IN THIS ISSUE: Strategic Hotel Capital, Inc. Endorses TravelCLICK Meeting Planners' Top Ten Cities Study Shows Hotelligence Users Gain $100K in Incremental Revenue Annually Pages 1 | 2 | 3          Spring 2003          TravelCLICK Advises Hotels: "Don't Stay Quiet" With worldwide events stirring the entire travel industry, challenges in maintaining profitability are amplified for hotels. "Hotels are more concerned with the appropriateness of their advertising messaging and with developing smart strategies for generating business," said Bruce W. Mainzer, senior vice president of marketing. "Hotels can't stay quiet. Generally speaking, they need to ramp up their communications to broadcast all their changes in rates, cancellation policies and security strategies." According to TravelCLICK, hotels should review the following tips to maximize performance during these challenging times. 1. Adjust Your Marketing Strategies. Domestic travel, especially road travel, is on the rise. Hoteliers need to have offers that appeal to their local and drive markets. 2. Communicate Quickly. Travelers and their families will be looking for reassurance of service and security as well as rates and cancellation policies. Allocate resources to provide daily updates to your Web site, GDS and third party internet sites. 3. Maintain Focus on Customer Service. Cutbacks in staff results in many hotel staff carrying expanded responsibilities. Smart hoteliers will rededicate their focus on ensuring excellent service. "Despite these difficult times, impeccable customer service is still a differentiating factor for success," said Mainzer. 4. Measure Results Constantly. There is more competitive information available than ever before to benchmark performance and marketing initiatives. TravelCLICK advises hoteliers to demand and expect measurement and feedback on marketing initiatives. 5. Keep Tabs on Your Most Productive Channels of Room Night Distribution. GDS travel agent bookings remain the dominant source of hotel e-business, representing more room nights than all Internet bookings combined. The average daily rate for room nights booked through travel agents is more than 50% higher than the average rate for room nights booked via the Internet. 6. Don't Go All Distressed. Allocating large portions of room inventory to auction sites at low rates diminishes higher priced demand from other sources. Smart hoteliers pursue control by properly managing inventory across all electronic channels to protect rate integrity and brand position. "The best performers have systems in place to monitor electronic channels frequently and gain an understanding of how much to discount and when," said Mainzer. "Despite these difficult times, impeccable customer service is still a differentiating factor for success." Bruce W. Mainzer, Senior Vice President of Marketing TravelCLICK Internet Hotelligence Now Available Finally, hoteliers have the power of Hotelligence to analyze their competitive Internet booking performance - introducing the new Internet Hotelligence report. Covering key retail and merchant Internet sites powered by the GDSs and Pegasus Solutions (such as Orbitz, Priceline, Lodging.com and many others), Internet Hotelligence benchmarks a hotel's performance versus its local competitors on a monthly basis. "Internet Hotelligence is available exclusively through TravelCLICK's secure client extranet, the Electronic Marketing Centre (EMC). With competitive information on booking performance, distribution and revenue management, Internet Hotelligence is essential for every GM, Director of Sales and Revenue Manager who wants to gain a competitive edge in Internet room night distribution," said Ray Cohen, president and co-CEO of TravelCLICK. We invite you to take a tour of the Internet Hotelligence report, view a sample, and check out the EMC via our Web site: www.travelclick.net. *See a full-sized sample Internet Hotelligence report on www.travelclick.net Pages 1 | 2 | 3