Consumer >> CEO Interviews >> May 27, 2002
DAVID LITMAN brings more than 18 years of travel-related marketing and
management expertise to his role as co-founder and CEO of Hotels.com, a
subsidiary of USA Networks, Inc (NASDAQ: USAI). He is instrumental in
the company's online success ' Hotels.com is one of the Internet's
primary sources of discount accommodations worldwide and a leading hotel
consolidator ' as he oversees the company's strategic direction, product
development and its internet and call center operations. Mr. Litman has
spearheaded the company's growth on the Internet, with unique Internet
marketing programs and the development and maintenance of its award-
winning state-of-the-art websites, as well as through its 500-person
call center with its sophisticated, multimillion-dollar automation
systems. Prior to co-founding Hotels.com in 1991 with Cornell Law School
friend Robert Diener, Mr. Litman worked for the Dallas law firm of
Johnson and Swanson. Wanting to fulfill his entrepreneurial spirit, he
seized upon the opportunities the discount airline business had to offer
and began his travel industry career in 1984 with what became a
multimillion-dollar wholesale airfare consolidation operation. Six years
later, Mr. Litman and Mr. Diener saw the untapped potential in the hotel
industry for wholesale brokers and the two founded Hotel Reservations
Network, now known as Hotels.com. Today, Hotels.com is a leading
specialized provider of discount hotel accommodations, and its Internet
operations, which premiered in 1996, are among the most successful on
the worldwide web. Hotels.com offers discounted accommodations at over
6,000 properties in more than 200 metropolitan cities in North America,
the Caribbean, Europe and Asia. Its online business has grown
exponentially ' 95% of Hotels.com revenues are now attributable to the
Internet ' and its compound annual growth rate from 1997 through 2001
was 98%. Profile
well as a general overview of your business?
Mr. Litman: Hotels.com is a company that was founded 11 years
