Priceline 2010 Annual Report Download - page 79

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Service Offerings – International
Retail Hotels. We offer a retail, price-disclosed hotel service worldwide, primarily through our
Booking.com and Agoda brands. Booking.com works with over 120,000 chain-owned and independently owned
hotels in 99 countries offering hotel reservations on various websites and in 41 languages. Hotels participate in
Booking.com, which operates under an agency model, and Agoda, which operates primarily under a merchant
model, by filing rates in our proprietary extranet. Hotels may also participate in Agoda via consolidator
relationships.
Retail Rental Cars. In May 2010, we acquired TravelJigsaw, a United Kingdom-based international rental
car reservation service. TravelJigsaw offers its car hire services in more than 4,000 locations in 80 countries in
Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East, with customer support provided in 20 languages.
Customers using TravelJigsaw can book a full range of vehicles online through one of TravelJigsaw’s branded
websites, or they can reserve their cars by phone. TravelJigsaw primarily offers its services under a semi-opaque
merchant model that allows customers to see the price, vehicle type and rental location, but not the identity of the
supplier until the reservation is made.
Service Offerings – United States
Name Your Own Price® Hotels. Through our Name Your Own Price® hotel room reservation service,
customers can make reservations at hotel properties in substantially all major cities and metropolitan areas in the
United States and Europe. Most significant national hotel chains as well as several important real estate investment
trusts and independent property owners participate in our Name Your Own Price® service. Hotels participate by
filing secure private discounted rates with related rules accessible through a global distribution system database.
These specific rates generally are not available to the general public or to consolidators and other discount
distributors who sell to the public, however, hotel participants may make similar rates available to consolidators or
other discount providers under other arrangements.
To make an offer, a customer specifies: (1) the city and neighborhood in which the customer wants to stay,
(2) the dates on which the customer wishes to check in and check out, (3) the “class” of service (1, 2, 2½, 3, 3½, 4,
5-star or “resort”), (4) the price the customer is willing to pay, and (5) the customer’s valid credit card to guarantee
the offer. When making an offer, consumers must agree to stay at any one of our participating hotel partners and
accept a reservation that cannot be refunded or changed. The target market for our Name Your Own Price® hotel
room reservation service is the leisure travel market.
Retail Hotels. We also operate a price-disclosed hotel service in the United States that enables our
customers to select the exact hotel they want to book and the price of the reservation is disclosed prior to booking.
Name Your Own Price® Rental Cars. Our Name Your Own Price® rental car service is currently available
in substantially all major United States airport markets. The top five brand name airport rental car companies in the
United States are seller participants in our rental car program. Consumers can access our website and select where
and when they want to rent a car, what kind of car they want to rent (e.g., economy, compact, mid-size, SUV, etc.)
and the price they want to pay per-day, excluding taxes, fees and surcharges. When we receive an offer, we
determine whether to fulfill the offer based upon the available rates and rules. If a customer’s offer is accepted, it
cannot be refunded or changed, and we will immediately reserve the rental car, charge the customer’s credit card
and notify the customer of the rental car company and location providing the rental car.
Retail Rental Cars. We also offer a price-disclosed rental car service on www.priceline.com and other
websites that enables our customers in the United States to choose between price-disclosed or Name Your Own
Price® rental cars. Our price-disclosed rental car service operates under the “agency” model, under which we earn a
commission upon rental car return, and accommodates one-way and off-airport reservations. As with our retail
airline ticket and hotel reservation services, rental car reservations booked in a retail manner do not have the
restrictions associated with our Name Your Own Price® service. Customers can select the exact rental car brand
they want to book and the price of the reservation is disclosed prior to purchase.
Name Your Own Price® Airline Tickets. There are a total of 12 domestic airlines and 18 international
airlines participating in our Name Your Own Price® airline ticket service.