Introducing the travel Ekspert, a new travel blog from priceline.com

Jan 23, 09 | 6:26 pm

Priceline.com announced today the launch of The Travel Ekspert, a new blog that promises to be chock full of budget-friendly trip suggestions, advice on how to use priceline.com's various services, smoking hot deals uncovered by the priceline.com travel team experts, general travel news and more. The Travel Ekspert blog can be accessed through www.priceline.com/travelblog.

The editor for the new blog is Brian Ek, who has been priceline.com's in-house travel expert since the service's launch 10 years ago. He is also general manager of priceline's PriceBreakers last-minute deals service www.priceline.com/pricebreakers/. Before joining priceline.com, he helped the Prodigy online service launch some of the first consumer-friendly travel services for airline tickets, hotels and cruises.

"Travel prices are constantly changing, sometimes several times in a single day," said Ek. "For consumers, the challenges are finding out where the bargains are and how to get them. The mission of The Travel Ekspert is to do the legwork for our readers, keep a close eye on what's happening in the markets, and be the first to let them know when can't-miss travel bargains hit our radar scope."

Here's a summary of what readers will find in The Travel Ekspert:

• Original articles from The Travel Ekspert and guests. The Travel Ekspert and his staff of contributors from locations around the globe will work to be the first to spot and report travel trends, information and deals. This week, The Travel Ekspert looks at travel deals to the February 1^st big game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals.

• The Travel Ekspert's favorite travel blogs and bloggers. Check out links to some of the best sources of travel news and advice on the Web.

• In the media. Check out recent stories and clips about priceline.com.

• Priceline fans. Meet some of the people who use priceline.com for their travel arrangements. They may include musicians, sports figures and just regular folks.

• PriceBreakers deals. View regularly updated deals from the PriceBreakers last-minute deals service.

• Contact The Travel Ekspert. The Travel Ekspert is available for comment on any of the subjects covered in the blog. Media members should include deadlines when sending interview requests.

• Travel news. Read breaking travel news provided by Yahoo! News.

• RSS feed. Don't miss a single item from The Travel Ekspert. Sign up for the free RSS feed and have The Travel Ekspert's latest news and other items sent directly to your desktop.

About Priceline.com(R) Incorporated

Priceline.com Incorporated (Nasdaq: PCLN) www.priceline.com provides online travel services in 22 languages in over 70 countries in Europe, North America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Included in the priceline.com family of companies is Booking.com, a leading international online hotel reservation service, priceline.com, a leading U.S. online travel service for value-conscious leisure travelers, and Agoda.com, an Asian online hotel reservation service.

Priceline.com believes that Booking.com is Europe's largest and fastest growing hotel reservation service, with a network of affiliated Web sites. Booking.com operates in over 70 countries in 19 languages and offers its customers access to approximately 57,000 participating hotels worldwide.

In the U.S., priceline.com gives customers more ways to save on their airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises than any other Internet travel service. In addition to getting great published prices, leisure travelers can narrow their searches using priceline.com's TripFilter advanced search technology, customize their search activity through priceline.com's Inside Track features, create packages to save even more money, and take advantage of priceline.com's famous Name Your Own Price® service, which can deliver the lowest prices available.

Priceline.com also operates the following travel websites: Travelweb.com, Lowestfare.com, RentalCars.com and BreezeNet.com. Priceline.com also has a personal finance service that offers home mortgages, refinancing and home equity loans through an independent licensee. Priceline.com licenses its business model to independent licensees, including priceline mortgage and certain international licensees.