Flairview Travel leading the charge

SYDNEY, 15 July 2003 – While other corporations in the travel industry are downsizing operations, Asia Pacific’s leading online accommodation provider, Flairview Travel, continues to employ staff. Staffing figures have risen by 170% over the past financial year, on the back of strong financial results and a thriving business.

Flairview Travel which operates the highly successful accommodation websites HotelClub (www.HotelClub.com.au) and RatesToGo (www.RatesToGo.com) has continued to grow in employee numbers across all areas of its business. Under a flattened corporate structure that ensures the business remains profitable, the Flairview Travel business model has proven to be very successful.

Flairview Travel’s Director of Marketing, Ms Chloe Lim said “We have achieved exceptional growth of up to 500% since 1999 and as a result of this increase our staffing levels have also grown considerably. What is positive is that our growth has come about particularly in the past two years when the industry has been predicting the worse. In addition to this, we predict that our business will continue to experience strong growth beyond 2003” said Ms Lim.

Flairview Travel’s international offices have increased from four in financial year 2001/2002 (Australia, France, Russia and the United Kingdom) to include six new divisions in Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the United States in 2003.

“Our international offices are vital to providing customer service support and to ensure our product continues to be first rate. We have established our position as leader in Asia Pacific and a major player in Europe. In June 2003 we opened an office in the United States which was the next step for the business after building loyal customer and product bases in North America from Australia. The local office is now positioned to further develop both our customers and our partners” said Ms Lim.

Flairview Travel’s websites currently receives in excess of 2 million unique visitors each month.

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For further information please contact:
Ms Chloe Lim
Director of Marketing
Flairview Travel
Tel: +61 2 8263 5106
Fax: +61 2 9264 0559
Email: [email protected]

About HotelClub
HotelClub (www.HotelClub.com.au) is an online accommodation provider offering hotel bookings for up to 12 months ahead. It offers a choice of over 6,000 hotels – at savings of up to 60% – in 36 countries and 750 cities worldwide. The website is available in seven languages – Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish. Its head office is in Sydney with a further nine offices in France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

About RatesToGo
RatesToGo (www.RatesToGo.com) is a last minute accommodation booking service featuring rates that are at least 60% less than usual hotel rates. It offers bookings up to three weeks in advance (similar sites offer 14 days in advance) for accommodation, ranging from two to five star hotels, across 16 countries worldwide including Australia, France, Netherlands, Spain, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and New Zealand. RatesToGo also offers customers a lowest rate guarantee – find a cheaper deal and RatesToGo will match it. Services are available in eight languages Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish.