Priceline.com is an online travel agency for finding discount rates for travel-related purchases such as airline tickets and hotel stays. The company facilitates the provision of travel services from its suppliers to its clients. Priceline.com is wholly owned by Marriott International, Inc., which also owns Kayak.com, Booking.com and other sites. The company was founded in 1997. It operates in more than 200 countries and territories around the world and has partnerships with over 400 airlines and 300,000 hotels. Users can search for travel deals and discounts on the website, and they can also use the "Name Your Own Price" feature to bid on hotel rooms and flights. History Priceline was founded by Jay S. Walker, who left the company in 2000, by which time Richard S. Braddock, Citicorp's #2, had come aboard as chief executive. Braddock left in 2004, having helped take the company public in 1999. Entrepreneur Michael Loeb assisted in the "creation and early funding". Priceline first became known for its Name Your Own Price system, where travelers would name their price for airline tickets, hotel rooms, car rentals, and vacation packages. While the purchaser can select a general location, service level, and price. The sales are for opaque travel inventory; details are disclosed only after the transaction is complete with no possibility of cancellation. Priceline's profit from the proceeds is the difference between the price suggested by a customer and the one charged by the service provider. It has also added a more traditional model, called Express Deals, where travelers have presented prices and a geographical perimeter within which the hotel will be located but are not told the name of the establishment. Priceline offers a tool named Pricebreakers for Hotel bookings. It claims that the price of the hotels are up to 50% off retail. It is somewhat similar to Express Deal but instead of showing the geographical location within a perimeter, it provides the names of 3 hotels, and one of the hotels will be allocated after the payment is done. Travelers can still choose to name their price for airline tickets, hotel rooms, and rental cars. The number of airlines, hotels and car rental company participants in the name your own price program has increased as these suppliers utilize this opaque market Priceline created to sell their perishable inventory without lowering prices through other traditional sales channels. Priceline also sells discounted cruises, as well