Xylo Expands Choice for Fortune 500 Employees During Peak Vacation Planning Season by Adding Six New Travel Partners

Business Wire, Feb 13, 2001

Business/High-Tech Editors & Lifestyle Writers

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 13, 2001

Web-Based Work/Life Solutions Provider Offers Time- and Money-Saving

Deals from Alamo Rent A Car, Cendant Hotels, Hotel

Reservations Network, Pleasant Holidays, Royal

Caribbean Cruises and Uniglobe.com

Xylo, Inc., a leading provider of Web-based work/life solutions used by Fortune 500 companies to attract and retain employees, today announced marketing agreements with six leading travel companies.

Alamo Rent A Car, Cendant Hotels, Hotel Reservations Network, Pleasant Holidays, Royal Caribbean Cruises and Uniglobe.com participate in Xylo's network of select marketing partners offering premier savings to more than 1.6 million corporate employees and their families through the Xylo Web-based work/life program.

Xylo provides a private online network of work/life information, products and services, featuring timesavers, premier savings from more than 1,000 leading national and regional marketing partners, and quick tips to help employees balance the demands of their professional and personal lives. Through Xylo, employees can tend to important personal tasks from their desks, saving time and money and increasing worker productivity. Employees may use the Xylo program 24 hours a day, seven days a week through their company's password-protected Web site or printed catalogs.

In 1999, Americans took 572 million trips within the U.S., one-third during the busy summer months of June, July and August, according to the Travel Industry Association of America. Much of the planning for those trips occurs in the winter months. According to Jupiter Research, 59 percent of consumers prefer to research vacation products via the Web, where they can use services such as Xylo.

"We are excited to unveil these new partnerships during the peak vacation planning season for this summer," said Xylo President and CEO Norman Behar. "These travel companies assist our clients by helping to ease the stress their employees feel as they try to balance professional and personal duties. Travelers will also save time and money by accessing these travel offers through their employers' Xylo programs."

"At Alamo, we are constantly innovating to offer our customers better service and value," said Maria Menendez, Chief Marketing Officer for ANC Rental Corporation, the parent company of Alamo Rent a Car. "We are pleased to have the opportunity to provide Xylo's Fortune 500 clientele with premier rental cars for all their vacation needs."

"Xylo is providing us with a wonderful opportunity to reach employees in top companies across the country," said Mike Applebaum, Vice President Sales, Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises. "We're excited to help them experience our two great cruise brands."

The six travel companies join a list of other industry-leading Xylo marketing partners including Bally Total Fitness, Barnes & Noble.com, FTD, Hickory Farms and Sprint PCS. Offerings from these top brands are available to employees at Xylo clients, including Agilent Technologies Inc., Alaska Air Group, The Boeing Company, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., The Association of Compaq Employees, Eddie Bauer, Hewlett-Packard Company, Microsoft, Nordstrom, Northwest Airlines, Novell, 3M, Qualcomm and Wells Fargo & Company.

About Xylo

Xylo, Inc., is a leading provider of Web-based work/life solutions used by Fortune 500 and other thought-leading companies to attract and retain employees. Xylo provides a private online network of timesavers, premier savings and quick tips to help employees balance the daily responsibilities of work and home, which strengthens their company loyalty. Corporate employees may access their Xylo program 24 hours a day, seven days a week through a tailored, password-protected Web site, printed catalog or point-of-purchase Xylo card. Xylo is funded by Benchmark Capital, Crosslink Capital and Goldman, Sachs & Co. and has more than 45 blue chip clients and over 1,000 regional and national product and service provider relationships. Formed in 1997, the company is based in Bellevue, Wash., endorsed by the Employee Services Management Association and may be found on the Web at www.xylo.com.

About Alamo Rent A Car

Alamo Rent A Car, headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, currently serves more than 15 million travelers a year through 109 locations in the United States and Canada, and operates more than 400 international locations in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. Alamo is a division of ANC Rental Corporation (Nasdaq:ANCX) and can be reached on the Internet at www.alamo.com.

About Cendant Hotels

Cendant Hotels is the world's largest franchiser of hotels with more than 6,400 hotels and nearly 540,000 rooms on five continents. Every year its seven hotel brands, Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Knights Inn, Ramada, Travelodge, Villager and Wingate Inn, welcome millions of pleasure and business travelers. Cendant Hotels is part of Cendant Corporation, a global provider of real estate, travel and direct marketing related consumer and business services. Headquartered in New York, NY, the company has approximately 30,000 employees and operates in over 100 countries.