HispanicBusiness

MIAMI, Sept. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- StarMedia, a Wanadoo company and a leading Internet media organization for Spanish-speaking audiences worldwide, announced that it has entered into an agreement with Hotels.com, the experts in booking hotels online or offline, to launch StarMedia Viajes, its first and most extensive travel booking engine for Spanish-speaking web users.

Under the terms of the agreement, StarMedia will feature the Hotels.com booking engine in a new area within its portal designated as "Viajes y Hoteles" (Travel and Hotels). The booking engine provides information and descriptions in Spanish for travel accommodation content, including hotels, car rentals, flights as well as vacation packages. The new StarMedia Viajes area provides web users with over 11,000 special Internet rates, and features over 20,000 properties, available for booking worldwide. The StarMedia Viajes area is now featured as a StarMedia portal "Recommendation" at: http://www.starmedia.com/.

"Since we began beta testing StarMedia Viajes, we've witnessed a three-fold increase in traffic to the area during the first couple of months. This fact, in tandem with the very positive feedback we've been receiving from our clients, supports our initial findings that a comprehensive Spanish- language travel booking engine would provide our web users with a critical service component, previously unavailable to them," noted Juan Jose Nunez, StarMedia's vice president of operations.

"StarMedia / Wanadoo is an ideal strategic partner for Hotels.com enabling us to reach out to their 13 million web users throughout the Americas. Likewise, our technology and hotel expertise will give Spanish-speaking web users access to the most extensive online travel booking engine, providing content in their own language as well as facilitating currency conversions and other important features necessary to plan, shop and book their vacation," said Carl Minto-Sparks, senior vice president of marketing and retail operations for Hotels.com.

About StarMedia.com

StarMedia.com is a free-to-web service connecting Spanish-speakers through the Internet as well as providing them with most relevant and extensive content and services. StarMedia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wanadoo, Europe's second largest online company and, additionally has operations in Mexico, Spain and throughout the United States (Los Angeles, Miami and New York).

About Hotels.com

Hotels.com is a leading provider of lodging worldwide, offering reservation services through its own websites (including http://www.hotels.com/ and others), its interactive affiliate network (http://www.ian.com/), and its toll-free call centers (1-800-2-HOTELS). Hotels.com gives travelers one of the widest selections of lodging accommodations from traditional hotels to vacation rentals at more than 20,000 properties in more than 400 cities in North America, Europe, the Caribbean and Asia. The company is a one-stop shopping source for hotel pricing, amenities and availability, and also specializes in providing travelers with accommodations during sold-out periods. See website for details and restrictions. Hotels.com is an operating company of Expedia, Inc. . CST: 2059975-40 StarMedia

Web site: http://www.starmedia.com/http://www.hotels.com/