Voice reservations services are available now as a stand-alone service for any hotel, chain or group that needs either full-service or supplemental call answering.

Pegasus also announced its new agreement with eStara, a leader in voice-based customer interaction solutions, to implement eStara's Push-to-Talk service for its customers' Web sites. Dallas-based Pegasus Solutions is a global leader in providing technology and services to hotels and travel distributors.

Previously, Pegasus had offered voice reservations only with other Pegasus services. Now, the range of call answering options is available separately. Pegasus has nine call centers around the world, providing hotel voice reservation services to 41 countries in 11 languages. The company's agents handled five million calls in 2004. Additionally, the Utell by Pegasus(TM) representation service has a 70-year history of taking voice reservations for hotels.

Pegasus now offers a selection of options, which can be tailored to customers' needs:

• Full outsourced voice services--Pegasus' highly-trained staff answer all reservation calls for a customer's hotels. Hotel chains can avoid the overhead cost of technical infrastructure and staffing for a voice reservations operation.
• Voice services in selected geographic markets to complement a hotel chain's own reservations offices--Intended for hotel chains that need to improve their reach in selected regions of the world.
• Call gating--Pegasus' reservations agents supplement a hotel chain's staff by answering overflow and after-hours calls.
• Web reservations voice support, including eStara's click-to-call service--Consumers can click a "Push to Talk" icon on a hotel chain's Web site to be connected instantly with a live reservation agent. The consumer can choose to speak directly through his or her computer using eStara's Voice over IP (VoIP) technology, or through any traditional telephone by simply entering their phone number.

Pegasus Introduces Voice Reservations Services

"With this launch, we offer our highly successful voice services to any hotel, chain or group, even those that don't currently use one of our reservation or representation services," said Bob Boles, chief operating officer for Pegasus. "They give hotels a global reach to even more customers and bookings--part of our commitment to helping hotels increase their revenue. Additionally, the introduction of stand-alone versions of our popular add-on services has been an important strategy for Pegasus in 2005."

Jimmy Suh, vice president of distribution and revenue management for Kimpton Hotels, said, "Pegasus provides specialized, high-quality and high-touch service to our most loyal and valued guests. We trust them to provide reliable and responsive voice reservation services. We also have begun using Pegasus for support of our Web reservations, through the innovative Push-to-Talk technology from eStara, which connects visitors at our Web site with a Pegasus reservation agent. This simple addition to our Web site is helping us increase our online business and helps us convert curious lookers into guests."