Utell Hotels & Resorts expanded its marketing agreement with Priceline, enabling the online travel agency to increase its hotel coverage in Latin America and Asia.
Under the new arrangement, Utell, a hotel representation company which is part of Pegasus Solutions, enables more than 2,500 of the independent hotels in it fold to participate in a variety of Priceline programs, including Name Your Own Price, Travelweb's merchant hotel program and vacation packages.
Priceline's larger footprint through Utell isn't huge. Utell properties in Latin America and Asia have been added to the Priceline mix, and Utell-represented hotels in North America, the Caribbean and 30 key markets in Europe, Middle East and Africa already were participating in Priceline programs as part of the previous pact.
Still, the hotel market in Latin America and Asia is a lot more fragmented than it is in North America, where chains have more influence, so the Utell expansion is a welcome development for Priceline.
The new marketing agreement covers Priceline.com and does not impact Priceline subsidiaries Booking.com and Agoda.com.