Bookassist Founder to open the Hospitality Ireland Conference 2008

Bookassist Founder and Managing Director Dr Des O'Mahony will deliver the opening address to the Hospitality Ireland Conference and Annual Awards Ceremony in Dublin on October 30th, 2008.

The Conference is the largest of its kind in Ireland, encompassing the entire hospitality and leisure sector. The conference takes place the Four Seasons Hotel in Ballsbridge, Dublin.

Dr O'Mahony, an Irish Internet Association Netvisionary award winner, will talk on the future of the internet in the coming decades and what it means for the hospitality sector.

Also addressing the conference are Marco Pierre White, three star Michelin chef; Louis Fitzgerald, Chairman of the Fitzgerald Group and Gerard Lawless, Executive Chairman of the worldwide Jumeirah Group.

The conference will be chaired by broadcaster and economist David McWilliams.

Bookassist is the industry-leading hotel booking engine and online marketing provider in Ireland with additional offices in Spain, Scotland, France, Czech Republic, Italy and Poland. A Deloitte Fast 50 Technology Company in Ireland and in the Top 100 Deloitte Technology Companies in Europe, Bookassist has received numerous awards in Online Trade, Online Marketing, and Technological Innovation.

For more information on the Hospitality Ireland conference, see:
http://www.hospitality-ireland.com/

New Business Development Manager Appointed in Scotland Office

Bookassist has appointed James Kennedy as Business Development Manager for Scotland, based in the Ayrshire office. James is well known across the Scottish Tourism industry and has been working in Business Development over the past four and a half years for VisitScotland.com.

"We've been expanding very rapidly over the past twelve months with Bookassist performing exceptionally well across all accommodation sectors but we recognised that we needed to increase the reach as we go into a challenging period for Scottish tourism. James' understanding of the market place and most importantly the people in that market place made him easily the the number one person for this position", said Ian McCaig, Operations Manager for Bookassist in Scotland.

James will now be reponsible for a raft of new marketing opportunities for Scottish tourism businesses including the rolling out of Bookassist's Web 2.0 tools, the new and exciting Sitebuilder product and the continuing growth of the Bookassist Trafficbuilder programmes. "I'm delighted to be joining the Bookassist team and look forward to working with clients old and new over the coming months and years. The Bookassist suite of products offers real and affordable solutions for all sizes of operators throughout Scotland and will be able to help many hotels, guest houses and self catering businesses get their product to the market more directly", said James.

Sat-Nav equipped with Bookassist, putting Irish hotels on the map for drivers

Details of over 600 Bookassist hotels in Ireland are now available on sat-nav in partnership with MyPOIs.ie

Bookassist and My Points of Interest (myPOIs.ie) today announced the availability of the Bookassist Hotel Guide for Ireland and Northern Ireland for Garmin sat-nav users. Users are now able to download for free the Bookassist hotel inventory for Ireland, complete with contact details and links for further information or booking. Hotel bookers who have used the Bookassist system on bookassist.com or directly on one of hundreds of hotel websites in Ireland will also receive, in their booking confirmation, information on how to download sat-nav data should they need assistance in locating their hotel on the road.

"It's all about giving the best service we can to the customer. Our customer feedback has indicated that this is something people would appreciate, particularly those who came from abroad and hadn't anticipated the poor level of road signage of the beaten path in Ireland!", said Christina Roche, Business Development Advisor for Bookassist in Ireland. "The myPOIs site makes it simple for people to tap into the large database we have of accommodation country-wide".

myPOIs.ie collects varied points of interest information nationally and makes it available for download to sat-navs from their web site. So far myPOIs.ie have collected 35,000 additional POIs which are continuously updated, with plans for a further 50,000-100,000 POIs. All listed POIs have proper verified and accurate locations using the latest geocoding techniques.

Bookassist is the market leading Irish company for web-enabled hotel reservations and online marketing. An Irish Internet Association NetVisionary Award winner for online trade, Bookassist has twice been a Top 10 company in Deloitte's Fast 50 fastest growing companies. Bookassist has its headquarters in Ireland with offices in Spain, Scotland, France, Italy, Czech Republic and Poland.