Labor Day Travelers Head North and West as Hurricane Katrina Moves up from the South, According to Priceline Survey

Business Wire, August 30, 2005

NORWALK, Conn. -- As Hurricane Katrina works its way up from the south-central U.S., Labor Day travelers are opting to spend their upcoming long weekend in northern or western sections of the country, according to a priceline.com(R) (Nasdaq: PCLN) survey of approximately 30,000 hotel room booking requests made for the September 3-5 weekend.

Priceline.com is the Internet travel service that sells airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises. Its travel products are sold on a published-price basis, where customers choose the exact product they want before they buy, and on a Name Your Own Price(R) basis, where customers trade some itinerary and brand flexibility in return for a lower price. See www.priceline.com for full details and sample Labor Day last-minute travel ideas.

Each year during major holiday periods, priceline.com samples prevailing travel trends and compiles the Top 50 destinations where people intend to spend their holidays. This year, the list appears to have been influenced by weather patterns in the south. Destinations far away from the weather are seeing the most activity this year. The Las Vegas Strip was again the most requested destination for Labor Day. Hawaii, which didn't make the top 50 list last year, took 4 spots for Labor Day 2005. Canadian cities were listed 7 times this year, compared to 4 in 2004. California cities took 8 spots, or 16% of the top 50 list.

Priceline.com Top 50 Destinations For Labor Day 2004

-- #1 Las Vegas, Strip vicinity

-- #2 Chicago, North Michigan Ave. area

-- #3 New York City, Upper West Side

-- #4 New York City, Upper Midtown

-- #5 New York City, Midtown West

-- #6 Waikiki South

-- #7 San Diego Coastal

-- #8 San Francisco, Union Square West

-- #9 San Francisco, Union Square East

-- #10 Santa Monica

-- #11 Niagara Falls (U.S. side)

-- #12 Montreal

-- #13 Boston, downtown

-- #14 Chicago, Millennium Park area

-- #15 Monterey

-- #16 Vancouver

-- #17 Austin, downtown

-- #18 San Diego, downtown

-- #19 Toronto (Markham)

-- #20 Las Vegas, West of Strip

-- #21 Washington, downtown

-- #22 Niagara Falls (Canadian side)

-- #23 Seattle, downtown

-- #24 New York City, Midtown East

-- #25 Toronto, downtown

-- #26 Virginia Beach

-- #27 Orange County, Disneyland area

-- #28 New York City, Midtown South

-- #29 San Diego, Sorrento Mesa

-- #30 South Lake Tahoe

-- #31 San Antonio, Riverwalk

-- #32 Key West

-- #33 Waikiki North

-- #34 Vancouver, airport area

-- #35 Newport/Huntington Beach

-- #36 Boston, Copley area

-- #37 Newark (Meadowlands)

-- #38 Chicago (Evanston/Niles)

-- #39 Orlando, Disney World vicinity

-- #40 Orlando, Universal Studios vicinity

-- #41 Los Angeles, airport area

-- #42 Ka'anapali/Lahaina

-- #43 Chicago, O'Hare area

-- #44 Baltimore, Inner Harbor

-- #45 Miami's South Beach

-- #46 Santa Fe

-- #47 St. Louis, downtown

-- #48 Paris, Latin Quarter

-- #49 Wailea/Makena

-- #50 Quebec City

About priceline.com

Priceline.com is a travel service that offers leisure airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises. Priceline.com recently expanded its services so customers now have a choice: they can pick from a broad selection of published flights, hotels, rental cars and packages at published prices or, for deeper savings, they can use priceline.com's Name Your Own Price service for their travel needs. Priceline.com also has a personal finance service that offers home mortgages, refinancing and home equity loans through an independent licensee.

Priceline.com operates one of Europe's fastest growing hotel reservation services through Activehotels.com, Activereservations.com, Bookings.net and priceline.co.uk. The company also operates the following travel sites: Travelweb.com, Lowestfare.com, Rentalcars.com and Breezenet.com. Priceline.com licenses its business model to independent licensees, including priceline mortgage and certain international licensees.