Hotel Industry Back to Normal After Hectic Days

AMSTERDAM, April 26, 2010 - As expected the eruption of the volcano on Iceland had immediate
influence on the travel industry. Many travelers were forced to cancel their
planned trip. Almost half of EasyToBook.com's (www.easytobook.com/)
daily bookings in the affected areas were canceled where normally almost no
cancellations are made for the same day. The last minute bookings (same book
date as stay date) on the other hand went up by 400%!

A dilemma arose for accommodations that offer rooms that cannot be
canceled or changed after booking (so called "Non-Refundable Rooms" which are
cheaper than regular rooms which can be canceled up to 24 hours in advance).
They either had to charge the visitors that couldn't make it to their travel
destination, or deviate from their own rules. Some travelers are still not
sure if their insurance covers a natural cause like the volcano eruption.

On the other hand there were also plenty of travelers blocked on their
way home, with nowhere to go once they arrived at the airport for their
return flight. Although all these travelers were forced to stay in their
travel destination, travel agents such as EasyToBook.com did not see
usurious rates for their hotels in their records. Some of the hotels that
EasyToBook.com offers on its website even offered stranded travelers free
accommodation in their rooms! EasyToBook.com itself scheduled more service
agents in the customer service department to handle all the extra calls
coming in during these days.

The amount of people looking for different travel routes to get to their
destinations grew of course. The search on hotels near public transport
stations has never been as high as in this time. Train station pages on the
EasyToBook.com website like the Gare du Nord in Paris (
www.easytobook.com/en/paris-hotels/paris/train-stations/gare-du-nord-p
aris/), Amsterdam Central Station (
www.easytobook.com/en/netherlands/north-holland/amsterdam/train-statio
ns/amsterdam-central-station-hotels/) and Brussels Bruxelles-Midi
(www.easytobook.com/en/belgium/bruxelles-capitale/brussels/train-stati
ons/bruxelles-midi-brussel-zuid-hotels/) have doubled in traffic the last few
days and even quadrupled in amount of bookings made and revenue generated.

(Due to the length of these URLs, it may be necessary to copy and paste
the hyperlinks into your Internet browser's URL address field. Remove the
space if one exists.)

About EasyToBook.com:

EasyToBook.com is an online reservation website for all sorts of
accommodations: hotels, hostels, bed & breakfasts, and apartments. In 2004
the company has started as an Amsterdam specialist, and has now grown to be a
worldwide player with a clear focus on larger cities like London, New York
and Paris. The company aims to serve all types of travelers, business and
leisure, with the best possible prices for their accommodations, in order to
find and book them with the highest form of usability.

Editorial: Contact: Wouter Blok (CMO), Email: Wouter at easytobook.com, Tel: +31-20-7557550