2001 Special Olympics World Winter Games Alaska Goes Online for Athlete and Guest Housing with Passkey.

Business Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 15, 2000

The 2001 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Anchorage, Alaska, next March said it is the first international sports event to use the Internet to facilitate selecting and reserving hotel rooms and other housing for athletes, coaches, officials, family members, friends, dignitaries and press through a contract with Passkey.com, Inc.

Leslye Langla, participant services manager for the Organizing Committee of the event, said that more than 7,000 people are expected to travel to the Anchorage area starting in late February for the Games, with competition scheduled for March 4-11. She said Passkey, the leading provider of Internet-based integrated group hotel reservation, event registration and travel solutions for meeting and event planners, convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs) and travel companies, will supply the technology and support services "that put the Anchorage Special Olympics World Winter Games at the forefront of using Internet technology."

Athletes Gather from Around the World

Ms. Langla said some 2,800 athletes will be coming to the area from more than 80 nations, and that the Organizing Committee is currently working to establish 16 athlete villages, using existing hotel properties for athletes and coaches, with up to 450 residents in each village.

"The Iditarod, the world's most famous sled dog race, is going on in Alaska at the same time as the Special Olympics World Games, and hotel space will be at a premium," said Ms. Langla. "That's one of the reasons the Organizing Committee felt it was absolutely essential to employ a system that is state-of-the-art in management capability, speed and accuracy to handle housing," she said.

Relying on her 20 years of experience in the hospitality and travel industry, Ms. Langla led the Organizing Committee's search "for a system that could manage large groups of inventory in several locations and several rate structures. Traditionally, Special Olympics have used a homogenous model, such as dormitories. The 2001 Games Organizing Committee is utilizing 16 hotels and needed to raise the standard for Games housing control and management. The Mission Statement of the Committee is `to provide a memorable athletic, social and educational experience for athletes, families, volunteers and sponsors that will leave a legacy for future Special Olympics Alaska programs'. Implementing 21st Century technology to manage housing helps achieve that goal in Alaska and wherever Special Olympics and other international events are held in the future."

Ms. Langla said the Committee "researched all the databases and reservation systems, and talked to the top companies, including Sabre(R), a leader in the electronic distribution of travel and information technology solutions for the travel and transportation industries. Sabre led us to Passkey, with whom it has a strategic relationship," she said, "which in turn led to our becoming Passkey-enabled.

"After putting all the information and proposals on the table," she said, "we chose Passkey for a variety of reasons, including the fact that their approach to working with us was superior, and the Passkey product met our needs. We also checked with Passkey users, including the Seattle-King County CVB, which said it was `very successful' with the system."

In working with Passkey, the Committee has set up two distinct room blocks: an Athlete Block, including coaches and other members of the delegation, and a Guest Block, including all other attendees. "A magic piece of Passkey for me is its ability to let us hold all inventory and then release and open it as we fill rooms and meet needs and contract terms," Ms. Langla said. "It's working as an inventory management system for rooms and properties that is helping us even before we open for online reservations later this summer." She said the Athlete Block will be assigned by the Committee, using Passkey's online booking functionality on the Games' Web site (www.2001worldgames.org), starting late this summer.

Ms. Langla also noted that "Passkey -- in particular Regional Sales Director Terence Donnelly -- has been instrumental in helping us get going quickly and smoothly. Thanks to Terence and Passkey, our leap onto the Internet has been a pleasure."

Passkey Proud to be Working with Special Olympics

Roger Paradis, president and CEO of Passkey.com, Inc., said his company was "proud to work with the Special Olympics and the dedicated Organizing Committee, which is turning a dream into reality. Passkey has a reputation for innovation and performance with CVBs throughout the U.S., with meeting planners, and with travel industry companies," he said, "and bringing this great international event online is especially fulfilling. We take pride in being chosen as the Committee's partner, and eagerly accept our role in setting a new record for excellence in housing management for this wonderful and very worthwhile event."

About Passkey.com, Inc.

Passkey.com, Inc. (www.passkey.com) is the leading provider of Internet-based integrated group hotel reservation, event registration and travel solutions for the $120 billion meetings and convention industry, providing convention housing management and processing technology and services to a growing list of CVBs, travel companies and meeting planners. Passkey.com has an alliance with Sabre (NYSE: TSG), which made an equity investment in the company, to co-develop an industry-unique interface combining its air, car and hotel resources with Passkey.com's group hotel room block management system. Passkey.com also has other hospitality industry alliances with EventSource.com, McCord Group Travel Services, Pegasus Systems (NASDAQ: PEGS), and PlanSoft Corporation. Passkey.com, Inc. is headquartered in Quincy, Mass.

Passkey-enabled is a service mark of Passkey.com, Inc. Sabre is a registered trademark of an affiliate of Sabre Inc.