Hilton International has signed deals with online agency Expedia and with hotel reservation agency Priceline Europe to as part of its policy to expand its worldwide distribution network.
Under the global agreement with Expedia, one of the world's leading travel companies, Hilton will add more than 400 of its properties to the agencies preferred hotel programme.
Sales point will include Expedia.com, Hotels.com and Hotwire.com
The deal with Active Hotels, part of Priceline Europe, will give the agency full access to Hilton's full inventory. It will go live in the UK and France in November and live in Germany, Spain and Italy in 2006.
The deals with the two agencies comes just a year since Hilton Group ceo David Michels threatened to cut ties with booking organisations which adopted misleading pricing practices and demanded “inequitable conditions.”
The two deals were announced at the PhoCusWright executive conference in Paris where Tim Davis, Hilton's senior vp commercial development and information services, continued the hotel chain's attack on booking agencies which posed a threat by doing whatever made them a profit.
Jurgen Fischer, Hilton International's president commercial operations said that Expedia was able to deliver tremendous value to Hilton International to help us effectively market our properties.”
He said Active Hotels “has a phenomenal reach amongst the leisure and business market and we are delighted to announce a partnership that will enable wider access to Hilton's best deals and extensive inventory.”
Andrew Phillips, ceo of Priceline Europe which bought Active Hotels in 2004, said the latter company has gone from strength to strength since it was founded in 1999.
“The fact that we can now offer our customers and affiliate partners access to one of the world's leading hotel brands is yet another landmark achievement for us,” he said.