San Diego, August 13, 2008 – Locally owned sandiego.com, Inc. operator of the www.sandiego.com web site has recruited Robert A. Rauch as chairman of the board. Rauch is managing partner of Del Mar Hotels (Homewood Suites and Hilton Garden Inn) and director of the San Diego Convention Center, Chairman of San Diego North Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Director of San Diego Tourism Promotion Corp.

“Bob brings outstanding vision and connections to the company in the hospitality industry,” said James Earwicker, CEO of sandiego.com. “He has the pulse of the local and national tourism industry and is a tremendous asset to our team.”

Rauch also is a professor in the San Diego State University School of Hospitality and Tourism Management and owns and manages the Homewood Suites San Diego/Del Mar and Hilton Garden Inn San Diego/Del Mar in the Torrey Hills area of San Diego. The hotels are owned by Del Mar Hotels, of which Rauch is managing partner with Joe Simone. In the five years since the partnership was formed, Del Mar Hotels went from zero revenue to more than $10 million in revenue today.

“Given the current state of our economy and the tourism industry since the hotels were opened, those numbers are remarkable,” added Earwicker.

To accommodate sandiego.com’s growth, the company has also added four new sales associates since June 1 and anticipates adding more before 2009. The site also boasts more than 7,000 users on its free e-mail service.

About the company
sandiego.com, Inc. provides local news, sports, weather and the most complete professional arts reviews in town. The site offers hotel and attraction information and reservations, movie times and ticketing, real estate, apartment and auto guides as well as a directory of local businesses.

In fact, www.sandiego.com is the first place many newcomers and future visitors look for information about the San Diego region. Founded in December 1993 as Data Transfer Group with partner Carl Soderholm, as one of the first local internet access providers, the company went on to found many of the now established web sites in town including sandiego.org, kpbs.org and Legoland’s first web site which won best of all large theme parks in 1999. The company also operated other sites in town for a number of years, including sdfair.com and sandiegomagazine.com. The company’s headquarters are located on San Diego Avenue in Old Town, where San Diego was founded.