Lonely Planet Hotels & Hostels relaunches in partnership with Expedia & Hostelworld.com

THREE BIG NAMES IN TRAVEL COME TOGETHER TO DELIVER A NEW ACCOMMODATION BOOKING SERVICE

Lonely Planet Hotels & Hostels relaunches in partnership with Expedia & Hostelworld.com

Lonely Planet, the world’s most trusted travel information company, has joined forces with two of the world’s leading accommodation providers, Expedia and Hostelworld.com, to deliver a unique accommodation booking service.

The new service provides travellers with tens of thousands of author reviews and recommendations written by Lonely Planet’s 360 authors around the world.  From backpacker hostels in Adelaide to boutique designer hotels in Zurich, travellers can evaluate properties and book securely online with Expedia and Hostelworld.com.

“Combining the vast number of Lonely Planet’s author accommodation reviews with the depth of inventory provided by Expedia and Hostelworld is a real win for our travellers.  They get trusted advice, great pricing and wide availability in one easy to use website” explains Troy Suda, Lonely Planet’s Global Head of Hotels & Emerging Online Business.

For the new service, Lonely Planet looked globally for partners where there was strong alignment between Lonely Planet’s author reviews and the bookable properties of prospective partners.

“Lonely Planet has built its business on the quality of its author reviews and recommendations, and we’re delighted to be partnering with a company that is as renowned in its field as Expedia is,” said Tamer Tamar, Vice President and Managing Director for Expedia Distribution.

“Partnering with a company such as Lonely Planet further demonstrates Expedia Distribution’s white labelling expertise and commitment to broadening the base of partners we work with in the travel arena.  We have developed a tailored offering for Lonely Planet that is perfectly in tune with its users’ needs and utilises our world class hotel product,” said Tamar.

Lonely Planet’s authors travel the globe reviewing accommodation options covering the needs of all travellers, hence two partners were selected to provide bookable properties across a wide range of destinations and accommodation types.

Feargal Mooney, CEO of Hostelworld.com added “As the leading provider of online reservations to the budget accommodation sector our hostel coverage is the biggest in the world. This partnership builds on the long-standing relationship between Hostelworld.com and Lonely Planet and enables us to leverage the independent and authoritative reviews of the world’s most experienced and trusted travel writers, further enhancing the customer experience and creating a service unlike any other.”

The service is available now at lonelyplanet.com/hotels.

About Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet is a leading independent global travel information company. It is renowned for its first-hand approach, up-to-date maps and commitment to providing the best information for travellers. Lonely Planet currently has over 360 writers, researcher and photographers and produces around 500 trustworthy and inspiring books, innovative downloadable digital guides, an award-winning website, wireless applications and cutting-edge television programmes. Lonely Planet was founded after Tony and Maureen Wheeler left London and hit the road in search of adventure in 1972. They travelled overland across Asia and landed in Australia where, due to incessant questions from would-be travellers, they compiled their journey notes and stapled together their first travel guide; Across Asia on the Cheap. www.lonelyplanet.com

About Expedia Distribution

Expedia Distribution, part of Expedia Inc, provides full-service travel products to more than 8,000 private label partners globally, including many of Europe’s pre-eminent airlines, top train companies, portals and market-leading online travel agencies including Greenbee, Eurostar, Alitalia, BMI, Virgin Express and Iceland Air. Expedia’s Distribution platform allows these partners to distribute Expedia’s highly competitive travel products, and benefit from Expedia’s robust technology, unrivalled supply quality, and leading merchandising tools. Expedia Distribution offers hotels, dynamic packages, car hire, flights, insurance and destination services to partners in more than 20 EMEA markets.

Expedia, Inc. is the world’s leading business and leisure travellers with the tools and information they online travel company, empowering need to easily research, plan, book, and experience travel. Expedia, Inc.’s companies operate internationally with sites throughout EMEA, including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Scandinavia, Canada, Australia and Japan, as well as China, through its investment in eLong™. Expedia, Inc.’s portfolio of brands include: Expedia.com®, hotels.com®, Hotwire®, Expedia® Corporate Travel, TripAdvisor™ and Classic Vacations®. For more information, visit http://www.expediainc.com/ .

About Hostelworld

Hostelworld.com is a leading provider of online reservations to the budget, independent and youth travel market. It offers confirmed online reservations for over 18,000 hostels and budget hotels in 168 countries worldwide. Hostelworld.com is based in Dublin, Ireland and is fully owned and operated by Web Reservations International Ltd (WRI).

WRI provides technology, distribution and marketing solutions to accommodation and other travel suppliers worldwide through a network of owned sites and affiliate partners. Founded in 1999 WRI and is headquartered in Dublin has representative offices in Shanghai, Sydney and New York. WRI has developed award winning websites including Hostelworld.com, Hostels.com, boo.com and trav.com and has successful affiliate relationships with many of the world’s leading brands. For more information visit www.webresint.com or www.hostelworld.com