.de. WorldRes’ operations are available in seven languages: Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
“Hilton International recognizes the growth of the online tourist market. Our investment in WorldRes secures competitiveness in the European tourist market and opens up the possibility of providing consumers with simply the very best products,” explained David Michels, CEO and president of Hilton Group plc.
Worldres Europe is also working with other major European hotel chains to deal their resorts through the same online system and under the same conditions applying for Accor, Six Continents and Hilton International. Thousands of independent hotels all around Europe are already doing sale operations through the same mesh by simply clicking on www.worldres-europe.com
