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Hotels.com is a website for booking hotel rooms online and by telephone. The company has 85 websites in 34 languages, and lists over 325,000 hotels in approximately 19,000 locations. Its inventory includes hotels and B&Bs, and some condos and other types of commercial lodging. Hotels.com was established in 1991 as the Hotel Reservations Network (HRN). In 2001, it became part of Expedia, Inc. and in 2002, changed its name to Hotels.com. The company is operated by Hotels.com LP, a limited partnership subsidiary located in
Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...
, in the United States.


History

Hotels.com was established in 1991 by David Litman and Robert Diener as the Hotel Reservations Network (HRN), providing hotel booking via a toll-free phone number in the United States. In 2001, the company was acquired by USA Networks Inc (USAI) which also acquired a controlling interest in Expedia, the online travel booking company. After buying the domain name for approximately US$11m, HRN changed its name in 2002 to Hotels.com and launched the offline brand 1-800-2-Hotels as well as allowing hotel bookings on line. There followed a period of rapid international expansion with 29 sites added over the next two years. In 2003, USAI was renamed InterActiveCorp (IAC). In 2005 IAC separated its travel business under the name Expedia Inc. Hotels.com then became an operating company of Expedia Inc. International growth since 2002 has included web sites for North, Central and South America, Europe, Australia, Japan, China and the Pacific Rim, the Middle East and South Africa. Web sites for Indonesia and Vietnam launched in 2011. Customers in all countries can book online or by phoning one of the multilingual call centres. Calls are both toll-free and paid, depending on the country of booking. In 2011, the site launched an
iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating ...
application and updated its mobile phone product on iPhone and Android. On December 1, 2016, Hotels.com took over Venere.com (another Expedia owned company).


U.S. disability rights infringement

In May 2007, Hotels.com was subject to a
class action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...
complaint (''Smith v. Hotels.com L.P.'', California Superior Court, Alameda County, Case No. RG07327029) brought against them for “ongoing discrimination against persons with mobility disabilities who desire to, but cannot, use Hotels.com’s worldwide reservation network to make reservations for hotel rooms”. The company denied the accusation and opposed the action, but was found guilty on one count of infringing California's
Unruh Civil Rights Act The Unruh Civil Rights Act (colloquially the "Unruh Act") is an expansive 1959 California law that prohibits any business in California from engaging in unlawful discrimination against all persons (consumers) within California's jurisdiction, where ...
, and on one count in violation of Unfair Competition Law. Thesite then agreed to provide suitable accessibility information about hotels sold on its website.


Privacy concerns

In February 2019,
TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American online newspaper focusing on high tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately $ ...
reported that the Hotels.com mobile app in the iOS App Store was using session-replay functionality from Israeli firm
Glassbox Glassbox is an Israeli software company. It sells session-replay analytics software and services. History As of October 2018, Glassbox had raised US$32.5 million of capital funding. In exchange for investing in Glassbox, Washington, DC, equity f ...
, to record users' activities and send the data to Expedia servers without users' informed consent, compromising users' privacy and contravening the rules of the iOS App Store.


Loyalty program

Like its competitors (such as Agoda), Hotels.com has a loyalty program. This allows customers to claim discounts on most, but not all, hotels, regardless of hotel chain or type. The program is called "Hotels.com Rewards" (formerly "Welcome Rewards") and launched in the US, Canada and much of Latin America in 2008. It then extended to the UK and Australia in 2010, and to more than 40 additional countries in 2011.


Hotel Price Index

Starting 2004, the site has published a twice-yearly review of international hotel room price trends called the Hotels.com Hotel Price Index based on the prices paid per room by its customers using a weighted average based on the number of rooms sold in each of the markets in which it operates. Information includes notable price changes and comparisons between destinations, hotel types, and other price-related analyses for the previous six months. The Hotel Price Index is published both digitally and in print, and is aimed at journalists, the media, and hoteliers as part of its public relations.


Advertising

Ed Helms Edward Parker Helms (born January 24, 1974) is an American actor and comedian. From 2002 to 2006, he was a correspondent on Comedy Central's ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart''. He played paper salesman Andy Bernard in the NBC sitcom '' The Offi ...
voiced the character "Smart" in Hotels.com advertisements. In 2012, the character was changed from
clay animation Clay animation or claymation, sometimes plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay. Tra ...
to CGI. The company's advertising slogan was originally "Smart. So Smart" before being changed to "Be Smart. Book Smart". In 2014, the site introduced the character " Captain Obvious" who is portrayed by actor Brandon Moynihan. Captain Obvious makes self-evident comments with the aim of communicating that Hotels.com is the obvious choice. The campaign was devised by the ad firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Moynihan said in an interview "Hotels.com has a great self awareness and they're not afraid to push the envelope with the crazy stuff I get to do as Captain Obvious". Notable advertisements include one where he runs for president, a ''
La La Land ''La La Land'' is a 2016 American romantic musical comedy-drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle. It stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as a struggling jazz pianist and an aspiring actress, respectively, who meet and fall in love ...
'' inspired ad and an ad where Captain Obvious meets his future self. In 2018, Captain Obvious featured in
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
's
ad blocking Ad blocking or ad filtering is a software capability for blocking or altering online advertising in a web browser, an application or a network. This may be done using browser extensions or other methods. Technologies and native countermeasures ...
campaign. In 2019, Captain Obvious appeared as a DJ in an episode of ''
Four Weddings and a Funeral ''Four Weddings and a Funeral'' is a 1994 British romantic comedy film directed by Mike Newell. It is the first of several films by screenwriter Richard Curtis to feature Hugh Grant, and follows the adventures of Charles (Grant) and his circle ...
''. The character has since entered popular culture. In one such example, during a 2018 interview at
State College, Pennsylvania State College is a home rule municipality in Centre County in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is a college town, dominated economically, culturally and demographically by the presence of the University Park campus of the Pennsylvania Sta ...
, famed
lesbian feminist Lesbian feminism is a cultural movement and critical perspective that encourages women to focus their efforts, attentions, relationships, and activities towards their fellow women rather than men, and often advocates lesbianism as the logic ...
philosopher Marilyn Frye pointed to the time that she personally edited her own
Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...
page in July 2011. Frye admitted that she removed an entire paragraph. The paragraph claimed that she compared the alleged
misogyny Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practice ...
and theatrical mockery of women in the works of C. S. Lewis to underground
male prostitution Male prostitution is the act or practice of men providing sexual services in return for payment. It is a form of sex work. Although clients can be of any gender, the vast majority are older males looking to fulfill their sexual needs. Male pro ...
rings in her published works. Frye quipped, "While what was said could easily be extrapolated from my work, I have never written a word linking C. S. Lewis to male prostitution before. I am not Captain Obvious from Hotels.com!" Starting in the 2018-19 season, Hotels.com became the official global sponsor of
UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...
and the
UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was original ...
along with
Expedia Expedia Inc. is an online travel agency owned by Expedia Group, an American online travel shopping company based in Seattle. The website and mobile app can be used to book airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruise ships, and vacat ...
.


See also

* '' DDR Holdings v. Hotels.com'' * * *


References




External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hotels.Com Online travel agencies American travel websites American companies established in 1991 Hospitality companies established in 1991 Internet properties established in 1991 2001 mergers and acquisitions Hospitality companies of the United States Companies based in Dallas 1991 establishments in Texas Expedia Group