The Accor hotel group says that during the first eight months of this year, 4.2 million room nights in Accor hotels were booked online, the equivalent of 170 hotels a day.

The company says it has enjoyed sustained growth this year. An Accor spokesperson said: “By 31 August, online bookings were up 60 per cent, with a 65 per cent increase for Accor sites in Europe. Room nights reserved on the Accor hotel websites accounted for nearly 85 per cent of total online bookings, compared with 15 per cent for online distributors.”

Accor predicts an internet business volume of nearly 300m euros for the full year 2003, compared with 202m euros in 2002. The economy segment accounts for 63 per cent of online bookings.

Accor says most visitors to the websites are retail customers who generally choose an Accor hotel for leisure travel. In Europe, 42 per cent of visitors to the group sites enter through the accorhotels.com portal, while 58 per cent go directly to the site of their preferred brand.

The company says a radio and internet advertising campaign, launched in late June, in France and Germany, to promote the Accor hotels Smiley Prices, was a major boost to visitor numbers to accorhotels.com

By the end of 2003, the website – accorhotels.com – which is currently accessible in French, English and German, will also be available in Spanish and Portugese. Details: www.accor.com