Expedia Unveils the World’s Top Hotels

India (SANEPR.com) June 23, 2008 -- Confused about where to stay on your business trip or summer vacation at an international destination? There is help at hand! Expedia, the world’s leading online travel company, has released its annual rankings of the world’s best hotels, making it simpler for the Indian traveler to choose a hotel on a trip abroad. Termed the Expedia Insider’s Select List, it includes hotels that consistently deliver excellent service and a great overall experience at a notable value. It is largely based on traveler reviews with Expedia having registered over 160,000 Traveller Opinions® in 2007 alone.

"The Expedia Insiders' Select list makes it easier for travelers to sort through thousands of hotel options to choose the best hotel for their trip," said Arthur Hoffman, Managing Director, Expedia Asia Pacific. "Expedia has captured the experiences of millions of hotel guests, and combined them with a value rating and local destination expertise to help travelers identify the best hotels in the world for the best value." The Expedia Insider’s Select comprises only about 1 percent of the 80,000 hotels offered on Expedia.co.in.

The full list is available for travelers at www.expedia.com/insiderselect. Highlights include:

• Number 1 overall: Sofitel Chicago Water Tower -- Chicago, Ill.
• Number 1 in Asia: Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel -- Tokyo, Japan
• Number 1 in Europe: The Knight Residence -- Edinburgh, Scotland
• Top Resort Worldwide: JW Marriott Cancun Resort & Spa -- Cancun, Mexico

There are over 800 hotels in the Expedia Insider’s List representing the variety of hotel types and destinations offered on Expedia. The list comprises of hotels ranging from boutique to chain properties in a variety of small, mid-sized and large destinations. The selected hotels have been recognized by travelers for consistently delivering excellent services.

The Expedia Insiders’ Select list was compiled using a weighted mathematical formula that includes several factors including:

• Expedia’s collection of hundreds of thousands of Traveler Opinions® - hotel reviews created by Expedia travellers who recently stayed at the property;
• A value rating determined by comparing hotels within the same star-rating and geographical region to identify hotels that deliver a notable value for the experience they offer; and
• Local expertise and insight from hundreds of Expedia employees in destinations throughout the world.

The world’s top 10 international hotels and resorts (as ranked in the Expedia
Insiders’ Select™ list for 2008) are:

Rank Name
1 Sofitel Chicago Water Tower
2 JW Marriot Cancun Resort & Spa
3 Hotel 1000
4 Royal Palms Resort and Spa
5 Vino Bello Resort
6 Cerulean Tower Tokyo Hotel
7 The Palms
8 Argosy Casino Hotel and Spa
9 The Sanderling Resort and Spa
10 The Knight Residence

Top 10 hotels in Europe:

Rank Global Rank Name
1 10 The Knight Residence
2 15 Grand Hotel Amrath Amsterdam
3 19 Hotel Adlon Kempinski
4 28 Hotel Stein
5 31 Casa De Los Migueletes
6 39 Sofia Plaza
7 42 Hotel Grande Bretagne
8 43 Le Meridien Phoenicia
9 44 First Hotel G
10 47 Sofitel Strasbourg

Top 10 hotels in Asia:

Rank Global Rank Name
1 6 Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel
2 13 Raffles Beijing Hotel
3 20 JW Marriot Phuket Resort and Spa
4 26 Langham Place Hotel Mongkok
5 46 D2 hotel Chiang Mai
6 55 Hilton Nagoya
7 61 Anantara Resort Koh Samui
8 62 Conrad Bali Resort & Spa
9 65 The Peninsula Bangkok
10 85 The Sukhothai

Top 10 hotels in Oceania:

Rank Global Rank Name
1 66 The Westin Auckland, Lighter Quay
2 72 On the Beach Holiday Apartments
3 73 Heritage Christchurch
4 109 Four Seasons Sydney
5 198 Swissotel Sydney
6 390 Shangri-La Hotel
7 508 Heritage Queenstown
8 553 The Westin Denarau Island Resort & Spa, Fiji
9 646 Courtyard by Marriott Surfers Paradise
10 784 Shangri-La Hotel

The Top Hotels in the Middle East:

Rank Global Rank Name
1 53 American Colony Hotel
2 142 The Ritz Carlton – Dubai
3 246 The Fairmont Dubai
4 367 Grosvenor House West Marina Beach
5 418 Ramada Palace Hotel Manama
6 523 Fujairah Rotana Resort and Spa
7 607 Kempinski Mall of the Emirates
8 692 Arabian Courtyard Hotel & Spa

Top 10 hotels in USA:

Rank Global Rank Name
1 1 Sofitel Chicago Water Tower
2 3 Hotel 1000
3 4 Royal Palms Resort and Spa
4 5 Vino Bello Resort
5 8 Argosy Casino Hotel and Spa
6 9 The Sanderling Resort and Spa
7 22 The Atlantic
8 23 Virginia Crossings Resort
9 24 The Ritz Carlton
10 27 Ocean Key Resort – A Noble House Resort

For further details, the full list is available at http://www.expedia.com/insiderselect

For more information on Expedia.co.in, please visit http://www.expedia.co.in

About Expedia, Inc.

Expedia, Inc. is the world’s leading online travel company, empowering business and leisure travelers with the tools and information they need to easily research, plan, book and experience travel. Expedia, Inc. also provides wholesale travel to offline retail travel agents and in-destination concierge service and activity desks for travelers. The Expedia, Inc. portfolio of brands includes: Expedia.com®, hotels.com®, Hotwire®, Expedia® Corporate Travel, TripAdvisor®, Expedia Local Expert™, Classic Vacations® and eLong™. Expedia, Inc.’s companies operate more than 50 global points of sale with sites in North America, South America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Expedia, Inc. is a component of the S&P 500 index. For more information, visit http://www.expediainc.com/ (NASDAQ: EXPE).

Expedia and Expedia.com are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Expedia, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Classic Vacations is either a trademark or registered trademark of Classic Vacations, LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries. hotels.com is either a trademark or registered trademark of hotels.com, L.P., a subsidiary of hotels.com in the U.S. and/or other countries. Hotwire is either a trademark or registered trademark of Hotwire, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. TripAdvisor is either a trademark or registered trademark of TripAdvisor, LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other logos or product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners.

© 2008 Expedia, Inc. All rights reserved. CST: 2029030-40