SideStep Announces Partnership With Hyatt Corporation

SideStep Announces Partnership With Hyatt Corporation

Traveler's Search Engine Promotes Direct Relationships Between Consumers and Global Hotelier

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Dec. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- SideStep, Inc. (www.sidestep.com), the traveler's search engine, today announced a marketing partnership with Hyatt Corporation, a leading global hotelier. Through this partnership, SideStep will drive consumers directly to Hyatt's Web site, www.Hyatt.com, to book their travel.

"SideStep offers a range of marketing programs to help us reach the discerning travelers we target," said Joan Lowell, Hyatt's vice president, distribution. "SideStep's demographics are compelling -- their core customers are affluent, well-educated professionals who travel frequently. By directing these prospects to the Hyatt Web site, SideStep not only helps us to further develop our most cost-efficient sales channel, it also enables us to forge direct relationships between travelers and our brand."

"SideStep provides our marketing partners with access to millions of avid travelers -- a reach that is unmatched in the travel search sector," said Don Smith, SideStep's vice president, hotels. "We also offer a diverse array of marketing opportunities, enabling travel providers to promote their brands to consumers at all points in the travel planning process. From the Hyatt Regency Kauai to the Grand Hyatt Bali," Smith continued, "Hyatt offers compelling hotel choices world wide. As their marketing partner, we will help Hyatt to promote the distinctive attributes and services that these properties offer to an audience that is eager to hear the Hyatt story."

SideStep will exchange product, pricing and availability information with the Hyatt site via SideStepTotalConnect. With TotalConnect, SideStep can efficiently communicate with a partner's site using the travel provider's preferred protocol -- XML, SOAP, HTTP, CORBA or even EDI. TotalConnect's power and flexibility enable new partners to begin working with SideStep immediately -- without making any technical changes.

Winner of the Forbes "Best of the Web" Award, the SideStep travel search toolbar is available at www.sidestep.com. SideStep's new Web-based hotel and rental car search offerings are also available through www.sidestep.com, along with TravelFinds Specials and TravelFinds Spotlight, the company's popular email newsletters. These SideStep services are all free to consumers. SideStep is actively hiring to support its growth. For job listings, see www.sidestep.com/jobs.

About SideStep

SideStep -- the traveler's search engine -- brings compelling offers from dozens of travel providers to more than three million consumers each month. The company has forged alliances with leading travel marketers such as Continental Airlines, Starwood Hotels, Orbitz, Best Western and Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group. SideStep is privately held and has raised more than $17M in funding from Trident Capital and individual investors. For more information, visit www.sidestep.com.

About Hyatt

Currently, there are 214 Hyatt hotels and resorts around the world. Hyatt Corporation and its affiliates, manage, franchise or operate 124 hotels and resorts in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. Affiliates of Hyatt International Corporation manage, franchise or operate 90 hotels in 40 countries. For more information about Hyatt hotels and resorts, visit Hyatt on the Internet at www.hyatt.com.


Source: SideStep, Inc.

CONTACT: David Cumpston, Senior Account Executive of Manning Selvage
& Lee, +1-415-364-3846, or david.cumpston@mslpr.com, for SideStep, Inc.; or
Kristen Evans, Senior Public Relations Manager of SideStep, Inc.,
+1-408-235-1700 ext. 126, or kristen.evans@sidestep.com

Web site: http://www.hyatt.com/

Web site: http://www.sidestep.com/


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