Passkey-Enabled Standard Embraced by Top Third Party Housing Agencies Serving CVBs; New Mexico Travel and The Parrish Group are Latest to Sign with Passkey.

Business Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 7, 2001

Passkey.com, Inc., the leading provider of integrated Web-based group housing, and travel solutions for the $120 billion meetings and convention industry, has expanded its client list of third party housing agents who provide the Passkey-enabled(SM) standard as an outsource to convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs) as well as directly to meeting planners.

"Some CVBs prefer to become Passkey-enabled by contracting third party agents to manage their housing services," said Tim Durant, Passkey's executive vice president for North America. "By adding these CVBs to our expanding network of Passkey-enabled bureaus, planners can now go to more cities knowing that the security and consistency of Passkey will be available to them."

Durant said "Third party housing agents using our system also serve the growing number of planners who demand the reliability and portability available only through the Passkey-enabled standard," he said, "and, through these third parties, we're bringing the Passkey-enabled standard to more meetings and more CVBs than ever."

The latest major third party housing agents to join forces with Passkey are New Mexico Central Reservations (www.nmtravel.com) in Albuquerque, and The Parrish Group (www.parrishgroup.com) in Birmingham, Alabama. Other Passkey-enabled third parties that serve CVBs already on board are McCord Group Travel Services (GTS), which handles the Los Angeles CVB, and Advance Group, which services the housing needs of the Greater Vancouver CVB.

Serving the Albuquerque Area and More

Jill Wirht, executive director of New Mexico Central Reservations, said her company has provided housing services to the Albuquerque CVB since about 1997.

"Being Passkey-enabled gives us an exciting advantage in meeting the growing needs of the CVB and for our own customers who bring meetings and events to the area," she said. "Our analysis of several vendors offering Internet-based housing led us to Passkey, which we determined was best in customer service and by far, technology. New Mexico Central Reservations is very happy to replace our in-house PC-based housing system with a state-of-the-art technology that keeps us ahead of the times, and fulfills the needs of our customers."

Ms. Wirht said she "polled many counterparts in the International Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus (IACVB) and received an overwhelming recommendation for Passkey. We also spoke with meeting planners who said that Passkey has become a pre-requisite for choosing destinations for their meetings. We think if you don't offer Passkey today - you're out of the running for many events. It's a very important part of the selling process for us."

Among the groups using Passkey for upcoming meetings in the Albuquerque area are CIS Inc., the Reserve Officers Association, the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, the American Association on Electrodiagnostic Medicine, and the American Business Women's Association.

Serving Birmingham, the Religious Market and CVBs

Based in Birmingham, The Parrish Group (TPG) provides housing services to the Birmingham CVB while serving what Jimmy Parrish, its president, calls "a large and growing industry of religious-oriented meetings and special events." In addition, he said TPG is "offering our diverse services, including using Passkey through our call center as well as online, to second and third tier CVBs nationwide.

"TPG's motto is The Joy is the Journey(R)," said Parrish, "and we are constantly working to make the entire journey even more joyful for our overall customer base. Our research led us to Passkey, which we believe is the most sophisticated solution for housing available anywhere. TPG is delighted to use Passkey to support our local CVB as well as our own events. "

Passkey-Enabled a `Hospitality Industry Standard'

"Being Passkey-enabled is on its way to becoming hospitality industry standard," said Passkey's Durant. "By continuing to extend our reach and services through progressive, aggressive third parties such as New Mexico Central Reservations, The Parrish Group, McCord GTS, and Advance Group, Passkey's leading-edge technology is available to the broadest possible marketplace at competitive prices."

Durant said the company's first major third-party vendor relationship, announced last summer, was with the Advance Group, which uses Passkey to serve the housing needs of the Greater Vancouver CVB. Says Durant, "this relationship has provided a model for further success."

Through CVB and third party relationships, Passkey is fulfilling the housing services for 37 cities, 60% of which are among the Top 50 Cities.

About Passkey.com

Headquartered in the Boston suburb of Quincy, Passkey.com, Inc., is the leading provider of integrated Web-based group housing and travel solutions for the $120 billion meetings and convention industry. As a meetings industry metamediary, Passkey provides Web-based applications for use by all key channels within the meetings and conventions industry, including: convention and visitors bureaus, global distribution systems (GDS), hotels, travel agencies, associations, corporations, meetings RFP engines and registration vendors. Travel providers that are Passkey-enabled can leverage Passkey technology to manage group housing for both city-wide and single property meetings. Passkey also offers a booking engine for air and car and the group industry standard direct data delivery system to hotels, GRDS (Group Reservation Distribution System) co-developed by Sabre(R) and Passkey. Passkey investors include: Sabre (NYSE: TSG) (www.sabre.com), Galileo (NYSE: GLC) (www.galileo.com), Worldspan (www.worldspan.com), TravelCLICK (www.travelclick.net), Lazard Technology Partners, DRV Investment Group and McCord Group Travel Services (www.mccord.com). Passkey.com also has hospitality industry alliances with Pegasus Solutions, Inc. (www.pegsinc.com), cvent.com and PlanSoft Corporation (www.mpoint.com).

Passkey-enabled is a service mark of Passkey.com, Inc. The Joy is the Journey is a registered trademark of The Parrish Group. Sabre is a registered trademark of an affiliate of Sabre Inc.