December 5, 2002
Hollywood, Florida – Just two weeks from dropping the first forms in the mail, The HotelGuide Network (HotelGuide), a service of MetroGuide.com, Inc. (MetroGuide) has announced a 2.6 per cent response rate to its cold direct mail campaign, designed to provide updated information for properties on its family of travel-related sites. Responses to the direct mail piece, mailed to domestic U.S. hotels, have poured in by fax, mail, and online.
"We are ecstatic with these results," said Traci Ross, HotelGuide content manager. "Cold campaigns are considered successful with a two percent response. Just two weeks out, we're pushing three per cent."
Known for accuracy, thoroughness and user-friendliness, MetroGuide embarked on the massive update for its 2003 USA HotelGuide Directory. Most Internet hotel databases are derived from a Global Distribution System (GDS) database or similar reservations system. The 30,000 hotels currently in the HotelGuide Network database, however, are independent of a GDS, making HotelGuide, located online at www.hotelguide.net, one of the largest independently produced and maintained databases of hotel information available anywhere.
"Since the directory was first published in 1993, our goal has been for HotelGuide to be recognized as a ‘single source' for consumers to find hotel information," said Mark Metz, MetroGuide CEO. "But we haven't been in a race for sheer size at the expense of quality."
HotelGuide listings, based primarily on input provided by the hotels themselves, are hand-edited by a dedicated team of editors. In the recent mailing, hotels were provided with a print edition of MetroGuide's unique Hotel GUI, or Graphical User Interface. Hotels may complete and fax the print edition, or go online and use the Hotel GUI - de, a digital edition of the form.
MetroGuide books tens-of-millions of dollars annually for the properties listed on its HotelGuide sites. "The enormous response we are seeing is a testament to the longstanding strength of the HotelGuide brand," added Metz.
"Our staff has a passion for accuracy," said Scott Rogers, recently promoted to MetroGuide president. "We're focused on keeping our databases as current as humanly and technologically possible."
With more than 30,000 properties in the fold, Metz and his team are well on their way to constructing the Internet's largest hospitality database. After MetroGuide processes this batch of updates, it will send the form to additional U.S. and international hotels. Metz foresees HotelGuide listing more than 80,000 properties, including inns, resorts, bed-and-breakfasts and other lodging types, and available online by mid next year.
"One reason we've built such a substantial database is those properties with which we do business have learned that HotelGuide is, in fact, hotel-friendly," said Metz. MetroGuide enters into agreements with management organizations that appreciate its long-standing ethical policies.
MetroGuide is among the largest Internet providers of global travel information and reservations. Incorporated in 1996 and privately held, MetroGuide's network of websites attracts more than two million unique visitors monthly to its quarter-million-plus pages of travel related e-commerce sites. Having financed its venture entirely through internal sales growth and with no outside capital, MetroGuide generates tens-of-millions of dollars annually in on-line bookings through its proprietary database of more than 30,000 hotels and destination resorts. MetroGuide stands at the forefront of the battle to combat digital copyright piracy, with multiple recent court awards.
For more information contact Scott Rogers (954) 981-5850.