Brussels, 19/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has cleared the creation of a joint venture in Internet hotel bookings between the hotel chains Accor, Hilton and Six Continents, as well as the US e-commerce company in the global lodging industry, WorldRes.Com. Called WorldRes.Europe, the company will manage an on-line booking system for hotels and travel agency websites, and will be equally under the control of the four partners. Accor, Hilton and Six Continents are leading European hotel groups. Accor owns 3,835 hotels in 90 countries around the world under a number of brands including Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure, Ibis, Formule 1 and Etap; Hilton operates around 415 hotels in the world including 150 under the Hilton, Scandic and Conrad brands; and Six Continents owns 3,325 hotels worldwide under a number of brands, including InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn. The new company will operate a global Internet-based reservations system, allowing the hotel accommodation industry to store, manage and distribute room, rate and availability information. This information will be made available to distributors of hotel accommodation, including travel websites, call centres and travel agencies, allowing them to make real-time reservations. The Commission considers the joint venture will hold a limited market share for the supply of global distribution system (GDS) services and the possible market for on-line hotel accommodation services. It therefore concluded it was unlikely that competing suppliers of hotel accommodation or suppliers of GDS services would be foreclosed. Furthermore, it considers that the agreement will not allow partners to establish joint commercial strategies given the fact that the information available to WorldRes Europe can be accessed by third party hotels and accommodation distributors.