Travel Tripper Helps San Francisco's Parc 55 Drive Revenues Amidst Tough Economy

RezTripTM Booking Engine leverages downtown hotel's own website to drive production by more than 46%

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. July 28, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 2009 - The Parc 55 Hotel near Union Square reports significant increases in revenue-per-available-room (RevPAR) over the same period last year -- even despite falling metrics in the hotel industry. The 1,010-room downtown San Francisco hotel attributes its success to increasing the amount of direct-web bookings via Travel Tripper's private-label booking engine RezTripTM, and the system's ability to apply condition-based pricing rules or promotions. As such, the Parc 55's website has become its lowest-cost, highest-return distribution channel.

From May 2008 to May 2009 - during the worst economic decline in U.S. history since the Great Depression - the Parc 55 saw roomnights booked through its own website climb 46.9% and its revenues rise 33%. Roomnights driven by their website Q1 2008 accounted for 8.3% of contribution compared to 12.1% of roomnights Q1 2009. Website revenues climbed from 9.5% of contribution in Q1 2008 to 13.4% in Q1 2009.

"Achieving these results during a down economy is a strong testament to the power and productivity of RezTripTM, which was first implemented at the hotel in February 2007," said Gautam Lulla, Travel Tripper C.O.O. "We even out-performed 2006, when business was very buoyant and the property was part of one of the top three brands."

Lulla said RezTrip's condition-based pricing is the key to enabling hoteliers to more efficiently manage yield strategies and increase their look-to-book conversion rates from the industry's 2% to 3% average to RezTrip's current average of 5.5% or higher.

"RezTrip's pricing features allows revenue directors to create condition-based rules or 'promotions' without the need to create new rate plans," Lulla explained. "Most other systems offer prohibitively complex 'work-arounds' in order to create promotions that demand a fast time to market. As a result, revenue managers skip their own website and end up distributing the best deals exclusively through OTAs."

Through RezTripTM, travelers can consistently find the best rates and deals with the hotel directly, rather than booking through intermediaries, he said. This means more direct revenue for the property and a positive impact to the hotel's bottom line while giving it complete, real-time control over inventory. RezTripTM allows hotels to increase revenue, decrease dependency on high margin third-party websites, sell ancillary products and services pre-arrival, enhance guest confidence and loyalty and boost productivity.

"Properties have seen bookings shoot up dramatically within a week or two of implementing RezTrip," Lulla said.

Rave Reviews for RezTrip

John Bauso, Parc 55's Director of Revenue, said independent properties such as Parc 55 do not have the huge brand power of prominent hotel chains. RezTripTM leverages the marketing value of third-party intermediaries and allows the Parc 55 to compete favorably with the big brands while being easier to use.

"RezTripTM produces results - and that's critical for an independent property that doesn't have the brand clout of a Marriott or a Starwood," Bauso said. "It's also much easier to use than any other system I'm familiar with. Whereas you could spend a weekend in a class learning the in's and out's of other systems, I can have someone trained in a matter of a few of hours. It's intuitive, crystal clear, and we were up and running in no time. The bottom line is, we're much better off as a property."

Travel Tripper, based in New York, is a leading provider of hotel distribution, e-marketing and revenue-management solutions. Its three-tiered approach called ACE or Attract, Convert and Enable (RezTrip), helps hotels drive more traffic to their direct website, converts lookers into bookers, and provides a simple and efficient way to merchandise and sell rooms online. Its primary mission is to provide hotels with a solution that will decrease dependency on high margin, third-party sites and increase revenue through their own website.

"Obtaining best practices information for Web marketing, online-travel distribution, e-commerce, social media and more during this down economy is critical to hotel operations and business stability," Lulla said. "Hotels need an 'ACE' in the hand to help them build an effective Web strategy. Travel Tripper is that 'ACE.'"

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About Travel Tripper

Travel Tripper (http://www.traveltripper.com) is the brainchild of experts in the fields of Hotel Distribution, e-Marketing and Revenue Management. Poised to be a leading provider of e-Marketing solutions, Travel Tripper helps hotels maximize their online sales potential and profits from each room sold. The company's product, RezTripTM, is a cutting-edge Booking Solution for a hotel's website. RezTripTM is fully customized to match the hotel's website, delivers high conversion rates, revenue per transaction and drives incremental revenue through its dynamic packaging feature. Supplementing its advanced Web technology is Travel Tripper's consultative approach. Hotels benefit from adopting recommendations that come with proven industry best practices and high-yielding strategies.

For more information, contact:

Barb Worcester

President/Principal

PRPRO

Tel: 440-930-5770

[email protected]

Gautam Lulla

Chief Operating Officer

Travel Tripper

Tel: 212-683-6161 x302

[email protected]