JAPAN’S GRANVIA HOTELS switches to SYNXIS distribution services

West Japan Railway’s Hotel Group Cites Extensive International Functionality as Top Reason for Switching to the RedX™ Distribution Management System

SOUTHLAKE, Texas.– SynXis, the Sabre Holdings business that provides complete hotel distribution, Internet marketing and channel management solutions worldwide, announced today that Granvia, the Japanese hotel chain owned by West Japan Railway Company, has switched to the RedX Distribution Management System. They have selected RedX for seamless connectivity to the Global Distribution Systems (GDS), Internet Distribution Systems (IDS), and bookings coming from their own website using the Guest Connect booking engine. The seven Granvia properties, located in key western gateway cities throughout the West Japan Rail network, will be represented under SynXis’ YX chain code.

Granvia will take advantage of the vast international functionality within RedX, which will allow them to operate the RedX Control Center entirely in Japanese offering them more direct control of their connectivity to electronic distribution channels than ever before. The chain will also benefit from local Japanese support which will enable them to take advantage of the full range of SynXis’ industry expertise.

“The West Japan Railway Hotel group was looking for a marketing partner that could not only maximize Granvia’s distribution potential, but who is also flexible enough to meet all of our specific needs. We believe we found this in SynXis, and we are honored to be the company’s first major chain customer in Japan,” said Hiroyuki Sakamoto, Managing Director for Granvia. “We were impressed with SynXis’ growing presence and clientele here in Asia, and were particularly impressed with their attention to specific international needs in RedX. The Japanese Control Center will be very useful to us, and SynXis’ continued development of international functionality was a critical part of deciding that they were the right partner for us.”

“We are thrilled to count the Granvia hotel group as one of our customers, and consider it a great honor to have been selected by the prestigious West Japan Railway Hotel Group as their partner,” said Yasaka Tazawa, SynXis Country Manager for Japan. “Our technology and distribution expertise will help Granvia continue to reach their customers, and the extensive controls and international functionality in RedX will ensure that they do this in the most efficient and strategic way possible.”

Since appointing industry veteran Patrick Andres as General Manager of Asia Pacific and the opening of the Singapore office in February 2007, SynXis has been rapidly expanding its presence throughout the entire region. In 2006 SynXis added a Hong Kong office and its Tokyo office opened at the beginning of this year with the hiring of Yasaka Tazawa as dedicated country manager for Japan. Tazawa came to SynXis as an expert RedX revenue manager, and will use his extensive RedX experience to guide Japanese customers in creating revenue-generating rate strategies with SynXis’ products and services.

“Appointing industry experts in key locations around Asia Pacific, as well as the opening of our new Asia Pacific call center, is part of SynXis’ continued investment in the region,” said Scott Alvis, President and General Manager of SynXis. “We recognize that Asia Pacific is an extremely diverse region with unique marketplace needs, and SynXis is committed to meeting those needs.”