NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 11, 2005--William Shatner
and priceline.com(R) (Nasdaq: PCLN) are going where the pioneer
Internet travel service has never gone before. After months behind the
scenes redesigning its computer systems, inventory processing and Web
site, priceline.com will introduce today what it believes is the most
powerful one-stop travel reservation site on the Internet for airline
tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars and packages. The relaunch is being
heralded by a new multi-million-dollar TV ad campaign featuring
priceline.com's celebrity spokesman William Shatner.
"Online travel customers are shoppers by nature," said
priceline.com President and Chief Executive Officer Jeffery H. Boyd.
"They want the ability to see and compare prices. And they want to
save the maximum amount possible on their travel purchases. Our new
priceline.com gives travelers the best of both worlds. They can choose
from an extensive assortment of airline tickets, hotel rooms and
rental cars at specially negotiated published prices. Or, for deeper
savings, they can choose priceline.com's famous Name Your Own Price(R)
option. Best of all, when travelers come to priceline.com, they know
they're going to find a broader global assortment of travel products,
and those products will frequently be available to them at prices and
savings they won't find anywhere else."
Priceline.com decided on pursuing a multi-product travel search
engine after the Company introduced a retail airline tickets service
in 2004. That product helped priceline.com increase its full-year
gross travel booking 52% and made priceline.com the fastest growing of
the "big 4" major online travel services (Expedia, Orbitz,
Travelocity, Priceline) in 2004. (Gross travel bookings refers to the
total value of all travel products purchased, including taxes and
fees.)
The new priceline.com has several competitive advantages over the
other major travel reservation services and search engines.
Priceline.com's advantages include:
-- Better prices. Travel suppliers view priceline.com's opaque
service as a valuable distribution channel for their products.
Consequently, many work with priceline.com on a
preferred-pricing or an exclusive participation basis. The
bottom line - priceline.com's Name Your Own Price(R) service
has travel deals consumers won't find anywhere else.
-- More suppliers. Over 60,000 hotels, airlines and rental car
companies worldwide sell through the priceline.com family of
travel services. Priceline.com's recent acquisition of Active
Hotels gives customers access to more than 8,000 European
hotels, the majority of which are independent properties, that
don't work with or connect directly to the other major travel
services and search engines.
-- A powerful private travel search engine. On command, travelers
can type in their trip specifics for an airline ticket, hotel
room, rental car or package and priceline.com will find and
display published prices, itineraries and properties for
priceline.com-participating travel suppliers. Published-price
search results are shown in an easy-to-read grid format that
makes comparison-shopping simple. If they wish, travelers can
use a variety of filters to fine-tune their searches.
-- Priceline.com's trademark Name Your Own Price(R) feature.
Priceline.com is the only travel service on the Internet that
lets customers trade travel or brand flexibility for the exact
price that they want to pay for an airline ticket, hotel room
or rental car. By being flexible, priceline.com hotel
customers can save up to 40% or more over the published prices
they see on other major travel reservation services. For
rental cars, priceline.com customers typically save up to 25%
over the published prices found on the other travel sites. And
for airline tickets, the Name Your Own Price(R) savings can be
up to 40% depending on itinerary and time of purchase.
-- Priceline.com's Best-Price Guarantee. Priceline.com is so sure
that customers will get the best prices on its hotels, rental
cars, packages and cruises that the company offers a
Best-Price Guarantee. For each product, if customers make a
purchase and find a better available price online within a
certain period of time, they can tell priceline.com and
priceline.com will refund 100% of the difference.
To highlight the many benefits of its new service, priceline.com
turned to longtime celebrity spokesman William Shatner for a new TV ad
campaign titled, "Shop - Compare - Save." In the spots, Mr. Shatner
encounters consumers who are comparison-shopping for groceries, shoes,
new cars and bedding. From them, he gets the "brainstorm" to turn
priceline.com into a comparison-shopping travel service.
"Once again, William Shatner excels in educating and entertaining
his audience," said priceline.com Chief Marketing Officer Brett
Keller. "After drawing them into the ad, he demonstrates why people
should compare prices and save using priceline.com. Then he delivers
the entertainment payoff with a little improvisational comedy to
finish each spot."
About Priceline.com
Priceline.com is a travel service that offers leisure airline
tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises.
Priceline.com also has a personal finance service that offers home
mortgages, refinancing and home equity loans through an independent
licensee. Priceline.com operates the retail travel Web sites
Travelweb.com, ActiveReservations,com, Lowestfare.com, RentalCars.com
and BreezeNet.com. Priceline.com licenses its business model to
independent licensees, including pricelinemortgage and certain
international licensees.
Information About Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance
and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that
are difficult to predict; therefore, actual results may differ
materially from those expressed, implied or forecasted in any such
forward-looking statements. Expressions of future goals and similar
expressions including, without limitation, "may," "will," "should,"
"could," "expects," "does not currently expect," "plans,"
"anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential,"
"targets," or "continue," reflecting something other than historical
fact are intended to identify forward-looking statements. The
following factors, among others, could cause the Company's actual
results to differ materially from those described in the
forward-looking statements: adverse changes in general market
conditions for leisure and other travel products as the result of,
among other things, terrorist attacks; adverse changes in the
Company's relationships with airlines and other product and service
providers including, without limitation, the withdrawal of suppliers
from the priceline.com system; the bankruptcy or insolvency of another
major domestic airline; the effects of increased competition;
systems-related failures and/or security breaches; the Company's
ability to protect its intellectual property rights; losses by the
Company and its licensees; final adjustments made in closing the
quarter; legal and regulatory risks and the ability to attract and
retain qualified personnel. For a detailed discussion of these and
other factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ
materially from those described in the forward-looking statements,
please refer to the Company's most recent Form 10-Q, Form 10-K and
Form 8-K filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Unless
required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update
publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise.
CONTACT: priceline.com
Brian Ek, 203-299-8167
brian.ek@priceline.com
SOURCE: priceline.com
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