Datalex distribution platform demonstrates return on investment for Best Western Hotels

BestWestern.com continues to expand online bookings, content and connectivity Since going live with its Datalex-powered Web booking engine, BestWestern.com has seen a 26% growth in bookings made through the site, with more than 22% of the company’s total reservations bookings now being made via Best Western’s World Wide Web address. Content at the site has also been expanded with multiple language versions and property descriptive content. Best Western International Inc., ‘The World’s Largest Hotel Chain®’, went live with Datalex technology at its global Web booking site in November 2003. Datalex (ISE: DLE; OTC: DLEXY) supplied a customized hospitality booking-engine solution that provides travel buyers powerful destination search and recommendation capabilities, dynamic links to property information content, and bookings made against real-time room availability in the hotel group’s central reservations system. The system is also linked to Best Western’s Crown Gold Club International loyalty system. Since its launch, Best Western has also developed a special content section for its Premier category of hotels throughout Europe and Asia, which can be booked through the site, as well as rolling out the site globally through additional language versions. English, French, German, Italian and Dutch storefronts are now live, and other language sites are in production. Mike Kistner, CIO and senior vice president of Information Services for Best Western said, “We offer guests a greatly enhanced shopping experience including powerful search capabilities and flexibility in selecting a hotel and making bookings. These features in Datalex’s solution, as well as the platform’s proven stability, have contributed to the growth of bookings made through BestWestern.com, and continue to support our ability to manage reservation-handling costs. We have complete in-house management of the site, from updates to bookings, and will further enhance its potential by developing connectivity with our partners and distributors.” The solution is centered on Datalex’s BookIt! Matrix platform, which provides user interface and booking transaction management via the hotel group’s central reservations system and other enterprise systems. The platform also provides extensive search and property information capabilities. Encompassed in the solution design is a layer that reads and distributes structured data messages supporting the industry standards being developed by the OpenTravel™ Alliance (http://www.opentravel.org/). This enables Best Western to extend electronic distribution relationships with preferred partners and distributors using a standard yet extensible data exchange format. Aidan Brogan, SVP Sales and Marketing of Datalex said, “The Datalex solution delivers real business value by enabling Best Western International to reduce distribution costs while extending its control of direct distribution through trading partners and geographical markets. Datalex continues to enhance its technology solutions for hospitality and travel suppliers to support online distribution and packaging, as well as improved service and cost management.” About Best Western Best Western International is THE WORLD’S LARGEST HOTEL CHAIN® with more than 4,100 hotels in 80 countries and territories. Best Western is a membership association of independently owned and operated hotels that provides marketing, reservations and operational support to its members. About Datalex Datalex is a leading provider of travel distribution software and solutions which enable global travel industry suppliers and distributors deliver increased content and choice to their customers across multiple sales channels, and to dynamically package and price multiple travel products and services while saving on distribution costs. Datalex’s customers represent the elite of the travel industry and include: Aer Lingus, Air Canada, Amadeus, American Express, Amtrak, ATA Airlines, Best Western International, California State Automobile Association, Delta Air Lines, Disney Cruise Lines, E-Bookers/TravelBag, Emirates Airline, Galileo, GoHop.ie, Japan Travel Bureau, KLM, Korean Airlines, LasVegas.com, Malaysia Airlines, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Page & Moy, Philippine Airlines, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Siemens, SilkAir, Singapore Airlines, SNCF, South African Airways, Thomas Cook, Trailfinders, Transavia Airlines, Travelcare, Turkish Airlines, T-Systems, Vail Resorts Inc., Unisys, WEXAS and Worldspan. Founded in 1985, the company is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, and maintains offices across Europe, the USA and Asia-Pacific. Datalex is a publicly held company traded on the Irish Stock Exchange (symbol: DLE, and also OTC: DLEXY). For more information, please visit the company’s Web site at www.datalex.com.