Groupe Envergure appoints Active Hotels as preferred online reservations provider

Cambridge UK – Active Hotels, a leading provider of online reservations to the European hotel industry, has been appointed as the preferred provider for France’s second largest hotel group, Groupe Envergure. Groupe Envergure has nearly 900 establishments in nine European countries under several major brands including Bleu Marine, Kyriad, Campanile and Première Classe.

Groupe Envergure has grown rapidly to become the second largest European group in the hotel and catering trade. With plans to extend and develop its network of hotels across Europe in 2003 in both the budget and luxury sectors, Groupe Envergure’s strategic alliance with Active Hotels will strengthen the group’s online visibility. Already the No.1 online reservation provider in the UK, Active Hotels is now a leading player in the French online reservations market with over 1,200 hotels in France currently using its online distribution system to access an international audience of over one million Internet users each month.

Andy Phillipps, CEO of Active Hotels, comments, “Our partnership with the Groupe Envergure secures our position as a leading provider of online reservations to the European hotel market. Active Hotels’ rapid expansion into Europe has been enabled by the development of our robust technical platform which can quickly incorporate thousands of hotels. We now have excellent coverage in the French hotel market, which, at €30 billion, remains the number one accommodation market in Europe. Hotel recruitment across the rest of the continent has been equally impressive, with over a thousand hotels across eight countries now working in partnership with us.

Douglas Whittaker, International Sales Manager, Groupe Envergure, says, “We are delighted to be working with one of the leading providers of online distribution solutions in Europe. The integration platform created by Active Hotels allows us to sell Groupe Envergure inventory online without the need for our hotel managers to manually update the system, a huge advantage in terms of administration and management cost savings. Active Hotels has had a huge impact on the online distribution market since its inception in 1999 and we are pleased to align our online growth strategy with their increasing success in Europe.”

Active Hotel’s software will be integrated directly with Groupe Envergure’s central reservation system. It will automatically provide Active Hotels with up to the minute information on availability and rates across the Groupe Envergure properties, thereby enabling online bookers to secure accommodation across Europe through real-time online reservations.

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About Active Hotels: www.activehotels.com

Active Hotels is one of the fastest growing online reservation providers in Europe, having realized a 771% increase in turnover in the last three years (source: Deloitte Touche). Launched in Cambridge, England in 1998 by CEO Andrew Phillipps and Business Development Director Adrian Critchlow with a team of just five employees, Active Hotels now employs 35 people.

The company works with over 2,800 hotels in Europe all of which can be booked in real time. It has over one million users a month and partners with some 1,500 websites and agencies. The company’s hotel network is continually growing with approximately 50 new hotels registering every month. Active Hotels aims to bring its hotels and distribution partners to the forefront of the European online reservation market.

Active Hotels was ranked the fifth fastest growing company in the Eastern region by Deloitte and Touch’s Technology Fast 50 in November 2002.

Press contacts:

Maria Murphy
PR & Communications
Tel: 01223 578134
Email – [email protected]

Gina Blackie
Public Relations
Tel: 01189 333777

www.activehotels.com