hotelicopter Launches First-of-its-Kind Hotel Distribution Technology Platform

Charlottesville, VA – Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 – hotelicopter (www.hotelicopter.com), the global hotel search & content company, announced the launch of a unique cloud-based hotel distribution technology platform to enable any travel-oriented web site, or 'publisher', to offer a privately branded, plug-and-play hotel meta-search experience to their visitors and immediately start earning commissions on hotel bookings.

hotelicopter's new hotel distribution platform is called the hotelicopter network™, and features live rates, availability, and content for over 160,000 hotels - more than twice the largest travel booking sites. The launch of the hotelicopter network™ marks the extension of hotelicopter's business from a hotel meta-search engine into a comprehensive hotel distribution technology platform that can power thousands of travel-oriented sites across the web.

Examples of web site publishers that can now offer the leading hotel search experience to their visitors and begin earning revenues from the hotelicopter network™ include travel web sites, destination marketing organizations (DMOs), and corporate travel booking engines.

These publishers access hotelicopter's content via a broad range of solutions, including a private label hotel meta-search engine, rich-client APIs (application programming interfaces), and customizable hotel content widgets. hotelicopter's solutions provide publishers with easy and flexible integration, detailed performance tracking, and a generous commission program.

The benefits of joining the hotelicopter network™ for web site publishers include:

- Best-of-breed content for over 160,000 hotels worldwide
- Live rates & availability from 20+ leading travel sites & thousands of hotel sites
- Industry-leading hotel search experience
- Fully cloud-based, standards-compliant technology infrastructure
- Easy plug-and-play set up and installation
- Attractive, simple revenue model
- Integrated publisher & hotelier self-service extranets

The hotelicopter network™ has already attracted significant interest from travel web sites, destination marketing organizations, and corporate travel booking engines, and numerous sites are in the pipeline for implementation. New publishers will be announced as they go live on the hotelicopter network™.

Many of the industry's leading online travel agencies and hotel suppliers have already signed onto the hotelicopter network™ as advertisers to drive more direct bookings to their web sites and take advantage of the distribution scalability afforded by hotelicopter's platform. These advertisers include Hilton Worldwide, Hotels.com, Best Western, Orbitz, InterContinental Hotels Group, Priceline.com, BedandBreakfast.com, Booking.com, Agoda, ReserveTravel, Tablet Hotels, and many more. By integrating with hotelicopter's platform, these advertisers gain access to thousands of web site publishers and millions of travelers actively engaged in the hotel booking process online.

Travel consumers also greatly benefit from the hotel rate and content transparency provided by hotelicopter's suite of solutions. hotelicopter's meta-search model enables travelers to access the largest available bookable hotel inventory online and compare room rates from the leading travel and hotel web sites all in one place.

Hotel distribution has long been constrained by significant fragmentation, outdated technology infrastructure, expensive distribution costs, and an excess of intermediaries standing in between travelers and hotels. hotelicopter's new distribution platform addresses these issues head on by building out the next generation of technology infrastructure to connect travelers directly to online travel agencies and hotel suppliers all over the web. This results in better information transparency and a superior booking experience for travelers, and more cost-effective direct bookings for online travel agencies and hotel suppliers.

"Web publishers want to provide the benefits of meta-search to their site visitors," says Adam Healey, the co-founder and CEO of hotelicopter. "Now, any web site can leverage our plug-and-play solutions to offer robust content and pricing for over 160,000 hotels worldwide without having to invest in the technology or relationships themselves. Our mission is to make hotelicopter the ubiquituous hotel distribution technology platform on the web."

"The integration of intelligent hotel search and booking across diverse platforms and sites is the focus of a lot of attention in the travel industry right now," says Joe Buhler, founder of the travel consultancy buhlerworks and a destination marketing twenty-year veteran. "hotelicopter lies right in the sweet spot of this area of fast growth. At the same time it provides a great tool for destination marketing organizations (DMO) and other publishers to offer an integrated, attractive solution for their hotels to be found and booked seamlessly on their sites."


About hotelicopter
hotelicopter is a global hotel search & content company featuring over 160,000 hotels worldwide - more than twice the largest travel booking sites. The company runs the hotelicopter network™, a hotel distribution technology platform that brings together buyers and sellers of hotel rooms across the web, enables web publishers to earn transaction commissions, and allows online travel agencies and hotel suppliers to drive more direct bookings.

Founded in 2006, hotelicopter is based in Charlottesville, Virginia. For more information, please visit www.hotelicopter.com.