IHG, in another industry first, has added Travel Arranger functionality on its Web sites, making it easier and more convenient for Priority Club® Rewards members to book reservations on behalf of other guests.

InterContinental Hotels Group, the world's largest and most global hotel company, today announced that it has added a new convenience functionality to its Web sites, making it easier for Priority Club Rewards members to book travel for coworkers, friends, family or authorize other Priority Club Rewards members to book travel for them.

For corporate, small group, or casual trip planners, Travel Arranger makes it possible for a Priority Club Rewards member to give permission to another member to make reservations on their behalf. By enabling Priority Club Rewards members to designate a trip planner to access their account, the trip planner no longer has to use his own Priority Club Rewards account or remember booking preferences and personal information when making hotel reservations for others. The traveler's preferences are available to the designated trip planner so they can easily book what the traveler wants.

Travel Arranger was launched in early September on the PriorityClub.com Web site and already has thousands of Priority Club Rewards members registered for this service.

"We are constantly working to improve our program with innovative technology and features that provide real value to our members," said Steve Sickel, senior vice president, Loyalty Marketing, IHG. "Many of our members don't personally schedule their travel, so Travel Arranger will allow greater convenience and assurance that their specific preferences will be taken care of."

Travel Arranger is available via the Priority Club Rewards Web site (www.priorityclub.com). Trip planners may make reservations at any of IHG's 3,500 hotels worldwide, including InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites hotels.

"Our goal is to make it ever easier and more convenient for guests to book their own travel using our direct Internet channel. Now with Travel Arranger, we've made our Web sites more useful than ever to an important customer segment – those guests who do not make their own travel arrangements, but who have others make arrangements for them. Even without marketing the service, we have seen a tremendous amount of interest and activity almost from the first hour the service was launched," said Eric Pearson, senior vice president, E-commerce, IHG.

IHG regularly communicates with its guests to learn what will make online booking easier, more convenient, and valuable to them. As a leader in online innovation, IHG was the first to guarantee the best available rate, introduce personalization of hotel and rate preferences, offer end-to-end online point redemption for loyalty program members, and provide in-language reservations in French, German, Spanish and Chinese on its Web sites. IHG was voted the best international hotel Web site by frequent travelers in the most recent Freddie Awards – the frequent traveler's answer to the Oscar, Emmy and Grammy Awards and was recognized by Keynote Systems®, the internet performance authority®, as the speediest Web site in the hotel industry.