Bookassist and protel announce technology integration, further streamlines online business for hotels

In a major upgrade to its XML Connector technology, Dublin-based hotel technology and online strategy firm Bookassist (bookassist.org) has announced the successful integration of its award-winning online booking engine with the protel (protel-hotel-software.com) hotel property management system (PMS).

The solution allows hotels using protel PMS products in-house and Bookassist's booking engine on their websites to seamlessly connect the two technologies. Incoming reservations from the website booking engine are automatically passed to the PMS, eliminating the need for any management or intervention by hotel staff.

Time and cost savings are the obvious advantage for hotels, together with improved accuracy of data in the PMS and a more up-to-the-minute representation of availability.

The OTA/XML-based integration of the two systems has already been deployed across all hotels in the ARCOTEL Hotel group (arcotel.at) in Austria, Germany and Croatia. According to Manfred Mayer, CEO of ARCOTEL Hotels, "At ARCOTEL, we needed a fully integrated solution from online booking engine to front desk, and Bookassist's successful integration with protel has given us exactly what we need. We are very happy with the results and it has streamlined our reservations operation considerably."

Speaking about the collaboration, Dr Robert Whittle CTO & Founder at Bookassist commented: "Using our OTA/XML interface layer, connections with compliant systems such as protel's PMS is now a straightforward task. protel's interface team in Dortmund and Bookassist's core development team in Madrid worked very closely to bring this integrated solution to the market place in a very short space of time, and we see great opportunities for further collaboration for our joint clients in the future."

Manfred Osthues, co-founder and managing director of protel, shares this point of view: "At protel, we never lose sight of the most important purpose of our software: to optimise our customers' workflows and thus improve their operational effectiveness. We are pleased that with Bookassist we have found yet another partner who shares our goal and are looking forward to further successful cooperations."

protel is now the leading PMS vendor seamlessly connected with Bookassist's hotel booking engine via the XML Connector technology. Further announcements will be made in the coming weeks regarding market-leading vendors connecting to XML Connector.


Bookassist® creates and manages successful and proven online strategies for over 2000 hotels and groups worldwide and is the industry-leading hotel booking engine and online marketing provider in Ireland. 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 including the Irish Internet Association’s NetVisionary Award for online trade.

protel develops and sells technology and service solutions specifically and exclusively for the hotel industry and related companies. The consistent focus on the needs of this industry makes protel one of the most experienced and successful providers of professional hotel management systems. From the small individual hotel to multi-national hotel groups - the product lines of protel hotelsoftware GmbH provide all segments with standard software solutions that can be individually customized to meet any need. The company's headquarters is located in Dortmund, Germany. Cooperating with a dense network of international business partners and operating a branch in Dubai, protel is represented worldwide.

See also "Neue protel ISD connect Schnittstelle mit Bookassist (Deutsch)" and "protel und Bookassist streamline online business for hotels (English)"

Starlight Hotels Group moves to Bookassist for Online Reservations and Strategy

Vienna-based Starlight Suites (starlighthotels.com) has announced a partnership agreement with Bookassist to avail of the company's online strategy services and products.

The Starlight Suites Hotels is a modern and high class hotel group with six 4 star suites-only hotels; three in Austria, two in Budapest, Hungary and one in Bucharest, Romania. The properties are strategically well located in the city-centres.

Starlight Suites Hotels are currently using the Bookassist group booking engine system, incorporating search by location and are also availing of Bookassist's Trafficbuilder online strategy services, to increase their online visitors and brand awareness.

"The Starlight Suites Hotels were looking not only for a booking tool, but a strategy which supports their online brand advertising needs and which stands for significantly increasing conversion and return on investment in a transparent way. With Bookassist, they found the perfect partner with strong local presence in Vienna and top-rated support in Austria", according to Gerd Weingrill, Sales Manager Austria. "We are proud to be picked from amongst various high profile competitors."

Mr. Dieter Jöbstl, the CEO of Starlighthotels is "looking forward to a win-win partnership for both" and sees "Direct Online Distribution" as the long-term future model for his services and products.


Pictured at the training session for Starlight Suites are:
[back from left] Mario Clemente (Bookassist Austria, Account Manager) , Gerd Weingrill (Bookassist Austria, Sales Manager) , Robert Jöbstl (Owner) and Dieter Jöbstl (Owner & CEO)
[front from left] Barbara Koller (Manager Starlight Hotel Heumarkt, Vienna) , Manuela Schön (Manager Starlight Hotel Renngasse, Vienna) , Ivana Majstorowic (Manager Starlight Hotel Salzgries, Vienna)


Bookassist® creates and manages online strategies for hotels and groups and is the industry-leading hotel booking engine and online marketing provider in Ireland. 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 including the Irish Internet Association’s NetVisionary Award for online trade.

Bookassist appoints new Austria and Germany region account manager

Mario Clemente has been appointed Account Manager at Bookassist's Austria office.

Mario joins Bookassist after working at Hurra.com, where he held the position of Key Account Manager for Spain and Portugal, managing the sales department and building a solid portfolio of key accounts in several industries as finance, ecommerce and travel sector. Specialized in Online Marketing Environment, he has been working in senior positions in the hotel and entertainment sector.

Mario holds a TEAT Degree in Tourism Management, and is based in Bookassist's Vienna office, giving support to Bookassist's Austrian and German hotel clients.

Online strategy and hotel software firm accelerates revenue growth and staffing levels despite economic situation

Dublin-headquartered online marketing and hotel software company Bookassist (bookassist.org) has announced the opening of two new offices in Europe amid continued growth in revenue year on year. The news comes as the company celebrates its tenth year in business this month.

Despite the gloomy news from the hospitality industry in Ireland and worldwide in the last year, the Irish-owned software company has continued its growth both in Ireland and abroad and now serves more than 2200 hotels, hotel groups and apartment providers worldwide. Recent acquisitions include Bewleys Hotels in Ireland and the UK, Quinn Hotel group in Ireland and the UK, Arcotel Hotels and Resorts in Austria and Germany, Roscioli Hotels in Rome and MSN Hotels in Italy.

While it has operated to date in Austria and Italy from its Dublin base, it has now opened its own sales and support operations in Vienna and Rome with the appointment of an initial three new staff in each office. The company currently employs 42 staff in its Dublin, Madrid, Prague and Paris offices.

"Bookassist has grown revenues yet again, on track for a projected €5M this year, a significant increase on 2008 despite the tough economic landscape. Online marketing services have seen revenue growth in excess of 200% alone this year. Today with the official opening of new operations in Vienna and in Rome, and the appointment of new staff in each of those offices, we are underlining our commitment to continue growing revenues at home and abroad. Our growth has been entirely funded by our own revenues and profits from 10 years of operations, with no external inputs and no debts - this is something we are particularly proud of and consider unique in our space", said Dr Des O'Mahony, Bookassist CEO and founder.

Plans for a major expansion for 2010 are in place and will be announced before year's end. "We are very excited about our planning for 2010. We have a major new market announcement shortly that we have been planning for some time, and we expect to increase revenues by up to 25% in 2010 with a combination of new market penetration and increased revenue from our existing markets where we will continue to compete aggressively and yet again set the standards that define the marketplace", says O'Mahony.

Bookassist also recently achieved Payment Card Industry (PCI) security compliance representing the credit card industry's highest standards in online transaction security and data protection. "We have always invested strongly in research and innovation to ensure we can offer industry-beating service levels to our hotel clients, who in turn can be confident of what they offer online to their own customers", says O'Mahony.

Bookassist® creates and manages online strategies for hotels and groups and is the industry-leading hotel booking engine and online marketing provider in Ireland. 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 including the Irish Internet Association’s NetVisionary Award for online trade.

Russian language release for Bookassist Booking Engine

Bookassist's Central Europe market has a growing business from Russia and hotel clients of the Bookassist offices in the Czech Republic, Austria and Poland are seeing an increasing demand for online services from Russian visitors. As a result, Bookassist has announced the Russian language and Russian Ruble version of its leading Booking Engine software.

The options will be available on demand to Bookassist hotel clients, along with 12 other standard languages currently available, to help hotels target this fast growing sector.

Seminars in Vienna highlight the importance of Social Media for online customer service

Bookassist seminars in Vienna have highlighted the ongoing importance of social media tools for the hospitality industry.


The seminars, which were held on Wednesday September 16th and Thursday September 17th in the ARCOTEL Kaiserwasser hotel in Vienna, covered the growing necessity of focussing on direct business through the hotel website, and the importance of good old-fashioned customer service as manifest in social media elements such as online customer reviews, being able to respond quickly on twitter, and other services.

The Wednesday event in the ARCOTEL Kaiserwasser hotel was attended by the Irish Ambassador to Austria, H.E. Frank Cogan. The seminars were given by Bookassist CEO Dr Des O'Mahony, Head of Business and Operations Yahya Fetchati and Head of Internet Marketing Mary Collins and discussions were chaired by regional Sales Manager Gerd Weingrill.


ARCOTEL Hotel Group staff at a break-out session at Thursday's seminar

Austria's ARCOTEL Hotels & Resorts GmbH signs to Bookassist for Strategy and Online Technology

Dublin-based hotel online strategy and technology firm Bookassist is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Vienna-based international ARCOTEL Hotels group (www.arcotel.at), which has chosen Bookassist's strategy and technology platform for direct online business.

Bookassist will provide its award-winning online booking technology to the group as well as its industry-leading e-commerce integration with Google Analytics for pay-per-click tracking. Direct integration with the group's Protel property management system as well as Channel Management updating services are also being provided by Bookassist as part of the initial 2-year contract with the group.


The ARCOTEL Hotels & Resorts GmbH is one of the biggest family-held tourism enterprises in Austria. The group has a long history of success and is currently celebrates its 20th anniversary. With five hotels in Austria and one in Croatia, expansion has mainly focused on Germany in the past few years with the ARCOTEL Velvet Berlin, the ARCOTEL Rubin Hamburg, ARCOTEL Camino Stuttgart and the ARCOTEL John F Berlin. The ARCOTEL Onyx Hamburg hotel is due to open its doors in 2011. ARCOTEL hotels have currently over 1600 rooms throughout the group with an annual turnover of EUR 50 million in 2008. "We are looking forward to co-operation with Bookassist, as the company offers us an overall solution for the online booking process as well as excellent service quality. This is, what we expect from a competent partner", explains Manfred Mayer, ARCOTEL Hotel AG CEO.

"With ARCOTEL Hotels, you have top quality products in ideal locations. Their appeal on the internet is already high and Bookassist will help them to achieve their online sales targets and grow their online business even further in the coming years", said Dr. Des O'Mahony, Bookassist CEO.

"We are delighted that ARCOTEL Hotels has chosen Bookassist from among all the major players in this arena", said Yahya Fetchati, Head of Business & Operations at Bookassist. "Beyond the online expertise and technology, Bookassist excels and out-performs everyone when it comes to customer support and client satisfaction. This has been an important factor in the decision for ARCOTEL Hotels."



Pictured at the recent Bookassist training session in Vienna for Arcotel Hotels Reservation managers were, from the left, Martin Grabner (Revenue Manager, Arcotel Hotels), Patricia Oehner (Director of Reservations, Arcotel Hotels) and Gerd Weingrill (Bookassist Austria Representative).


Bookassist® creates and manages online strategies for hotels and groups and is the industry-leading hotel booking engine and online marketing provider in Ireland. Bookassist is expanding rapidly abroad with additional offices in Spain, France, Czech Republic, Scotland, Italy, Poland and Austria and a client base of over 2000 hotels. 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 including the Irish Internet Association’s NetVisionary Award for online trade.

Bookassist launches new bookassist.at website in Deutsch as expansion in Austria continues

Online technology and strategy company Bookassist has launched a new corporate website in Deutsch - bookassist.at - to serve the fast-growing Austrian and Southern Germany market for the company. The region has been a strong focus of expansion for the company during 2009 with both the number of hotels signed to the company's services and the number of bookings generated through the company's systems growing rapidly.


"Our local presence in the marketplace, and our local knowledge, means that we can offer hotels and groups a much higher service level than other operators in terms of online strategy", commented Gerd Weingrill, Bookassist Representative at Bookassist's Graz office. "The bookassist.at website in Deutsch is just another example of our commitment to the marketplace and to localising our services, as Bookassist always does in its markets. High service levels are what we are about."

Bookassist® creates and manages online strategies for hotels and groups and is the industry-leading hotel booking engine and online marketing provider in Ireland. Bookassist is expanding rapidly abroad with additional offices in Spain, France, Czech Republic, Scotland, Italy, Poland and Austria and a client base of over 2000 hotels. 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 including the Irish Internet Association’s NetVisionary Award for online trade.