Asia-based Hotel Merchant PlanetHoliday.com Launches Redesign with Instant Availability

PlanetHoliday.com, a site run by Asia-based Agoda Company, debuted today with a new look which features improvements to its search performance and customer experience.

(PRWEB) September 20, 2006 -- Planet Holiday Discount Hotels (http://www.planetholiday.com), a site run by Asia-based Agoda Company, debuted today with a new look which features improvements to its search performance and customer experience.

Key to the upgrade is a proprietary Availability Check tool previously only available on top global sites. Independent online merchants in Asia often book only on-request rooms, which can take hours if not days to confirm. The new hotel search tool on PlanetHoliday.com displays precise real-time availability for a large inventory of rooms in Asia, through instant connections to hotel partners. Customers can also make last-minute online bookings for hotels in Asia and Europe as late as the day of arrival.

For instance, people in the market for Hong Kong Hotels (http://www.planetholiday.com/hotels/asia/hong_kong.html) right now, can book the Ramada Hong Kong Hotel (http://www.planetholiday.com/hotels/asia/hong_kong/hong_kong/ramada_hong_kong_hotel.html) four days out for as little as $131/night. And business travelers requiring Guangzhou Hotels (http://www.planetholiday.com/hotels/asia/china/guangzhou.html) can book the Hotel Canton Guangzhou (http://www.planetholiday.com/hotels/asia/china/guangzhou/hotel_canton.html) for $42/night. All of these are confirmable instantaneously. For popular events like the Canton Fair, instant inventory is critical for all customers.

Planet Holiday, a long-time Asia insider known mostly for its combination of very low prices and 24/7 customer care, is also a member of the Agoda Rewards Program, a unique hotel rewards program where members earn points valued at 5-10% of their total booking amount which can be applied towards future bookings. The Agoda Rewards program has over 100,000 members, whose comments and feedback were incorporated into the re-design of Planet Holiday.

Says Agoda CEO Michael Kenny, “The rewards program is the key to these improvements. It gives us a really extensive test group whose opinions we listen to. Customers want to search for hotels by precise area location within a chosen city, search by price-point, by star-rating, or even alphabetically if you like. PlanetHoliday.com can now deliver on this”.

Kenny says PlanetHoliday.com plans to mine data from its rewards program to roll out additional improvements over coming months.

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