Hilton Hotels Corporation is one of the leading global hospitality companies. As of April 2007 there are 2,645 hotels and 485,000 rooms employing 105,000 people in more than 80 countries. It was founded by Conrad Hilton in Cisco, Texas and now has headquarters in Beverly Hills, California.
Aiming to offer top class service to its guests, Hilton has become a leader in the hospitality industry. The company is around 5% owned by the founding family.
The original company was founded in 1919 by Conrad Hilton.
The Hotels Statler Company was acquired in 1954 for $111,000,000 in what was then the world's largest real estate transaction.
On July 3, 2007, Hilton announced plans to merge with the Blackstone Group in an all cash deal valued at $26 billion USD. The merger was completed on October 24, 2007.
Hilton Hotels Corporation
Type Private, Subsidiary of Blackstone Private Equity
Founded Cisco, Texas, USA
Headquar
ters Beverly Hills, California, USA
Key peopl
e Christopher J. Nassetta, President and CEO
Industry Hotels
Revenue $8.162 billion USD (2006) Employee s 105,000 Slogan be hospitable Website www.hiltonworldwide.com
The company owns, manages or franchises a portfolio of brands:
Hilton Hotels Conrad Hotels Doubletree
Embassy Suites Hotels Hampton Inn
Hampton Inn & Suites Hilton Garden Inn
Hilton Grand Vacations Company Homewood Suites by Hilton The Waldorf-Astoria Collection
LivingWell Health Clubs operates health and fitness clubs in the group's
hotels. It also includes a chain of standalone clubs, which are mainly in the UK, but has a small number of branches in other countries.
22. Corporate Information Expedia.com
Expedia.com is an Internet-based travel agency and a part of Expedia, Inc.. It books airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruises, vacation packages, and various attractions and services via the World Wide Web and telephone travel agents. The site uses the Sabre and formerly Worldspan as their main Computer reservations system(s), with the adjuncts of Pegasus and their own Canadian connectivity company for hotels that are not listed in Worldspan.
Expedia delivers consumers everything they need for researching, planning, and purchasing a whole trip. The company provides direct access to one of the broadest selections of travel products and services through its North American Web site, localized versions throughout Europe, and extensive partnerships in Asia. Serving many different consumer segments — from families booking a summer vacation to individuals arranging a quick weekend getaway, Expedia provides travelers with the ability to research, plan, and book their comprehensive travel needs. Expedia-branded Web sites feature airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rental, cruises, and many other in-destination services from a broad selection of partners. Expedia can be found on the Web at www.expedia.com.
In 2006, Expedia.com was awarded a Webby Award in the area of "Best In Travel Websites", a Stevie Award from the American Business Association for "Most Innovative Company", as well as the top rating in customer satisfaction across online travel agencies by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. URL www.expedia.com Commerci al? Yes Type of
site travel agency Registrati No
on
Owner Expedia, Inc. Created
23. Corporate Information Travelocity.com
Travelocity is an online travel agency operated by Travelocity.com LP. Travelocity is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sabre Holdings Corporation, which was a publicly traded company until taken private by Silver Lake Partners in March 2007. Travelocity is based in Southlake, Texas, with additional offices in New York City, San Francisco, and abroad.
According to Sabre Holdings, Travelocity is the sixth-largest travel agency in the United States, and the second-largest online travel agency. In addition to its primary US consumer site, Travelocity operates a full-service business agency, Travelocity Business, and comparable websites in Canada, Germany, France, the Scandinavian countries, and the United Kingdom, and is a partner in Asian travel hubs Tabini and Zuji. Other brands include Site59.com, a last-minute travel technology and content provider; World Choice Travel, a travel affiliate marketing program; and Showtickets.com, a tour and ticket broker in Las Vegas.
History
American Airlines began offering customer access to its electronic reservation system, SABRE, on the CompuServe Information Service in the 1980s, under the "Eaasy SABRE" brand name. This service was extended to America Online in the 1990s.
Travelocity was created in 1996, as a subsidiary of Sabre Holdings, itself a subsidiary of American Airlines and was run by long-time Sabre I.T. executive Terrell B. "Terry" Jones. As one of the pioneers of web-based disintermediation, Travelocity.com was the first website that allowed consumers themselves not only to access Sabre's fare and schedule information, but also to reserve, book, and purchase tickets without the help of a travel agent or broker. In addition to airfares, the site also permits consumers to book hotel rooms, rental cars, cruises and packaged vacations.
Travelocity gained momentum after the AOL keyword Travel became associated with the brand in 1999. In 2000, Sabre negotiated a merger of Travelocity with another early web travel company, Preview Travel. The resulting company was independently quoted on the NASDAQ exchange, with Sabre continuing to own around 30% of the combined company's stock, but around 70% of the voting rights. In 2002, with Travelocity's fortunes suffering from competition including Expedia and Orbitz, Sabre consummated a tender offer for the remainder of the outstanding shares in Travelocity and remerged the business into Sabre as a subsidiary. Jones left the company shortly afterward.
In 2005, Travelocity acquired lastminute.com to take in excess of 30 more brands under its banner in the UK.
Under current CEO Michelle Peluso’s leadership, Travelocity has developed and launched a merchant hotel business, dynamic packaging functionality, and a private-label (ASP) distribution network, the Travelocity Partner Network. As of early 2005, many members of Peluso’s former management team at Site59 now hold senior management positions at Travelocity; namely, Jeffrey Glueck (Chief Marketing Officer), Damon Tassone (Deputy CEO, lastminute.com), Tracey Weber (COO, North America), Richard Harris (Senior Vice President, Strategy and Business Development), Josh Feuerstein (Group Manager Director at lastminute.com and Senior Vice President and Hotel Segment Manger for Sabre Holdings), Josh Hartmann (Vice President, Software Development) and Jonathan Perkel (Vice President & Deputy General Counsel).
24. Corporate Information Orbitz.com
Orbitz Worldwide is an Internet Travel Company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Orbitz, along with all other Cendant travel businesses, was sold to a subsidiary of the Blackstone Group in a deal worth over $4.6 billion, forming a new company called Travelport.
Orbitz is a leading online travel company offering leisure and business travelers a wide selection of low airfares, as well as deals on lodging, car rentals, cruises, vacation packages and other travel. The site was created to address consumers' need for a comprehensive display of fares and rates in a single location.
Orbitz - The Travel Site
Award-winning flight search engine makes it easy to find the lowest
fares on hundreds of airlines.
Comprehensive selection of hotel rates, including discounted Low Price
Guarantee rates.
Comprehensive rates from a wide selection of car rental companies in
one place on the Internet
Special deals on cruises available online.
Orbitz' inventory includes hundreds of airlines, more than 80,000 hotels worldwide and 13 rental car brands. Orbitz search results are presented in an easy-to-use matrix that displays a vast array of travel options.
OrbitzTLCSM
Orbitz is the first and only travel site with a seasoned team of experts that monitors nationwide travel conditions for our travelers around the clock, every day. At our command center, the OrbitzTLC Team gathers and interprets FAA, National Weather Service and other data to provide you with travel intelligence - real-time information that travelers won't find elsewhere.
At Orbitz, the customer relationship doesn't end when you hit the "purchase" button. The OrbitzTLC Team is on the case 24/7 while you're on the road, providing automated OrbitzTLC Alerts via your device of choice: mobile phone, pager, PDA or e-mail. Orbitz is there to make your journey as easy as possible, providing the latest information on flight delays, weather conditions, gate changes, airport congestion or any other event that might impact your travel.
Contact Details
Corporate Office Orbitz
500 West Madison Street Suite 1000
Chicago IL 60661 312-894-5000 voice 312-894-5001 fax
Exchanging Paper Tickets Orbitz Ticketing Department 1961 Premier Drive
Suite 320
25. Corporate Information Hotels.com
Hotels.com is an operating company of Expedia, Inc. that provides reservation services for hotel rooms and other places to stay.
Hotels.com (formerly Hotel Reservations Network) wants to transform the Internet into the inn-ternet. The company books rooms at more than 70,000 properties in more than 400 markets throughout Asia, the Caribbean, North America, and Europe through several Web sites. It also accepts reservations through its toll-free call centers. With about 33,000 Internet and call center affiliates, Hotels.com offers rooms at discounts of up to 70%. The company has room supply agreements with hotel chains such as Hilton Hotels, Best Western, Radisson, and Sheraton. Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp folded Hotels.com into its Expedia subsidiary in 2005, just before spinning Expedia off into a separate company.
The company was founded in Dallas, TX in 1991 as Hotel Reservations Network (HRN) by Dave Litman and Bob Diener as a toll-free telephone service, offering consumers a one-stop source for discounted hotel rooms in major cities. In 2002 HRN introduced Hotels.com and the brand 1-800-2- Hotels.
Officers:
VP Business Development: Sunil Bhatt
President, Expedia North America: Paul Brown
VP Customer Experience and Online Marketing: Joe Megibow
Contact Information: Hotels.com, L.P.
10440 N. Central Expwy., Ste. 400 Dallas, TX 75231
TX Tel. 214-361-7311 Toll Free 800-219-4606
26. Corporate Information TripAdvisor.com
TripAdvisor.com is a free travel guide and research website that offers reviews and information to help plan a vacation.
Users research places to visit and hotels to book, primarily by browsing the thousands of reviews posted on the website each week by other travelers. TripAdvisor is an example of Consumer Generated Media. TripAdvisor makes its money from advertising.
TripAdvisor.com covers more than 270,000 hotels and attractions in over 30,000 destinations worldwide. It features hotel, attraction, and restaurant reviews written by travelers; a wiki for users to provide facts and tips on destinations, similar in concept to a travel guidebook; "goLists", where users list what to see or what to do, somewhat like travel itineraries; interactive maps based on the Google Maps engine; and "TripAdvisor Forums", a traveler message board area.
With more than 10 million reviews and opinions and nearly 30 million unique visitors a month, TripAdvisor claims to be the largest travel community on the web.
The site has been criticised for allowing users to publish fraudulent reviews. In response, they claim that all reviews are moderated by their staff, and they have algorithms to detect abuse.
TripAdvisor was founded in February 2000, and was purchased by InterActive Corporation in 2004. Original financing was obtained from Flagship Ventures, the Bollard Group, and private investors. TripAdvisor is now owned by Expedia, Inc..
27. Corporate Information Priceline.com
Priceline.com (NASDAQ: PCLN) is a commercial website which helps users obtain discount rates for travel-related items such as airline tickets and hotel stays. The company is not a direct supplier of these services; it is similar to a web portal, providing comparative pricing from an assortment of service companies. It is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, United States. Priceline is the brainchild of venture capitalist Jesse Fink and of digital entrepreneur Jay Walker; the company's origins were closely tied with Walker's company Walker Digital. Hong Kong company Cheung Kong Holdings later purchased a significant portion of Priceline's stock.
It first gained prominence for its Name Your Own Price system, where travelers would name their price for airline tickets, hotel rooms, and car rentals. The price would be compared to undisclosed prices in the Priceline database, with the purchaser knowing the location and name of the rental car company, airline, or hotel only after the purchase had gone through, with no rights to cancel. (According to the web site, the no-cancellation no-refund policy is because Priceline offers the price to the hotel, airline, or car rental agency with the promise that the service would be sold and the seat or hotel will be filled, or the car will be rented.) Priceline's cut of the proceeds was the difference between the price an individual named and the price charged by the service establishment. More recently, it has moved to a more traditional model where travelers are presented prices and are also told the name of the establishment. Travelers can still choose to name their price but the number of participants in that program has significantly diminished.
Priceline.com also experimented with selling gasoline and groceries under the Name Your Own Price model in 2000, at the height of the dot-com bubble, through a partially owned affiliate, WebHouse Club. Priceline also got into the online auction business with Priceline Yard Sales, where individuals would use the Priceline system to haggle for various second hand items and trade them in person. Priceline also sold long distance telephone service and automobiles under the Name Your Own Price model. All of these experiments
were terminated in 2002. Another experiment, the Name Your Own Rate system for home loans, continues under a license with EverBank. In 2002, Priceline licensed its “Name Your Own Price” travel system to eBay.
Priceline returned to its original focus on travel products, such airfares and rental cars, with the addition of cruise sales and a special emphasis on hotel bookings in its commercials. During November 2007, Priceline “permanently” eliminated all booking fees on published airfares.
For years, Priceline's official spokesperson was William Shatner, who agreed to do the spots for free in exchange for stock in the company. The arrangement turned out to be quite profitable for Shatner, who sold much of the stock shortly before its value plummeted in the dot-com bust. An early ad campaign featuring Shatner had him belt out popular songs in spoken word, in the style of his album, The Transformed Man. He was "replaced" in 2004 by his Star Trek co-star, Leonard Nimoy. Shatner still appeared in spots for Priceline, running into Nimoy as his replacement. When that campaign ended, Shatner again became Priceline's sole spokesperson.