Roamfree Hits The NZ Road With $19m In The Tank

6 July 2007

Roamfree Hits The New Zealand Road With $19m In The Tank

Online tourism services business Roamfree Ltd today announced a major operational deal to provide an online booking service for auto clubs in New Zealand and Australia.

Roamfree managing director Tony Smith says “the deal will provide some critical mass by helping us reach the 8.4 million auto club members around the Pacific region.”

Under the agreement, Roamfree will act as an online booking service for the more than 15,000 hotels, motels and apartments associated with the New Zealand Automobile Association (AA) and the Australian Automobile Association Tourism (AAAT) which manage the STAR Rating Scheme for accommodation providers, says Mr Smith.

Peter Blackwell, the AA’s General Manager of Tourism says “Roamfree will allow us to provide our members with the most up to date information on rates and availability in a consistent and easy to use format. Members will be able to search, compare and book their accommodation via any auto club site while dramatically reducing transaction times and the expense – both for them and us.”

“We hope that this initiative will further strengthen the loyalty of our members and serve as a valuable tool for accommodation providers as they strive to distribute their inventory to targeted web environments,” says Mr Blackwell.

Roamfree’s Tony Smith says the deal represent a substantial step towards cementing his company’s position as the Google equivalent of the accommodation industry.

Mr Smith says “our plan for Roamfree is to be the Google of accommodation by building a database of more than one million properties over the next few years. Accommodation providers on our database will be able to distribute their inventory to any number of websites with live availability.”

“The agreement provides not only the opportunity to work with auto clubs in the Pacific region for the first time, but may open doors around the world. Beyond the Pacific, there is an exciting opportunity to extend this service to the hundreds of other auto clubs globally,” says Mr Smith.

ENDS

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