Priceline.com, OnStar Partner to Book Last-Minute Hotel Rooms for Drivers

NORWALK, CT, and DETROIT– July 1, 2015 –With the summer road trip season underway and July 4^th as one of the most popular holidays for car excursions, OnStar, a provider of connectivity services for Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles, and priceline.com, a leader in online and mobile travel and part of The Priceline Group (NASDAQ: PCLN), have partnered to offer drivers the service of conveniently booking hotels while traveling.

OnStar Guidance plan subscribers in the U.S. and Canada, in need of a quick and easy way to reserve hotel accommodations while on-the-go, can now secure a stay via OnStar’s new AtYourService feature. OnStar AtYourService allows customers to speak with an OnStar advisor by simply pushing the OnStar blue button inside the vehicle. Advisors can verbally provide information on hotel availability, cost, amenities and ratings to the vehicle occupants, allowing drivers to keep their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. The advisor can then book a hotel reservation for the subscriber through priceline.com and download those directions to the vehicle’s navigation system.

“In our vehicles, customers now have the ability to secure hotel reservations through OnStar AtYourService in time for the busy summer travel season,” said Mark Lloyd, Director, Online Commerce, OnStar. “The service provides OnStar subscribers with access, even at the last-minute, to quality hotels across the country. Combined with our navigation, safety and security offerings, OnStar continues to deliver a powerful and highly valuable suite of driver services.”

“Whether it’s for a spontaneous road trip or an unexpected life or work event, consumers come to us with hundreds of different reasons for needing a hotel room at the last minute,” said Brett Keller, Chief Marketing Officer at priceline.com. “Through our OnStar partnership, consumers have access to deep discounts across the country with a single push of a button. And if you’re a foodie, a hiker or a music aficionado, priceline.com and OnStar are perfect partners to make your summer road trip seamless.”

Summer Road Trip Tips from OnStar

• Prepare your car for a warm-weather road trip. Check the cooling and air conditioning systems to make sure they’re full and functioning properly. Replace wiper blades worn out over the winter, and make sure tire pressure is at recommended levels.

• Drive smart, drive green. Aggressive driving and excessive idling reduce gas mileage and increase smog. To consume less fuel, drive sensibly — follow speed limits and avoid abrupt acceleration — and avoid peak rush hours (sitting in traffic is fun for no one). Use the OnStar RemoteLink® mobile app to check your fuel efficiency and tire pressure.

• Navigate via OnStar.  Getting lost should be a thing of the past once you get used to relying on OnStar’s Turn-by-Turn Navigation.

• Adjust itineraries if kids are on the trip.  Try to break up trips into two- to three-hour chunks, stopping for rest stops or to check out a local tourist attraction. Leave early in the morning or late at night when kids are likely to spend a few hours sleeping. Make up road games everyone can play, like first to spot a Chevrolet Corvette. When using OnStar to reserve a hotel for the night from priceline.com, ask your OnStar advisor to pick one that has a pool for the kids, and maybe offers free breakfast or free Wi-Fi in the room.

• Put pets in the back seat. Pets can be potentially injured if a front-seat airbag deploys. Never leave pets unattended in a car, and don’t let them ride with their heads out the window.

• Make arrangements before getting too exhausted. After a long drive, everyone dreads stretching those last few miles to reach the next hotel. Look for a location that provides a little time to relax, maybe a meal and swim before bed, and ask your OnStar advisor to reserve your room through priceline.com. 

Priceline.com’s Recommended Road Trips for Summer 2015

Road trip hotels were shopped on June 24, 2015. Availability and prices are subject to change at any time.  Gasoline costs were estimated based on an average per-gallon cost of $2.45/gallon and a vehicle getting 20 mpg.

Rocky Mountain Music Mashup (Denver, CO, to Loveland, 824 miles, July 23-August 9)

Gasoline cost $103.

• Fly to Denver for the Underground Music Showcase, July 23-26. com per-night rates range for 4-star hotels in Denver $119-$379; for 3-star hotels $98-$260.

• (364 Miles) Denver to Telluride, for the Telluride Jazz Festival, August 1-3. com per-night rates range for 4-star hotels in Telluride $165-$650; for 3-star hotels $77-$519.

• (410 Miles) Telluride to Loveland for the Arise Music Festival, August 7-9. com per-night rates range for 3-star hotels in the Loveland area $118-$179; for 2-star hotels $84-$199.

• (50 Miles) Loveland to Denver, and the flight home.

Foodies Fantasy (Charleston, SC to New Orleans, LA, 1,135 miles, July 13-20)

Gasoline cost $139.65.

• (213 Miles) Charleston to Greenville. Start with shrimp ‘n grits, oysters and low country specialties in Charleston, then head west from the coast deep into South Carolina, trying barbecues that use a variety of tomato, mustard and vinegar-based sauces. com per-night rates range for 4-star hotels in the Greenville area $179-$209; for 3-star hotels $99-$249.

• (529 Miles) From Greenville, continue on to Memphis, winding through Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. In Memphis, the barbecue changes, and can be “wet” with sauce, or dry-rubbed with no additional accompaniment necessary. com per-night rates range for 4-star hotels in the Memphis area $179-$215; for 3-star hotels $69-$189.

• (393 Miles) Then begin the trek south to New Orleans, where creole and Cajun dishes are king. Some will say beginning in Charleston and finishing in New Orleans brings the food journey full-circle. Priceline.com per-night rates range for 4-star hotels in the New Orleans area $98-$400; for 3-star hotels $87-$189.

Hikers Heaven (Lake Tahoe-Yosemite-Sequoia, 746 miles, July 11-19)

Gasoline cost $93.10.

• (217 Miles) San Francisco to Lake Tahoe. Hike around the majestic lake, or take in the sites around Tahoe National Forest, Castle Peak, Echo Lakes and Horsetail Falls. Plenty of short hikes available to get muscles and footwear broken in. com per-night rates range for 4-star hotels in the South Lake Tahoe area $292-$514; for 3-star hotels $144-$374.

• (210 Miles) Lake Tahoe to Yosemite (El Portal). On everyone’s bucket list, Yosemite has hikes for every fitness fan’s and sightseer’s needs. The Tioga Pass Road offers a condensed panorama of what the park has to offer. Glacier Point Road has tougher hikes, but with rewarding rock formations and scenes reminiscent of Ansel Adams famous photographs. Priceline.com per-night rates range for 3-star hotels in the Yosemite area $140-$282; for 2-star hotels $125-$212.

• (137 Miles) Yosemite to Sequoia National Park (Visalia). Disappear among the giants and take in the General Sherman Tree, the largest in the world. com per-night rates range for 3-star hotels in the Visalia area $85-$159; for 2-star hotels $49-$95.

• (182 Miles) Sequoia to Los Angeles. Time to rest those legs for the drive (and plane ride) home. Priceline.com per-night rates range for 4-star hotels in the Los Angeles area $151-$922; for 3-star hotels $79-$576.

Hall of Fame Fling (Toronto-Canton-Cooperstown-Springfield, 1,042 miles, Aug. 1-9)

Gasoline cost $129.85.

• (327 Miles) Toronto to Canton. Fly to Toronto and pay a visit to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Get up close and personal with the Stanley Cup, visit the Montreal Canadians from the old Forum, test those shooting skills, and stand in goal against The Great One (no skates required). Then it’s off to Canton. com per-night rates range for 4-star hotels in the Toronto area $101-$420; for 3-star hotels $52-$88. Priceline.com per-night rates range for 3-star hotels in the Canton area $96-$199; for 2-star hotels $48-$269.

• (466 Miles) Canton to Cooperstown. View the busts of pro football’s Hall of Fame inductees, along with uniforms, helmets, footballs and other historic relics of the game. Enter the Super Bowl Theater that virtually puts fans right into the action. com per-night rates range for 3-star hotels in the Oneonta area $139-$395; for 2-star hotels $51-$224.

• (159 Miles) Cooperstown to Springfield. Cooperstown, the ultimate baseball shrine with its National Baseball Hall of Fame. Wander through the plaques of the Hall of Famers. View the thousands of historically significant baseballs, bats, gloves, cleats and uniforms worn by the greats of the game. See and hear interactive exhibits tracing the history of “America’s Past-time.” com per-night rates range for 3-star hotels in the Springfield area $88-$199; for 2-star hotels $59-$169.

• (90 Miles) Springfield to Boston. Springfield, MA, is home to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, mecca for hoops fans. Here, fans will find all the greats of the game enshrined, along with historically significant balls, uniforms and more. Don’t miss the interactive exhibits, where fans can test their shooting skills, check their vertical jump capabilities versus the greats, and even have a personalized basketball trading card created. Finally, the Hall of Fame trip ends in Boston, where fans can visit one of baseball’s most venerated, and oldest ball yards, Fenway Park. com per-night rates range for 4-star hotels in the Boston area $208-$554; for 3-star hotels $109-$499.

*According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, average summer gasoline prices are expected to be $2.45 a gallon, compared with $3.59 a gallon last summer.

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About OnStar, LLC

OnStar, LLC (OnStar) is a wholly owned subsidiary of GM Holdings LLC (“GM”). Along with its affiliate Shanghai OnStar Telematics Co. Ltd (a joint venture involving OnStar, Shanghai General Motors Co., Ltd (SGM) and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC)), OnStar serves 7 million subscribers in North America and China. OnStar is a provider of Emergency, Security, Navigation, Diagnostic and Connectivity services. OnStar with 4G LTE is now available on more than 30 2015 GM models in the U.S. and Canada.

About priceline.com

Priceline.com, part of The Priceline Group [NASDAQ: PCLN], gives leisure travelers multiple ways to save on their airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises. In addition to getting compelling published prices, travelers can take advantage of priceline.com’s famous Name Your Own Price® service, which can deliver the lowest prices available, or the recently added Express Deals®, where travelers can take advantage of hotel discounts without bidding.