Pegasus Solutions and VFM Leonardo Form Strategic Partnership
Pegasus Chooses VFM Leonardo’s VScape® Digital Asset Management System to Power All Visual Content for ODDr and Content Hub
DALLAS, TX and TORONTO, ON (June 24, 2009) – Pegasus Solutions' and VFM Leonardo have formed a strategic partnership to provide hotels industry-leading end-to-end visual and descriptive content management and distribution. The agreement will allow Pegasus, which maintains the largest collection of electronically bookable hotels in the world, to leverage VFM Leonardo's VScape® Digital Asset Management System and visual content library for the more than 90,000 hotels in the Pegasus online distribution database (ODD).
Optimizing the dominant positions of Pegasus as the industry leader for distribution of descriptive content and inventory, and VFM Leonardo for distribution of visual content such as photos, virtual tours and video, this strategic partnership brings hotels an unrivaled offering for content distribution, according to Mike Kistner, president, CEO and chairman of Pegasus Solutions.
“Hotels need an arsenal of tools, including visual content, to compete in a market where converting online travel shoppers has become more complex,” said Kistner. “VFM Leonardo has already taken the top spot in the industry for visual content management and distribution, which is why we’ve selected them to further improve the content distribution options for our hotels and for Pegasus-powered travel sites.”
Pegasus will integrate VFM Leonardo's leading VScape Digital Asset Management System with the ODD, which will allow hotels to easily update and manage their visual content directly in the ODD. Additionally, Pegasus and VFM Leonardo will offer ContentHub™ , a tool that enables hotels to seamlessly access, update and manage their images and text through a single interface. Both the VScape integration and ContentHub will allow visuals and text to be presented consistently to the global distribution systems (GDSs), and Pegasus alternative distribution system (ADS) customers, which include the major travel websites, search engines, tour operators and travel consortia.
Delivering a visual story accurately and efficiently to thousands of online channels and websites utilized by travel shoppers during their hotel selection process translates into increased bookings, according to Paolo Boni, President and CEO of VFM Leonardo.
“Better merchandised hotels get more bookings,” said Boni. “Research actually shows online travel shoppers are 67 percent more likely to book a hotel that displays virtual tours and a staggering 89 percent more likely when a hotel displays video. Pegasus is the ‘best of breed’, and we are very proud of our partnership with them and their selection of VScape to manage and distribute hotel visual content. We firmly believe we can now better deliver hotel visual content through Pegasus with a complete solution that helps hotels better merchandise online and increase their bookings.”
About Pegasus Solutions Inc
Pegasus Solutions is the world’s leading provider of technology and services to hotels and travel distributors, supplying state-of-the-art central reservation systems and electronic distribution services, advanced agency commission processing and payment services, and hotel marketing representation services. Founded in 1989, Pegasus created and launched the hotel switch, and today its customers include more than 90,000 properties around the globe as well as a majority of the world’s travel agencies. Additionally, Pegasus’ powerful representation arm incorporates Utell® Hotels & Resorts and Utell Connect, services that have been chosen by nearly 11,000 member hotels in more than 130 countries, making Pegasus the hotel industry’s largest third-party marketing, sales and reservations specialist. Pegasus also powers the niche consumer Web site www.hotelbook.com™, dedicated to promoting independent and boutique hotels throughout the world. Headquartered in Dallas, Pegasus has 18 offices in 11 countries, including regional hubs in London, Singapore and Scottsdale, Arizona. For more information, please visit www.pegs.com or www.utell.com.
Media Contact:
Ariel Herr for Pegasus
+1 (214) 890-7912
aherr @ fortepr.com
About VFM Leonardo
VFM Leonardo is the world’s largest provider and distributor of online visual content for the hotel and travel industry. VFM Leonardo’s content library includes more than one million digital photographs, videos and 360° virtual tours for over 80,000 hotels and resorts worldwide. Through VScape, VFM Leonardo distributes this content to its online media network of all fourGlobal Distribution Systems, Pegasus, and 30,000 plus travel-related channels including online travel agencies, travel research and supplier web sites, search portals and major travel intermediaries. VFM Leonardo’s online media network includes industry leaders such as Sabre, Galileo, Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline, Tripadvisor, Yahoo! Travel, Kayak, Google and many more. For more information, visit www.vfmleonardo.com.
