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.

New Italian Sales & Support Team appointed at Bookassist

Alberto Recanatesi has been appointed Director of Sales for the Italian market at Bookassist.

Alberto joins Bookassist after 10 years at Venere.com, an Expedia Inc. company, where he held the position of Client Services Manager. Coordinating two teams, he built and managed a portfolio of over 30,000 properties. Alberto has also more recently been Product Manager for Hotels at Iperclub, responsible for acquisition processes and managing of the company’s affiliates and consolidators that provide additional content. He is based in Bookassist's Rome office.

Almudena Sampó is Bookassist's new Account Manager for the Italian market.

Almudena has a broad experience in the tourism industry, from sales positions in tour operators to GDS representation and other technology account management positions. Prior to Bookassist she worked for Pegasus Solutions as account manager for Utell Hotels in Italy. Before that Almudena held a sales position in the international contracting department in Bancotel, where she was in charge of introducing the Bancotel product in Italy. Almudena has spent the past year coordinating the expansion of Bookassist in Spain, in Cataluña and the Mediterranean area.

Paola Creazzo has been appointed Client Services Manager for Bookassist in Italy.

Paola has 9 years experience working for Venere.com and Expedia Inc. with direct responsibility for increasing reservations for client hotels and improving brand visibility. Paola was Market Manager for the main italian art cities of Florence,Venice and Naples and most famous Italian Islands of Capri, Ischia and Sardinia, as well as numerous other destinations such as Sorrento, Positano and the Chianti area. She managed more than 2500 hotel accounts advising on how best to optimise their online offering to increase reservations. She is based in Bookassist's Rome office.

See Bookassist's Corporate Site for Italy - bookassist.it

Bookassist appoints Account Manager for Catalunya

Bookassist has announced the appointment of Angel Lorenzo as Account Manager for the Catalunya region, to be based in Barcelona. Angel previously worked in Iberrail for more than ten years across several commercial departments. More recently, he has worked in the commercial sales department at Sercotel Hotels in Spain. He holds a TEAT tourism degree from the Centro Delicias in Madrid.

See Bookassist's Corporate Site for Spain and Portugal - bookassist.es

Bookassist reservations can now be transferred to TripIt

The Bookassist reservations system is now compatible with travel 2.0 service TripIt and is on the official Supported Vendors List. This new development means that hotel bookers can transfer their reservation details seamlessly to TripIt for the added convenience of being able to share their travel details.



TripIt is a fast growing Travel 2.0 / Web 2.0 service that organises your travel plans in a master travel itinerary online that's very easy to share with your family, friends and/or colleagues. If you are traveling for work, or traveling with friends, it is an ideal single access area to allow people to coordinate their travel plans.

Bookassist reservation confirmations from any of our hotels can be simply emailed to the TripIt system which will now automatically interpret them and load them to your travel profile, showing full booking details, hotel location details, arrival and departure dates, local weather and more.

The information is also iPhone compatible, meaning you can bring your travel itinerary with you no matter where you go, and be automatically warned of travel delays or alterations to your schedule.

Corporate Site nominated for Golden Spider Award

Bookassist's Corporate Website at bookassist.org has been shortlisted for a Golden Spider Award for 2009 in the Best Professional Services Website category. The awards take place on November 19th in Dublin.

Czech corporate website launched by Bookassist

Bookassist continues its expansion of services in central Europe with today's launch of the Bookassist.cz Czech language corporate website. Bookassist has operated successfully in the Czech Republic for a number of years but has recently increased its presence significantly through major investment in staffing and through the signing of Bookassist's partnership deal with Mediatel's Hotelguide.cz.


According to Jaroslav Tibitanzl, Director of Sales and Marketing for the Czech Republic, "the interest in Bookassist services is extremely strong and the presence of the corporate website in Czech, with full descriptions of all services, blogs and contact details will make it even easier for hotels to appreciate the advantages, economies and service levels that Bookassist brings compared to any other online strategy partner".

The Czech language site joins Bookassist's corporate sites localised for Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Italy, France and Austria.

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, to a projected €4.2M 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.

Bookassist is TEN! Congratulations to us...

Bookassist celebrates its tenth anniversary this month - our first decade of innovation, strategy and revenue growth for our clients. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our over 2000 clients in 12 countries and our thousands of online customers daily for a fantastic decade. We promise the next decade will be even better!

Bookassist systems achieve full PCI DSS Compliance

Bookassist servers and software technology have been confirmed by independent external audit to meet Payment Card Industry (PCI) Digitial Security Standards (DSS) compliance for the handling of credit card data as of September 2009. Bookassist is among the first in the online hotel booking industry to have met the exceptionally high standards for encryption, intrusion detection, security management, policies, procedures, network architecture, software design and other critical protective measures as laid down by the PCI Security Standards Council.

"Bookassist has long operated to PCI standards in terms of security, but we're particularly pleased that all the necessary requirements have now been assessed by independent external auditors and Bookassist servers, systems and software have passed all security tests and scans", said Karen Fives, Senior Systems Analyst and Director at Bookassist, coordinator of the compliance project. "Reaching these stringent requrements reflects Bookassist's approach in general to achieving the highest standards in everything we do".

Maintaining PCI DSS compliance is an ongoing task for the technology team at Bookassist and Bookassist's compliance is monitored by an independent outside party. Standards are continually raised by the PCI as new requirements are built into the developing DSS framework. Bookassist has been validated according to current standard PCI DSS v1.2.

The PCI DSS, a set of comprehensive requirements for enhancing payment account data security, was developed by the founding payment brands of the PCI Security Standards Council, including American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB International, MasterCard Worldwide and Visa Inc. Inc. International, to help facilitate the broad adoption of consistent data security measures on a global basis. The motivation is to raise security levels online and to protect cardholder data to the highest possible security levels.

For more information see: PCI DSS Website

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

Paul Dooley appointed Director of Client Services at Bookassist's Irish operation

Bookassist has announced the appointment of Paul Dooley to the role of Director of Client Services for the Irish operation.

Paul joins Bookassist from StayCity.com where he held the position of Group Director of Operations. Prior to this he spent over 15 years in a wide variety of senior hotel operational roles in Ireland and overseas, most recently with JurysDoyle Hotel Group in the Berkeley Court Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin.

Paul holds a BSc in Management from Trinity College Dublin and a HDip in Hotel & Catering Management from Dublin Institute of Technology, Cathal Brugha Street. Paul's role has overall responsibility for Internet Support Services, Account Management and Business Development in the Irish marketplace and is based in Bookassist's Dublin office.

Bookassist welcomes new team members in Dublin and Paris

Glenn Whitmore has a number of years web development experience specialising in website design and search engine optimisation. He has a BSc in computer science from Dublin City University. Prior to joining Bookassist, Glenn was a contract web developer designing websites for a wide range of companies. He is based in the Dublin office in the Site Builder team.

Owen Kelleghan has a broad experience of web technologies with a degree in Multimedia Computers from the Institute of Wales before moving on to employment as a web developer in the tourism industry for two years. Owen then moved on to One Productions where he was involved in every aspect of the web development process. He is based in Dublin and joins the Booking Engine and Web 2.0 Implementations team.

Pasquale Mellone holds a BA in Political Science and a MBA in Marketing & Communications. Prior to joining Bookassist, Pasquale worked as Web Content Manager for Blink Communications in Italy, with responsibility for Online Marketing and Search Engine Optimization areas. He is based in Dublin and works as Search Engine Marketer in the Traffic Builder team with responsibility for Irish and Italian accounts.

Céline Tcharbatchian comes from a Corporate Travel background and is currently also researching an MBA specialized in Travel Management. She has previously worked with the 17-hotel French chain Astotel. She is based in the Paris office in the Internet Support area.

Bookassist sponsors Irish team in Karma Enduro Charity Rally '09

In November 2009, Imogen Murphy and Caroline Malone are the Irish team taking part in a 14-day charity car rally through Southern India to raise money for two fantastic children’s charities, Unicef and Rainbow Trust.

The challenge is to complete a gruelling route of 2000km, driving 12 hours a day, over mountains, across hot arid plains, through dense forest trails and into hectic towns taking in some of the most demanding terrain in the region. The car of choice is a reconditioned Hindustan Ambassador based on the 1956 Mk 3 Morris Oxford - and it's got a Bookassist logo emblazoned on it!

Bookassist is proud to be a sponsor of the Irish team and wishes them all the best in their cross-continent challenge and their continued fundraising! See Karma Enduro 2009 and make your donation now for the deserving charities.

Bookassist and Hotelguide to power online bookings for over 1200 Czech hotels

Dublin-based technology firm BOOKASSIST (bookassist.org) and Prague-based communications company MEDIATEL, spol. s r.o. (mediatel.cz) have announced a comprehensive partnership agreement to bring Bookassist online booking technology to over 1200 hotels in Mediatel’s HotelGuide portfolio.

Mediatel’s HotelGuide is one of the largest travel guide publishers and travel portals (hotelguide.cz) for the Czech Republic featuring over 1200 directly contracted hotels and is one of Mediatel’s primary assets in the travel sector. Mediatel is an information and database specialist operating the Yellow Pages directories for all regions of the Czech Republic as well as providing advertising and direct marketing services and the distribution of telephone directories. The company was founded in 1991 and belongs to the European Directories S.A. publishing group (originally, the YBR Group), which brings together the directory book publishers in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Poland, Austria, Slovakia, Sweden and Gibraltar. Across all regions, the company interacts with some 7000 hotels in its operations.



“We are pleased to form this cooperation with Bookassist in order to bring the Bookassist booking platform to our hotel clients and our online HotelGuide.cz portal. This represents a real opportunity for HotelGuide to build on its position as a leading company in the hospitality segment and we look forward to extending this cooperation to other Mediatel products in the future”, said Radim Knobloch, Director of HotelGuide.

According to Jaromir Pazout, Operations Manager at Bookassist Czech Republic, the agreement with Mediatel gives Bookassist access to the majority of Czech hotels, while simultaneously allowing Hotelguide.cz to improve their online services to those clients. "It’s a significant advantage for both parties to the agreement and I have no doubt it will be very successful for both. With Bookassist's award-winning online booking technology and Hotelguide's industry-leading hotel database we believe that Hotelguide.cz will be soon the leading online channel for accommodation in the Czech Republic and Central Europe"

"We are delighted that Mediatel has chosen Bookassist as a partner. Bookassist excels when it comes to local customer support and Czech speaking representatives and this has been an important factor in the decision for Mediatel," added Jaroslav Tibitanzl, Director of Sales and Marketing at Bookassist Czech Republic.

Bookassist® creates and manages online strategies for hotels and groups and is the industry-leading hotel booking engine and online strategy 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 thousands of hotels. A Deloitte Fast 50 Technology Company winner in Ireland and recently 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.

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.

Bookassist Appoints Director of Sales and Marketing for Czech Republic

Jaroslav Tibitanzl has been appointed as Director of Sales & Marketing for Bookassist in the Czech Republic and joins Bookassist's existing Sales, Account Management and Support team in the Prague office.

Jaroslav is well known in the hotel industry in the Czech republic, having previously been the General Manager of the Hotel Sax, the award winning design hotel in Prague, as well as being the Director of Finance for the famous Prague landmarks the Hotel Aria and the Hotel U Zlate Studne. He holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from the Hotel University in Prague.

Bookassist Appoints new Search Optimisation Specialist

Bookassist announces the appointment of Paul Ferry to the position of Search Optimisation Specialist. The role forms part of Bookassist's Traffic Builder team and will be based in the Dublin office.

Paul has extensive web design experience with hotel and hotel group websites in particular. Bookassist continues to expand its strategic marketing teams as well as its development teams in its Dublin office, and in its offices abroad, as hotels increasingly seize the opportunity to build direct booking business on their websites.

Bookassist Appoints new Development Project Manager

Bookassist has announced the appointment of Diego Núñez as Development Project Manager. Diego will work directly with the Core Development team based at Bookassist's Madrid offices and will be responsible for leading, organizing and scheduling development for Bookassist, reporting to CTO Dr Robert Whittle.

Prior to joining Bookassist, Diego was IT Architect and Business Consultant at Panel Company. He has worked on software projects in several business fields such as Air Traffic Control, Financial Risk Analysis and Logistics/Distribution, involving Societé Generale Equipment Finance, Leroy Merlin, AENA and others. He brings considerable experience in development methodology, in particular with Java technologies, to the Bookassist team.

Hotels told economic downturn can be a strategic opportunity

Dublin, April 30th

Leading hotel software provider and online marketing company Bookassist has encouraged hotels to "wake up" and seize the opportunities for building bookings directly on their websites. Direct online booking should be the main strategy for building business in the current downturn according to the seminar held for hotels by Bookassist in Dublin on April 30th.

As part of a series of seminars around Ireland and in Bookassist's markets abroad, Thursday's Dublin event saw Bookassist sales, online marketing, web design and research staff present a series of topics to hotels in a day-long conference covering website optimisation, pay-per-click advertising, strategic marketing and the use of Web 2.0 tools. Hands-on training was also given on setting up analysis and Web 2.0 publication tools on the internet to help hotels monitor their brand online and promote their businesses while measuring the return on their online investment.

"Hotels are still missing the opportunity to capture more direct business online, and in the current climate it makes even more sense since the cost of doing business online is so much lower than any other marketing approach", said Sarah Collins, Sales Manager for Ireland (pictured above). "Hotels that get it right now will be well positioned to grow strongly when the market begins to recover again".

Bookassist will again present the day-long seminar event in Galway on May 14th and in Cork on May 26th. For further information see www.bookassist.org/seminars.

Bookassist CEO Dr Des O'Mahony at the Dublin seminar

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.

Click for Seminar Slideshow:

Bookassist CEO to address SMILE Conference

Bookassist CEO and Founder Dr Des O'Mahony will address the upcoming 2009 Smile Conference taking place at One Kilmainham Place on Thursday, 21st of May. Des will discuss online distribution strategies for hotels with particular emphasis on what hotels should and should not be doing online in the current economic climate.

The schedule for the Smile conference is at www.smileconference.com.

This year, the Smile conference organisers are responding to the particular challenges that the industry is facing through a number of initiatives. In particular, the organisers
• are focussed on Key Opportunities for delegates by addressing the following red hot topics: Revenue Management, Digital Media, Distribution Strategy & Masterful Selling.
• have launched the Facebook Failte call to action which aims to issue one hundred thousand welcomes to family and friends overseas to visit Ireland in 2009 (see http://tiny.cc/FacebookFailte).
• have reduced ticket prices from the usual €295 to €195.
• are offering a special ticket price of €150 for group purchases of three or more.

Czech Seminar highlights Strategies for Building Hotel Business

Bookassist held a very successful series of presentations for hotels in the Czech Republic on how to implement Strategies to Build Business in the current downturn on Thursday April 23. The seminar took place at the Irish Embassy in central Prague and was introduced by Ladislav Muller, Director of Enterprise Ireland (pictured, right) in the Czech Republic and by H.E. Mr Donal Hamill, Irish Ambassador to the Czech Republic (pictured, left).

The seminar focused on the increasing need for hotels to concentrate their marketing effort on online business and the opportunities that this channel presents even in the current economic downturn. Optimising traffic to hotel websites, increasing look to book conversion, online marketing methods and strategic analysis of online yield as well as visitor and booking data were all presented and discussed in the context of the market place in the Czech republic.

The presentations were delivered by Yahya Fetchati and Des O'Mahony of Bookassist, and chaired by Jaromir Pazout from Bookassist's Prague office.

Bookassist Head of Business & Operations Yahya Fetchati

Bookassist Appoints new Support Coordinator in the Czech Republic

Leading online marketing consultant and booking technology company Bookassist has appointed Andrea Houdková as Support Coordinator to join the team in Bookassist's Prague office. Andrea will coordinate the set-up and training of hotels and groups using the Bookassist Booking Engine and other products such as GDS Manager.

Andrea has previously worked as a professional trainer for internet banking at Raiffeisenbank in the Czech Republic. Prior to joining Bookassist she was with Citibank as Account Manager with responsibility for international payments.

Spanish and Portuguese groups move to Bookassist

Market-leading booking technology company Bookassist announces that two large hotel groups in Portugal and Spain have signed to the Bookassist platform for booking technology, support systems and online marketing. The groups will be managed from Bookassist's Madrid office.

Portuguese hotel group Eurosol hotels (eurosol.pt) includes 9 hotels in Portugal and a further 2 hotels in Brazil. All hotels will use the system and avail of Bookassist's multilingual and multicurrency booking technology. Corporate booking facilities and Loyalty systems, as well as Traffic Builder online marketing services are also available as part of the Bookassist suite of services.

Citymar hotels and apartments (citymar.com) comprises 15 hotels across the south of Spain in Granada, Almeria, Cadiz and Toledo. The hotels offer a mix of beach, golf, ski and city properties. The versatility of the Bookassist booking engine is ideal for the group, allowing for configurations for standard sale, family rooms, apartments with special sale conditions etc.

The Citymar group will use Corporate booking and Loyalty systems, as well as Traffic Builder online marketing services and additionally avails of Bookassist's GDS Manager service to give them a complete platform solution.

With a suite of integrated products forming a complete online transaction platform for groups, Bookassist is increasingly providing the exact solutions that groups and chains need to switch the majority of their business to direct online bookings, reducing their cost of sale and building their brand online.

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.

Recruitment - Bookassist is expanding and hiring in multiple offices

Bookassist is recruiting to build its teams in a number of its offices over the coming months in order to deal with the increasing client list and ongoing expansion of its geographical reach. Despite the economic downturn in many areas, Bookassist business has continued to see year-on-year growth with March showing record booking numbers.

Bookassist has introduced a number of new products recently which are bringing added value to its partnerships with hotels and hotel groups in all its operational areas and which are allowing it to more quickly enter new markets with a very mature and established product offering.

Bookassist growth is accelerating and we will be announcing major new acquisitions and market developments in the coming weeks.

For further information on positions available at Bookassist, see Bookassist Jobs http://www.bookassist.org/jobs.jsp

Bookassist launches 2009 Seminar Series for Dublin, Cork, Galway on Strategies for building hotel business in the downturn

Leading technology and online strategy provider to the accommodation sector Bookassist (Bookassist.org) has announced its 2009 Seminar Series to help hotels get the most from effective marketing strategies online.

Taking place in Dublin on April 30th, Galway on May 14th and Cork on May 26th, Bookassist will introduce research and concepts in the rapidly moving field of online trade and marketing with a strong emphasis on what hotels should be doing right now to best deal with the downturn and to be best positioned for the upturn when it comes.

Participants are strongly encouraged to bring a laptop for live interactive break out sessions. Shared Laptops will be more than adequate where 2 or 3 people are attending from the same Hotel or Company.

Who should attend?
General Managers, Sales Executives, Sales & Marketing Managers, Front Office Managers, Operations Managers, Yield Managers, Reservation Agents

Participants will learn how to:
- Boost their web address in the search engine results
- Manage and track on-line advertising and ROI with Google and Analytics
- Take care of their brand on-line by being proactive with reviews
- Boost the conversion on their website and upsell
- Set up and effectively use Web 2.0 blogs and Google Local
- Effectively market their brand through newsletters and Web 2.0 strategies
- Optimise for value rather than price to hold occupancy

For more information visit bookassist.org/seminars
or email seminars@bookassist.com

Softguide Madrid featured on New York Times travel

Bookassist's major accommodation affiliate website in Madrid, Softguide Madrid, has been featured in today's edition of the New York Times. The travel section, with a feature on "36 Hours in Madrid", specifically recommends the accommodation section of Softguide Madrid for alternative accommodation to the standard hotel stay, with lofts and apartments featured.

Softguides in all destinations is underpinned by Bookassist's channel accommodation technology which also operates accommodation services for other high-traffic affiliate websites such as visitdublin.com and others. The Bookassist system's ability to equally offer hotels, apartments, and variable stay lodging makes it an ideal platform for any website seeking to supply the widest possible accommodation service for their target destination.

Softguides.com is a major destination information website that was one of the first ever web-based travel guides on the internet in the early days of the web. Softguides covers all manner of tourism information such as local customs, local events, restaurants, bars, culture, shopping and of course accommodation. Operating since as long back as 1995, Softguide Madrid has one of the highest traffic levels of any site in Madrid and is considered an authority on the city.

See New York Times Travel

New Loyalty System from Bookassist allows hotels to boost return business and build brand recognition

Bookassist (Bookassist.org) has announced the addition of a major new service to its existing product portfolio. Bookassist's breakthrough Loyalty System offers hotels the opportunity to build loyalty in their customer base through the award of free stays for corporate booking agents or for regular agency bookers. Rewarding regular customers is a key approach to brand building and can now be done via online as well as offline bookings through Bookassist's new system.



"As hotel marketing executives know, getting return custom is a far more efficient way of generating business than chasing new custom. Bookassist's completely automated Loyalty System can be customised by hotels to create their own particular incentive, reward or loyalty scheme whether they're a large hotel chain or a small individual hotel", said Bookassist CEO, Dr Des O'Mahony. "Loyalty programs are a major part of brand building also for hotels, though many hotels have not had affordable technology to implement their own automated scheme until now".

Hotels can choose to award points to corporate clients, to events bookers or to agency bookers, with points earned for each booking. Hotels can top-up bookers with extra points if they wish and choose to show them preferential discounted rates also when they book online. Customers can manage their loyalty scheme membership, can track their bookings and their points as they accumulate and use them, and can choose to redeem points against bookings once thresholds set by the hotel are reached, all within a private management area.

For hotel groups, the system can allow bookers to accumulate points from any stay in a group hotel and redeem them in any other group hotel. This is a significant advantage for hotel groups in cross-promotion and cross-selling and can be extended to virtual marketing groups also.

The Bookassist Loyalty System is available now as a service to all hotels using the market leading Bookassist Booking Engine and Bookassist Corporate System.

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.

Corporate booking system from Bookassist receives major upgrade

The new Corporate System from Bookassist (Bookassist.org) is a significant upgrade to Bookassist's extended Booking Engine functionality and original corporate system for hotels. Corporate System allows hotels to manage and offer special private rates to travel agents and corporate booking agents to help build brand loyalty and return custom. Hotel groups can also use Corporate to offer preferential rates across all hotels in a group.



The new 2009 Corporate System allows hotels to offer private logins to online agents to access their customised management areas where they can view and search their booking history, alter or cancel bookings, and avail of other advanced features to help streamline their management of bookings. Corporate System also provides the framework for Bookassist's new Loyalty System, where hotels and groups can automate the management of rewards and incentives for agents. Agents can view, manage and redeem loyalty points incentives within their customised management areas.

Corporate System is a free upgrade for hotels using the existing corporate system and is available now for all hotel an hotel group clients.

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.

Client business shows rapid rise with Bookassist

Bookassist clients continue to show clear and industry-beating increases in booking numbers, with some of the latest clients to join Bookassist registering up to 70% increase compared to their previous strategy partner's results.

Again and again, Bookassist clients who are availing of the company's strategic advice, online technology and marketing expertise see growth and real return on investment. "Bookassist 'Five Star' functionality", as one 5-star client The Kingsley Hotel points out, has helped drive an increase in traffic and conversion, while Bookassist support staff who are, to quote the Talbot Group, "passionate and enthusiastic about their work and provide an excellent support network" make all the difference in delivering key strategies and in continuing to drive those strategies.

Read more about what Bookassist partner hotels and groups have to say on the Bookassist Testimonials page.

Bookassist at FITUR/09

Bookassist exhibited with its largest ever presence at the FITUR/09 fair in Madrid in January. The Bookassist booth was organised and staffed by Bookassist's Madrid office team. Spain and Portugal are among Bookassist's fastest-growing markets. Bookassist has doubled staff numbers in the Madrid office in the last 16 months dealing with the very successful uptake of its Web2.0 booking engine technology, online marketing and GDS connectivity solutions in the Spanish and Portuguese markets.








See also: Travel Daily News, Bookassist.es

Bookassist and Hotelpoints ink expanded 3 year deal bringing an estimated 30M Euro in business to hotels

Leading online reservations technology company Bookassist (bookassist.org) and Ireland's top customer rewards scheme Hotelpoints (hotelpoints.ie) have announced another 3 year deal estimated to bring over €8M in revenue to Ireland hotels in 2009 alone and over €30M over the course of the deal.

Bookassist, with its online booking capability and call-centre management system, has had a very successful 3 year partnership with WINWIN Hotelpoints to the end of 2008, back-ending the online and offline Hotelpoints customer rewards vouchers for over 20 partners such as DID Electrical, Londis, Woodies, Atlantic Homecare, Shaws, O2, Heatons, Zurich, Sasha and Bank of Ireland.

"Bookassist manages almost 300 hotels online in Ireland for WINWIN Hotelpoints, each featuring unique special offers and deals accessible only to Hotelpoints voucher holders", said Mary Collins, Head of Internet Marketing for Bookassist. "Hotelpoints is by far the largest and most popular loyalty scheme in the country and our hotels see clear value in making attractive offers available through such a prestigious channel".

Kieran Fives, Director of Sales at Bookassist notes that hotels continue to join the scheme at a rapid rate: "Especially in the current climate, the opportunity to be in front of a dedicated customer base and to reap the rewards of return custom is something that our hotels are very keen to participate in. This represents a win for the hotel, a win for the partner company, and a win for the price-conscious customer."

James Lenehan, Managing Director of WINWIN Hotelpoints is very upbeat on the scheme's rapid growth. "We are planning to specifically target the Insurance & Media sectors in 2009 to help grow our client base, and extend the reach of our promotions", said Lenehan. "We will also open up Northern Ireland as a new growth area and we will roll out the Butler & Bell Hotel Privilege Club as part of our plans, and build loyalty across the existing people that have booked a Hotelpoints package over the last 3 years".

Hotelpoints works by allowing partner companies to offer loyalty vouchers to their customers, for example when they reach certain spending thresholds. The voucher code allows access to a private online system of hotels throughout the country operated by Bookassist, offering 50% or more discount to voucher holders and other special deals. Lenehan says that Hotelpoints will print upwards of 1,000,000 vouchers in 2009 alone for distribution to customer loyalty schemes in partner businesses throughout the country. "This represents an increase of 30% year on year compared to our most successful year to date in 2008."

The list of hotel campaigns will be promoted across Ireland, with expected promotional investment by partners and WINWIN Hotelpoints of around €1,000,000 in 2009.

Bookassist is the industry-leading hotel booking engine and online marketing provider in Ireland and is expanding rapidly abroad with additional offices in Spain, France, Czech Republic, Scotland, Italy and Poland 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 appoints new Operations Manager in Prague Office

Leading online marketing consultant and booking technology company Bookassist has announced the appointment of Jaromir Pazout to its Czech Republic team as Operations Manager, based in Bookassist's Prague office.

Jaromir comes to Bookassist from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Prague and has extensive experience in the industry, particularly in online business and marketing. He has previously operated as a consultant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers and has worked with eBanka Internet Bank in the Czech Republic.

Commenting on the appointment, Bookassist's Head of Business and Operations Yahya Fetchati said: "Bookassist has a strong and focused presence in the Czech Republic for some years now and is rapidly growing there thanks to the skill of the existing team. Jaromir will be an ideal addition to expand our presence to the wider region centered on the Czech Republic. Bookassist has built its reputation in Ireland in particular on having a strong local presence, on focusing on the local market and in delivering the best possible local support and service. This localisation model is a model we are committed to and won't deviate from, and even as we expand in other regions, our strategy is to build local teams to re-create that winning Irish formula."

Jaromir will join the Prague team with responsibilty for Bookassist's Central Europe sales.

Bookassist launches Italian corporate website

Following Bookassist's recent corporate website releases in Spanish and French, the leading provider of booking technology and online marketing expertise to the accommodation sector has today launched a comprehensive corporate website in Italian (bookassist.it). Bookassist services for Italy are exclusively marketed by Umbriaviva in Perugia and rapid growth is being achieved since Bookassist launched in Italy in mid 2007. This latest corporate website release by the company underpins the continuing pace of growth of Bookassist's hotel booking engine, Site Builder web development product and Traffic Builder search engine marketing service in Italy, supplemented now by the ground-breaking GDS-IDS connectivity product.

Founded on delivering world class solutions in a fast changing market place, Bookassist's cutting-edge technology is supported by unrivalled account management and online marketing support helping hotels to unlock the power of their websites and build direct online sales.



Bookassist is an Irish Internet Association NetVisionary Award winner for online trade and 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.

New Appointments at Bookassist Spain and Ireland

Bookassist Spain

Bookassist has appointed Almudena Sampò as Sales Manager for Spain, based in Madrid office.

Almudena has a broad experience in the tourism industry, from sales positions in tour operators to GDS representation and other technology account management positions. Prior to Bookassist she worked for Pegasus Solutions as account manager for Utell Hotels in Southern Europe and in the international contracting department in Bancotel.

Almudena will coordinate the expansion of the company in Cataluña and in the Mediterranean area.

Bookassist has also appointed Luis Miguel Llopis to the Traffic Builder team responsible for online marketing services to increase the online visibility and direct sales of Bookassist client hotels in Spain. Luis is based in Madrid office.

Luis has more than 10 years experience in the tourism online industry as project manager with responsibility for operations teams implementing website applications for travel agencies, airlines companies and hotels. He brings considerable experience working in SEO, SEM, Social Networks and email marketing for the tourism industry.

Bookassist Senior Management

Mary Collins has been appointed to the position of Head of Internet Marketing based in the Dublin office. The role oversees online marketing strategy for the company as a whole, covering the Traffic Builder and Site Builder products as well as affiliate programs and web presence for the company.

Mary was previously Web Presence Team Leader at Bookassist Ireland and in her new role will report directly to the CEO.

Bookassist.org nominated for Golden Spider Award

Bookassist has been shortlisted in the Golden Spider Awards for the bookassist.org website in the Best Professional Services Website category.

The Golden Spider Awards are an annual event honouring Irish individuals and organisations for their outstanding achievements online and celebrating the successes of the Irish internet and digital media. The awards not only reward Irish businesses and community organisations but also individuals for their creativity and innovation.

Bookassist.org has been designed specifically to get the Bookassist product suite in front of its target audience as quickly as possible, to clearly indicate the functionality and business advantages of our products and to deliver informative, dynamic content which is continually relevant and focused for the hospitality industry. The site is available in several languages and continues to change.

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/

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.

Bookassist fuses powerful Google Analytics and Booking Engine reporting

Bookassist has announced today a major innovation in its Traffic Builder search engine optimisation and marketing services. Clients of its award winning Booking Engine software can now use Google Analytics not just to track usage throughout their websites but specifically to trace clicks on individual adverts right through to a specific booking by a specific person in the Bookassist system via a direct integration between both systems. This allows for website statistics as well as advertising tracking in unprecedented detail.


Client hotels can now "drill down" into any pay per click (PPC) advert campaign and determine instantly the return on investment, in booking revenue terms, for each accommodation package they offer online. This allows for immediate feedback on the perceived value by online customers of special offers, discounts and other offerings the hotel has online, giving the hotel valuable instant intelligence on what is working online and what is not, rather than having to wait to analyse returns at a later date.

"What we now have is a complete integration between our Booking Engine system and our Traffic Builder [online marketing service] system, all rolled together in Google's Analytics. So in one place you can view user patterns throughout your site and track every single cent spent on PPC to see if a particular advert is generating real booking revenue, what part of the world your booker is coming from, what kind of package was booked and whether any add-ons or additional services were bought", said Mary Collins, responsible for Traffic Builder strategy at Bookassist.

Bookassist's integration of Traffic Builder with Google Analytics leaves no room for doubt and is the most powerful analysis of online marketing available to hotels today. Hotel clients using Traffic Builder can respond instantly to the marketplace based on real data, not on supposition. It is another in a string of tie-ins with Google technology for Bookassist.

Early in 2008, Bookassist was first in the industry to adopt the then-new Google Charts technology for the generation of innovative real-time graphics in its Booking Engine reporting. As far back as 2005, Bookassist integrated its entire database of hotel information with Google Maps. Bookassist is a Google Adwords Qualified Company and works closely with Google and has had access to early technology releases. In 2007 the company was a beta tester of the Google Local service on Google Maps where it now features prominently.

Traffic Builder with Google Analytics is available now, exclusively to hotels using the Bookassist Booking Engine on their websites.

Bookassist appoints Pascal Gauthier as Director of Operations in Paris office

Bookassist has appointed Pascal Gauthier to head its operation in France.

Pascal has in excess of 20 years experience in the hotel industry, with a specific focus on sales, promotions and marketing at various hotel groups in Paris and beyond. He has a strong knowledge of national and international markets, global distribution systems and internet distribution networks. He will be based at Bookassist's office at Rue Faubourg Montmartre in Paris, represented online by the localised corporate website bookassist.fr.

Bookassist corporate website launch in French

Following Bookassist's recent corporate website release in Spanish, the leading provider of booking technology and online marketing expertise to the accommodation sector has today launched a comprehensive corporate website in French (bookassist.fr). Bookassist opened its Paris-based office in late 2007 and is gaining significant business in this competitive marketpace. This latest release by the company underpins the continuing pace of growth of Bookassist's hotel booking engine, Site Builder web development product and Traffic Builder search engine marketing service in France.

Founded on delivering world class solutions in a fast changing market place, Bookassist's cutting-edge technology is supported by unrivalled account management and online marketing support helping hotels to unlock the power of their websites and build direct online sales.



Bookassist is an Irish Internet Association NetVisionary Award winner for online trade and 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.

Bookassist is exhibiting at the World Travel Market WTM 2008 in London November, area Global Village N° TT 7085. Representatives from all of Bookassist's international offices will be on hand.

Bookassist enhances its corporate web presence with new Spanish language site

Bookassist, the leading provider of booking technology and online marketing expertise to the accommodation sector, has today launched a new comprehensive corporate website in Spanish (bookassist.es). This latest roll-out by the company highlights the fast pace of growth that Bookassist is experiencing with its hotel booking engine, its Site Builder web development product and its Traffic Builder search engine marketing service in Spain.

Founded on delivering world class solutions in a fast changing market place, Bookassist's cutting-edge technology is supported by unrivalled account management and online marketing support helping hotels to unlock the power of their websites and build direct online sales. The new Spanish language website is specifically tailored to the markets serviced by Bookassist's Madrid office.



Bookassist is an Irish Internet Association NetVisionary Award winner for online trade and 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.

Bookassist is exhibiting at the World Travel Market WTM 2008 in London November, area Global Village N° TT 7085. Representatives from all of Bookassist's international offices will be on hand.

Czesc Polsko! Bookassist launches hotel reservation software services in Poland

Bookassist has launched its award-winning booking engine technology in Poland with initial hotels going live for direct sales online through their own websites in the popular destinations of Warsaw and Krakow.



Piotr Byrski, Lukasz Kidon and Anna Stabrawa of Wirtualny Turysta, Bookassist's exclusive partner for Poland, are the initial team involved in market research, sales and technical implementation of Bookassist technology for hotels in the region and have been planning the market penetration strategy for a number of months. In the coming weeks, hotels which are currently being trained in the use of the technology will be coming on stream.

The continuing fast growth of tourism in Poland and in the accommodation sector in particular represents a strong opportunity for expansion of Bookassist services, and with many Polish hotels going on the internet for the first time and availing of the direct sales approach, Bookassist products and technology are the ideal mature platform for the emerging internet travel sector.

In recent months, Bookassist has expanded its services with offices in Italy and France also, supplementing the more established offices in Ireland, Spain, Scotland and the Czech Republic.

Almost 90% rate Bookassist booking engine at 8/10 or higher

Almost 90% of customers rate the Bookassist booking engine experience at 8/10 or higher, with almost 60% giving it 10/10

A staggering 89.4% of online users who have used the Bookassist booking engine rate the system at 8/10 or higher, with a significant majority of users, almost 60%, giving it a full thumbs up with the highest 10/10 rating, according to statistics gathered from tens of thousands of users and released on the bookassist.org corporate website.

Bookassist has been collecting reviews from customers and have amassed tens of thousands of customer comments on the system. After having stayed at a hotel, customers receive a follow up email to comment on their experience, which forms the backbone of Bookassist's popular customer reviews for hotels. Hotels can feature these reviews on their own website as part of the Bookassist Travel 2.0 booking engine.

However, Bookassist also asks customers about the booking engine experience so that this information can be used to continually improve the customer experience. With thousands of bookings made a week using embedded Bookassist technology on hotel websites and affiliate channels, this is critical and valuable information. Coupled with analysis of the way customers use the booking process, this information has led to substantial advances in the booking engine design, advances which, while technically accomplished, lead to a simplicity for the online user instead of more complication. Bookassist advocates the multi-screen approach to the booking process for many reasons, rather than the single page approach that some vendors promote. Independent research has shown this approach to be vindicated for user friendliness and clarity of the process and it is industry best practice.

Having a customer centric approach, rather than a technology centric approach has been a cornerstone of how Bookassist has operated over the last 8 years in the online reservations arena and has been the open secret of Bookassist's success to date.

Bookassist connects live to SoftBrands PORTfolio PMS

Bookassist and SoftBrands announced today that they have implemented a direct connection between the Bookassist online reservations system and the SoftBrands PORTfolio Property Management System allowing for live interaction from web to the reservations desk.

SoftBrands, Inc., a global supplier of enterprise application software, has significant traction in the Irish and UK marketplaces with PORTfolio PMS. Bookassist is the market leading Irish company for web-enabled hotel reservations. "Being able to marry the two systems together brings the best of both worlds to hoteliers", said Dr Des O'Mahony, Bookassist Managing Director. "Hoteliers with PORTfolio can now also have a feature rich Travel 2.0 booking engine online while significantly saving on effort in coordinating their offering and their online bookings with their PMS system".

Among the first adopters of the integration effort is the Mercer Hotel Group. "For more than three years we have been searching for a solution to how we can reduce the margin of error, reduce duplication of tasks and save our reservations resources to focus on revenue management.", said Michelle Doherty, Group Sales & Marketing Manager for Mercer Accommodation Group and the New Great Southern Group. "The Bookassist & SoftBrands integration works seamlessly, leaving us to focus on our core activities and not bogging us down in technical and system issues. This allows us to react much more quickly in a very challenging and competitive market place."

Bookassist XML reservations can be tied to any system that recognises Open Travel Alliance's OTA/XML standards.

Bookassist launches new corporate website

Bookassist has today launched a completely new corporate website on the bookassist.org domain to give comprehensive online information on Bookassist services and products and to integrate Hotel Industry blogs and client services in one single location.

"Bookassist corporate information has been a section of the bookassist.com website for years, but with so many visitors looking for direct information on Bookassist products and services, we felt that the corporate information was a little too hidden on the bookassist.com site. We wanted it more directly accessible and we felt it was time to revamp our product descriptions as well as showcase some great innovations that we've been responsible for over the years", said Mary Collins, Web Presence Team Leader. "Bookassist.com can be focused solely now on online marketing and promotion for our clients."

bookassist.org features clear and concise product information and service descriptions for the Booking Engine, Traffic Builder and Site Builder products. It also integrates significant hotel industry information as a general service for hotels, with Bookassist staff picking important information from the hospitality industry blogsphere for publication, as well as writing detailed how-to's and helpful hints for hotels in the online marketplace. "We've been working hard with our seminars and workshops for our client hotels in various countries to make sure they have expert information on dealing with sales and promotion online, but we're happy to share the company expertise to a more general audience also through our new corporate website blogs. Making this expertise available publicly is a pretty novel thing to do, and we plan on building this into a good resource for the hospitality industry", said Des O'Mahony, Bookassist co-founder and managing director.

Trade Dinner in Prague

Bookassist invited a number of hotel and hotel group clients to the Ireland - Czech Republic Trade Dinner organised by Enterprise Ireland and the Irish Embassy on May 28th at the Intercontinental Hotel in Prague. The Trade Dinner was hosted by His Excellency Donal Hamill, ambassador to the Czech Republic and Ladislav Muller, Enterprise Ireland Director for the Czech Republic & Slovakia. Bookassist continues to expand in the Czech Republic with its focus on the direct sales model for hotel and group websites, and in particular has signed a number of hotel groups in recent weeks.


Bookassist's Managing Director Des O'Mahony (left) with His Excellency Donal Hamill


Bookassist Czech Republic Sales Manager Jitka Krizova (left) with Jaroslav Tibitanzl of the Vintage Design Hotel Sax


Ivan Gruza of the Hotel Hoffmeister (left) with Bookassist's Kieran Fives


Patrick Rieger (left) and Kristian Hanslik (centre) of the Hotel Hastal with Bookassist's Yahya Fetchati


Bookassist's Des O'Mahony (left) with Miroslava Micurova of the Bellagio Hotel

Cara Hotels deploys Bookassist Groupwide Travel 2.0 Services

The Cara Hotel Group in Ireland is the first in Ireland to take advantage of the new Bookassist groupwide Travel 2.0 services which builds directly on the Travel 2.0 Booking Engine services launched recently, another industry first.

The advanced services allow Hotel Groups to offer all hotels for booking in one site, as well as take advantage of Google mapping services, integrated with booking, customer reviews, electronic vouchers and more, all directly integrated into the group site.

•  Mapping Services for groups allow all member hotels to have their availability graphically displayed on a single map for customer convenience,
•  Groupwide Booking allows customers to look at dynamic live pricing and availability across all the group member hotels in one simple convenient page in multiple languages,
•  Individual hotel pages then allow customers to choose from Booking as well as Travel 2.0 services like Reviews, eVoucher and Location tabs to get detailed information on each property, with the entire booking process available as usual in multiple languages.

"The Groupwide Booking Services are another industry first and our feedback from groups shows that this is going to be a real winner", according to Roshan McPartland, Operations Manager for Ireland at Bookassist. "Group brands are a valuable marketing tool and group sites need to be as enabled and Web 2.0 aware as individual hotels. So we've worked hard to make sure the service levels are as good if not better for groups. The back-end administration system allows for detailed monitoring and yield management also group-wide, so there are major advantages behind the scenes as well."

There are no additional charges for Hotel Groups for the use of these industry leading features.

Powerful Reporting launched by Bookassist

In a free upgrade to the award winning Bookassist Booking Engine, Bookassist today launched the most comprehensive reporting facilities on the market and a vital aid to online strategic planning and yield management for hotels. The reporting facilities are just part of a comprehensive update to the Bookassist administration system which also features extended language support and new account management features.

The industry-leading Bookassist Booking Engine now offers almost 30 new report styles, each with multiple options to give hundreds of different possible reports on bookings, trends and yields as well as optimisation reports which help you plan based on future bookings and availability. Bookassist developers have made early use of the Google Chart API, announced as recently as December 2007, to provide a rich graphical interface for all data. The new reporting facility additionally features downloadable data files so hoteliers can see how their system is performing at a glance.

"The breadth of reporting now available in the Bookassist Engine is an absolutely unique innovation in the marketplace. Nobody can offer the quality of reporting and the ease of use that Bookassist can with this latest free upgrade", said Karen Fives, Director of Development. "We know how important reporting is, fast and relevant reporting. We have researched our client base conducting hundreds of interviews to ensure that this big leap forward in technology would deliver what everyone wanted. For our long term clients, the system has literally years of data that can now be easily accessed giving long term trend information", according to Dr Robert Whittle, Director of Technology.

Bookassist continues to innovate in both technology and customer service, helping hotels strategically plan their internet business and lower their cost of sale.

Travel 2.0 crucial to Hospitality Industry

The importance of Travel 2.0 to the Irish hospitality industry was outlined by John Hearne of the Irish Examiner today in conversation with Des O'Mahony of Bookassist.

See Examiner 20080415.pdf
© Irish Examiner

Bookassist seminar highlights importance of Travel 2.0 to the hotel industry's bottom line

At a wide-ranging seminar event for the hospitality industry on Wednesday April 9th, Bookassist, the leading hospitality booking engine provider and online marketing partner provided over 70 hotel owners and managers with a snapshot of where their industry is going in the coming years and just how rapidly it is getting there. The warning was clear that the hospitality industry must stay on top of research and innovation in the online arena if they are to fully benefit from the medium.

The move towards direct business on the hotel's own website, reducing reliance on online third parties, is now well underway in the industry, driven by the online customer's desire to obtain the best rates from source. The customer is increasingly savvy online and is prepared to shop around, and this has been highlighted recently by industry research showing that the top travel websites worldwide are no longer travel booking sites, but travel blogs and online travel discussion sites where people trade ideas and opinions before they go to source to book. Bookassist has been promoting this direct business model as the industry's future for a number of years now, with its Booking Engine software and Traffic Builder online marketing services, and has seen its own clients' direct business increase rapidly in recent years. "A recent survey of our main hotel clients in Ireland has shown that on average over 55% of their entire revenue is now generated online", said Roshan McPartland, Operations Manager for Bookassist in Ireland. "Bookassist technology is helping to deliver up to 70% of that online revenue to our hotel partners in many cases. We stay on top of research into developing trends and can innovate rapidly, as we have consistently done to date, to ensure our clients get the best possible advantage online".

The seminar event, part of series to be held in Bookassist's major markets in the coming 12 months, was held at the Radisson Royal Hotel in Dublin City Centre and was opened by a perspective on the next 25 years in internet distribution by Co-founder and Managing Director at Bookassist, Dr Des O'Mahony. Guest speakers included Colin Lewis of Aer Arann discussing online marketing strategies and Mark Rodgers of Cipherion, a Bookassist partner company, who presented on the necessities of a multilingual approach to the online global market. Bookassist Senior Search Engine Specialist Foncho Ramírez Corzo discussed the Web 2.0 phenomenon of customer generated media and its impact on the industry, while Senior Search Engine Marketer Ciaran Rowe (pictured above) covered a broad range of topics in online marketing techniques. "Getting more market intelligence into the hands of our clients, allowing them to see clear data on their online business that allows them to properly plan their online strategies is a key part of what we are trying to do at Bookassist", said Roshan McPartland, who finished the seminar day with a preview of the advanced new reporting features coming in the next upgrade of the market leading Bookassist Booking Engine.

The seminar event was also attended by staff from Bookassist offices abroad giving an international perspective on an increasingly global market.


Roshan Mc Partland & Dr Des O'Mahony - Bookassist, Lloyd Harnett - Absolute Hotel.com, Colin Lewis - Aer Arann


Terry McCoy - RedBank House, Dr Des O'Mahony - Bookassist, Emma Allen - Mespil Hotel, Paul Gallagher - Buswells Hotel


Siobhan Byrne - Leixlip House Hotel, Josephine Hutton - Talbot Hotel Carlow, Catherine Redmond - Stillorgan Park Hotel, Louise Marini - Talbot Hotel Wexford


Marie Sharpe - Bookassist, Jacinta Naughton & Amanda O'Sullivan - Portlaoise Heritage Hotel, Sandra Jackson - Fitzpatricks Castle Hotel

Bookassist launches Sitebuilder - web sites done right

At a seminar attended by over 70 hotel managers and sales managers, Bookassist today announced Sitebuilder, a comprehensive solution for hotels wishing to build a 21st century website presence. Sitebuilder is a complete content management system that integrates Bookassist's Booking Engine and Travel2.0 technology and allows for electronic marketing to play a central part in a hotel's online strategy.

"Sitebuilder is a very flexible solution which not only delivers a good looking well designed website, but has cutting edge technology under the hood to allow for full management of the content as well as email marketing", said Mary Collins, Web Presence Team Leader at Bookassist. "We have actually been trialing the service for a few months but the seminar today was an ideal time for the official launch. The best thing about this is that the websites are quite unique for each client, it doesn't have the 'template' feel that so many other content management systems suffer from."

Contact Bookassist directly if you are interested in further details on Bookassist Sitebuilder.

Globe '08 trade fair in Rome

In the same month that Bookassist unveiled its new Travel2.0 booking engine, Bookassist's Italy operation also attended the trade fair in Rome - Globe 08.

Globe 08 is now one of the biggest trade fairs held in Italy and attracted over 35,000 delegates from hotels, tour operators, travel agents and technology companies from Italy, Southern Europe and the Mediterranean.

The Bookassist Italy team of Marco Buitoni, Sonia Marsella and Claudio Gallo were kept very busy meeting with clients. Sonia commented that there was a lot in interest in the Bookassist Travel2.0 booking engine in addition to the online marketing program "Trafficbuilder". Sonia also made the point that "while there is still a reliance on traditional 3rd party channels in Italy, hotels in Italy also see the value in carrying out online marketing for their own website and brand"

Bookassist's Operations Manager for Ireland, Roshan McPartland, also delivered a workshop presentation which highlighted the new challenges that exist for the accommodation sector in marketing their properties online as well as looking at current trends which are already affecting the industry.


In attendance at the Globe Trade Fair representing Bookassist were Marco Buitoni, Sonia Marsella (pictured above), Claudio Gallo, Francesca Frizzoni, Mauro Camiglia and Roshan McPartland from the Ireland Office (pictured below).

Major Product Rollout from Bookassist embeds Travel2.0 functionality directly in client hotel websites

The nature of the internet is rapidly changing. The online accommodation business is moving away from the large channel operators and directly to the hotel's own website. But the modern or second generation internet user wants real information and service online, with trustworthy customer generated media and interactivity as well as security in booking. The popularity of sites such as TripAdvisor and others is testament to the power of social media in the travel arena, but reviews on such sites can be generated by anyone whether they have knowledge of the service or not. Gathering reviews from genuine customers ensures a proper balance of views for the online reader.

Bookassist has been at the forefront of research into modern internet technologies and Web2.0/Travel2.0 developments in particular and now brings these key technologies into a new product offering for client hotel websites.

Hotels can now avail of not just the most advanced direct booking engine technology in the marketplace, with live secure banking transacting, multiple languages and multiple currencies, multiple room booking capability, add-ons and much more, but they can also now embed directly in their website functionality for the sale of online electronic vouchers redeemable online in the booking process; show customer generated reviews, automatically requested by the Bookassist system of customers who have actually booked with and stayed in the hotel; display their location on their website using Google maps as a background with citywide information nearby for their customers' benefit, information which is continually added to by Bookassist. Additionally, hotel groups can enable group and individual website with these features to tie the group functionality together and increase business transfer between members of a group.

The current suite of functions - Maps, Reviews, Vouchers, Booking - are just the first of a series of planned functions and can be combined in a tabbed format on a single page or can be embedded as separate elements or pages throughout the website. The information is dynamic and streams directly from the Bookassist database ensuring it is constantly up to date.

Dublin's Mercer Hotel has been the first to go live with this enhanced functionality from Bookassist which is now available to all Bookassist clients. "We are delighted with Bookassist's latest integration of maps, genuine customer reviews and e-vouchers within the booking engine software suite. We hope that this first step towards integrating Travel2.0 within booking engine software will benefit our customers and will enhance their booking experience greatly", said Michelle Doherty, Group Sales & Marketing Manager at the Great Southern Hotel/Mercer Accommodation Group.

"What you are beginning to see here is the enabling of a hotel to compete directly with the big Travel2.0 players, channels which have built their market share on providing detailed mapping and reviews for example.", said Dr Des O'Mahony, Co-founder and Managing Director at Bookassist. "If a hotel is providing rich online services, there is no need for the customer to go to these TripAdvisor style sites to get the additional information they might want, so there is less chance for the hotel of losing the customer.

"No other supplier is focused so strongly on the hotel's website, partnering with the hotel to bring more and more direct business to them, and we believe that with this major upgrade we are years ahead of what is on offer in the Irish marketplace and indeed further afield", said O'Mahony.

Bookassist press conference in Madrid highlights Iberia as a major growth target for the company

Bookassist held a major press event in Madrid today to highlight the latest features in the Bookassist Booking Engine and Trafficbuilder services. The event highlighted Iberia as a major focus for the company, with Bookassist having expanded the Madrid office team significantly in the past 6 months and having entered the Portuguese market also. The press event was attended by over 40 journalists and hoteliers and was followed by brunch and a discussion forum.

Pictured are Foncho Ramirez-Corzo, Cristina Arano Apestegui, Vanesa Manzano Cubo, Dr Des O'Mahony, Dr Robert Whittle, Ismael Garcia Ortega, Eva Reyero.

Ciaran Rowe appointed to lead the Trafficbuilder team at Bookassist's Irish office as Bookassist continues to grow rapidly

Ciaran Rowe will be responsible for operations in the Trafficbuilder service team for the Irish market at Bookassist. Ciaran has been with the company since early 2007 and has been involved in the planning and strategy behind the rapid expansion of the Trafficbuilder team throughout 2007 and 2008. He is Senior Search Engine Marketer with Bookassist and is a qualified Google Adwords Professional.

Bookassist has doubled its total staff in the 12 months since February 2007, in all areas ranging from strategic management and finance to sales, research, development and online marketing expertise.

Bookassist is a Google Adwords Professional Company

Bookassist has earned Google Adwords Professional Company status from Google. The Trafficbuilder online marketing service, which has seen Bookassist client hotels make extraordinary gains in direct sales online, is staffed entirely by qualified Google Adwords Professionals in the various Bookassist offices, which is a minimum requirement for joining the team.

Bookassist's professional status can be viewed online here:
https://adwords.google.com/select/ProfessionalStatus?id=Jn12_C0slQ8vCuuoFgAnFg&hl=en_US

Bookassist makes strong impact at FITUR Spain

Bookassist had a significant presence at the FITUR trade fair in Madrid, with the Bookassist Spain team kept busy meeting hundreds of hotel and hospitality clients and introducing the Bookassist Booking Engine and Trafficbuilder services at the company's booth. Cristina Arano, Head of Operations for Spain, noted strong interest in Trafficbuilder in particular: "Hotels and hotel groups are waking up to the importance of promoting their own brand online and the services Bookassist is offering are tailored exactly to what the market needs right now".


The Spanish team at FITUR comprised Cristina Arano Apestegui, Ismael García Ortega, Vanesa Manzano Cubo, Leire Fernandez Rojo, Foncho Ramírez Corzo, Eva Reyero and Robert Whittle, assisted by Kieran Fives and Yahya Fetchati from the Dublin office and Pauline Cuisine from the Paris office.


Bookassist Director Dr Robert Whittle (above) also delivered a workshop presentation on future technologies in the internet space and how they will impact online hospitality business in the years to come, showcasing some of Bookassist's research in this area and technologies due to launch soon.

Bookassist appoints new Business Development Advisor

Christina Roche has been appointed as Business Development Advisor in Bookassist's Dublin office. Christina will work directly with Bookassist partner clients to help increase direct revenue through their hotel websites.

Christina is a graduate of the Dublin Institute of Technology at Cathal Brugha Street where she studied for a degree in Hospitality Management. Prior to her appointment with Bookassist Christina worked as Reservations Manager in the Irish Management Institute.

Bookassist appoints new financial controller

Vivian Kelly has joined Bookassist as Financial Controller for the Group. Prior to this role, Vivian worked in Property Development and IT Consultancy working with various Companies in both the Hospitality and Travel Reservation Software Industry.

Vivian is an associate of the Irish Institute of Taxation and also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.

Bookassist Directors address Czech Hotels Association

Bookassist directors address the annual conference of the Association of Hotels & Restaurants (AHR) in the Czech Republic on the Future of Internet Distribution

At the recent annual conference of the Association of Hotels & Restaurants of the Czech Republic, Bookassist was invited to present their view of the future of internet distribution over the next quarter century.

Operating in the internet environment since 1994, Bookassist Managing Director and Co-founder Dr Des O'Mahony has seen the development of the internet first hand and has closely followed the research and trends in the accommodation sector online in particular for over a decade. "Our experience in Bookassist of what has and hasn't worked, what technology has taken off and what technology has died, is invaluable in predicting the shape of the internet in the future for the accommodation sector and for our clients in particular", according to Dr O'Mahony.

The conference was also addressed by Bookassist Director and Co-founder Kieran Fives who provided an overview of the company and its products to the delegates. The conference was attended by over 300 delegates over a two day period in the picturesque town of Tabor, south of Prague and included the annual awards ceremony of the AHR.

Jitka Krizova (pictured) heads Bookassist's office in the Czech Republic.

Bookassist office opens in Italy

Bookassist to roll out Booking Engine and Trafficbuilder services in Italy, launches Bookassist Italy office.

Bookassist has this month launched its award-winning services on the ground in Italy with an initial base in Perugia, Umbria. The Italian office will be responsible for the roll-out of the Bookassist Engine incorporating new Travel2.0 technology being pioneered by Bookassist as part of the booking engine suite, as well as Bookassist Trafficbuilder marketing services.

The initial Bookassist team in Italy comprises Marco Buitoni, Sonia Marsella, Francesca Frizzoni and Mauro Camiglia who between them have many years experience in the travel trade and in the hospitality sector in particular in Italy.

"We are excited to be moving in such a dynamic marketplace with such strong potential, and we have exciting plans for 2008 and beyond for Italy", said Yahya Fetchati, Head of Business & Operations at Bookassist. "The potential for Bookassist's very effective and personalised approach is enormous in Italy and the combination of our local knowledge and Bookassist's award-winning services will lead to a considerable success", predicts Buitoni.

Bookassist clients at HSMAI

Bookassist client Cork International Airport Hotel wins Best Website at the annual HSMAI Awards - Multiple Bookassist clients nominated

The travel and hospitality industry honoured its best and brightest at the 11th Annual Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Awards at a Gala Dinner at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin.

Bookassist online marketing (Trafficbuilder) and web reservations (Booking Engine) client Cork International Aiport Hotel won the award for "Best Website for an Individual Operator". The Hotel leverages Bookassist expertise for online marketing and has driven subsantial business through its website by capitalising on Bookassist's state of the art Booking Engine and administration system.

Apart from the winner in the Best Website category, Bookassist clients were nominated in categories:

*Best Customer Retention Strategy - Portlaoise Heritage Hotel

*Best Hotel Brochure Business & Leisure Market - Cork International Airport Hotel

*Best Hotel Brochure Luxury Hotel - Osprey Hotel & Spa, Portlaoise Heritage Hotel

Mary Collins to head Trafficbuilder strategy development across all offices at Bookassist

The Board has appointed Mary Collins, Web Presence Team Leader at Bookassist, to also head overall Trafficbuilder strategy development across all Bookassist offices. Bookassist Trafficbuilder services for online marketing are operated out of a number of Bookassist offices in different countries, since the service often requires localisation.

Mary has been with Bookassist since its formation in 1999 and is a Physics graduate of the Dublin Institute of Technology and a Management graduate of the National College of Ireland. She has held a number of development and management positions over the years at Bookassist.

Bookassist appoints Operations Manager for the Spanish Office

Cristina Arano joins Bookassist Spain office as Head of Operations in Spain

Bookassist has announced that Cristina Arano has joined the company as Operations Manager for Spain. Cristina Arano has over 12 years experience in the travel industry, working in the UK and Spain, occupying various positions in intermediary companies such as hotel Contracting Manager for international markets and Director of Sales. She will have direct responsibility for the 10 staff currently in Madrid and will oversee expansion.

Cristina Arano is based in Bookassist's office in Madrid and oversees the development and growth of the company in Spain

Bookassist appoints Sales Manager in Ireland

Bookassist appoints Sarah Collins to head Sales in Ireland

Sarah Collins has joined Bookassist as Sales Manager (Ireland). Sarah will obtain new business to partner with Bookassist, who provide an award-winning booking engine and proven online marketing expertise. Bookassist are at the forefront of online reservations technology with offices in Ireland, Spain, Scotland, Czech Republic and Argentina. Prior to this Sarah held the position of Sales and Marketing Executive with the Irish Hospitality Institute. She is delighted to continue working within the Hospitality Industry, where she can maintain the relationships she made during her time with the Irish Hospitality Institute.

A native of Co. Limerick, Sarah spent 4 years in Cardiff where she obtained a Degree in Marketing.

Bookassist appoints Sales Manager in Spain

Ismael García-Ortega Camino has been appointed to head the sales division in Spain and Portugal markets to grow business and introduce the Bookassist Bookingengine and Trafficbuilder services, as the perfect technological partner to mainly drive bookings directly into the hotel's website and reduce distribution costs.

Ismael García-Ortega Camino brings significant experience in the world of tourism, particularly in hotels. Since he graduated in Business and Tourism Activities at the UNED over the past ten years his career has led him to play different positions in chains such as Rafael Hoteles and Hoteles Porcel and also on the side of the Tour Operation in companies such as Bancotel.

Bookassist appoints Head of Business & Operations

Bookassist appoints Yahya Fetchati as Head of Business and Operations.

Bookassist has announced that Mr Yahya Fetchati has joined the company as Head of Business & Operations. Yahya Fetchati brings considerable industry experience to the management team at Bookassist and is a former Director of Hotel Partner Marketing at Lastminute.com and former Managing Director of Hotels for Europe at Hotels.com.

Yahya Fetchati has worked in the online hospitality industry for well over a decade. He is based in the Dublin office and will oversee all strategy and sales operations at Bookassist in all marketplaces, reporting directly to the Board.

Bookassist "add-ons" allowing accommodation providers to package additional room-specific or hotel-specific services with bookings

Fancy a bottle of chilled champagne in your room on arrival? Want to avail of special spa treatments as part of your booking? The Bookassist system now allows the hotelier to offer optional services in virtually any configuration to the online customer as part of the booking process.

Many hotels are now founded on the upsurge in the leisure market, with weekend breaks and spa treatments going hand in hand. At the same time, the downward pressure on accommodation prices means that spa treatment packages are not for everyone and the room only price band is a must for the online booker. Allowing a menu of optional add-ons to the basic room-only package is the best approach to tackling both markets in the one system. With this latest Bookassist innovation, the hotelier can offer room-specific services for each room booked and can simultaneously offer hotel-specific services for the whole booking party in one easy to use booking interface.

As always with Bookassist system enhancements, the upgrade is completely free for users of the Bookassist system.

Bookassist launches flexible "variations" configuration of room packages for accommodation providers

A significant new innovation of the Bookassist online reservations booking engine now allows accommodation providers far greater flexibility in packaging their rooms in multiple configurations simplifying the choice for the online customer.

An individual room ("single", "double" etc) can now be configured to be sold in may different variations, such as with or without breakfast, at a special advance purchase rate, as a weekend break etc,. rather than having to define all those variations as separate room types as is necessary in many online systems. With Bookassist it is now simple for the hotelier to offer an unlimited range of services and far easier for the online customer to make a choice.

As always with Bookassist system enhancements, the upgrade is completely free for users of the Bookassist system.

Bookassist again ranks top 10 in the Deloitte Fast 50 Technology Companies in Ireland for 2006

Bookassist today announced that it ranked Number 10 in the 2006 Deloitte Technology Fast 50, a ranking of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in Ireland. Rankings are based on average percentage revenue growth over five years. Bookassist turnover grew over 800% during this period.

Bookassist’s CEO, Dr Des O'Mahony, credits new market penetrations and competitive product development and pricing in existing markets with the company’s significant revenue growth over the past five years. He said, "We have continually developed the product and continually lowered pricing, and have scaled up on associated services such as our online marketing, trafficbuilder, for our clients. Uniquely in the marketplace, we have continued to concentrate on helping our clients to build their own online brand first and foremost. Our client loyalty over the past years has proven that this is the approach the market wants and we aim for the same loyalty as we expand in our new overseas markets in South America and Central Europe."

Announcing the winners of the Technology Fast 50 programme, David O’Flanagan, Partner with Deloitte, Dublin said: “What’s very encouraging about this year’s awards is that we are seeing strong performances from both new and previous entrants. This bodes well for our indigenous Irish companies and proves that Ireland is consolidating its position as a key player within the sector, while simultaneously producing fresh and innovative new companies.”

The Fast 50 programme, now in its seventh year ranks the fastest-growing technology companies in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Thirty-five companies from the Republic of Ireland and 15 companies from Northern Ireland were recognised for achieving an average annual growth of 852% over the last 5 years. This represents an increase of 329% on last year.

The Awards ceremony took place in the Mansion House, Dublin and was timed to coincide with the inaugural Deloitte Technology Forum, themed this year, ‘Get Connected – Celebrate Innovation’. Industry figures speaking at the event included Cyril McGuire, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Trintech Technologies Limited, Martin Murphy, Managing Director, HP Ireland, and Paul Lee, Director, Deloitte Research, Deloitte UK.

Bookassist's Ireland ranking has also led to a position 30 ranking in the Fast 50 combined ranking for UK & Ireland.

Bookassist brings thousands of customer reviews online

For the online customer bombarded by market speak, nothing is more valuable than genuine comments about or reviews of the hotel or apartment they are trying to book. Comments from objective fellow travellers are what social media is about. For many months prior to launch, Bookassist has been collecting hundreds of reviews a week from Bookassist customers who have stayed at our partner properties, seeking their views on what does and doesn't work for them. Our review system is now online and is rapidly building into a valuable resource to help our customers make the right choices in accommodation.

Unlike other sites where anyone is free to submit a comment, thereby skewing the imparitality of what is written, Bookassist customer comments are strictly limited to customers who have actually used the Bookassist system to make a reservation - the Bookassist team only invites customers to submit their comments after they have completed their stay.

Since the early days of the Softguides online city guides in the mid to late 90's, a Bookassist product, customer comments and feedback on listed hotels and other services has been a key factor in the service offered by Bookassist. Years before the current growth in online review sites, the Softguides sites were displaying feedback on hotels and other services contributed by the public, a feature that is fast become more mainstream now almost a decade later.

Bookassist, the leading technology and online marketing provider for hotels, launches services in the Czech Republic

At an official reception at the Irish Embassy in Prague hosted by the Irish Ambassador, His Excellency Donal Hamill, and sponsored by Enterprise Ireland, Europe's fastest growing online reservations service Bookassist today (Bloomsday) launched its Czech Republic accommodation offerings on the Bookassist.com website and on local hotel websites. The reception was attended by hoteliers and by travel industry representatives throughout Prague. Beginning today with a core group of accommodation providers in the Czech capital, Bookassist aims to bring accommodation providers from across the Czech Republic on-stream in the coming months to offer a comprehensive online accommodation booking service for the Czech Republic to online bookers from around the world.

Bookassist is the leading online reservations system in Ireland with more hotels using the Bookassist system on their websites than any other system. "The growth in online bookings worldwide continues to be extremely strong, and popular destinations such as Prague and the Czech Republic are seeing more and more people choosing the online option for travel and accommodation booking rather than the traditional travel agent approach that has typified Prague tourism", said Dr Des O'Mahony, Managing Director of Bookassist. "We feel that the time is right to expand our award-winning services in the region and we are delighted to target Prague as the starting point given its popularity and its easy access from our primary markets in the UK and Ireland."

Bookassist allows accommodation providers to sell through their own websites, to set their own low prices online at all times, giving them complete control of their inventory and giving the online customer the best value possible. With over €24 million in online reservations revenue through the system in 2005, and in excess of €32 million projected for 2006, Bookassist is a top ten Deloitte Fast 50 Company and a European Deloitte Top 100 Company and has received awards for Online Trade and Technology Innovation.


Dr Des O'Mahony (left) with Enterprise Ireland's Jim Mongey and His Excellency Donal Hamill, Irish Ambassador to the Czech Republic


Alena Moravcikova, Adria Hotel Prague (left) with Marie Sharpe, Bookassist


Miroslava Micurova, Bellagio Hotel Prague (left) with Dr Des O'Mahony

Bookassist enhances RSS syndicated feeds of best deals to include all Bookassist locations

Bookassist is now providing entended XML/RSS feeds of the best deals throughout all Bookassist destinations.

Commenting on the latest release, Bookassist Director Dr Robert Whittle said: "Beginning February 1st, each Bookassist destination now has a series of dedicated XML/RSS feeds for each category of accommodation - hotel starred accommodation, apartments, guesthouses, townhouses etc that users can subscribe to. The XML data describing the cheapest deals to be had in each destination over the following two weeks is updated at least once a day, sometimes more often as hotels change their rates through the live administration system. This is just a beginning though, we plan further 'themes' in the near future, expanding the data from the 'cheapest deals' theme."

RSS stands for 'Really Simple Syndication'. It is a form of web publishing that allows you to subscribe to an XML formatted "feed" containing the content you want. Once subscribed, all of the content related to that topic will be delivered directly to your newsreader when it changes. It will update automatically when new news arrives without you having to constantly re-check the site. It takes the hassle out of staying up-to-date and is the ideal method of delivery for up to the minute special offers and deals such as those offered by boookassist.

Bookassist supplies booking and call centre technology to Hotel Points loyalty scheme

Bookassist are providing the online booking technology behind the newly-launched HOTELPOINTS promotion. Partnering with incentive company Win|Win who operate HotelPoints, the promotion has now launched around Ireland offering exclusive special discount accommodation and holiday packages for the low season through business loyalty schemes.

HotelPoints is the leading UK & Irish hotel promotions specialist, promoting value hotel breaks in the knowledge that hotel promotions are more successful than any other form of travel & leisure promotion.

HotelPoints have relationships with over 1,000 hotels in Ireland & the UK and over 25,000 hotels worldwide and are responsible for over €100 million in worldwide hotel sales and therefore large discounts have been negotiated with the participating hotels. It is because of these large discounts that HotelPoints are positioned to run successful hotel promotions for their clients.

Retailers DID Electrical and Shaws Department Stores are the first HotelPoints clients to offer their customers this great value loyalty deal and others are lining up to be a part of this new incentive programme. Bookers make their reservations through a private web-site or use a special call centre service. "Both online and call-centre avenues are powered by the Bookassist system and we are confident of our ability to handle high volume as required by HotelPoints", said Mary Collins, Bookassist Web Presence Team Leader. "We look forward to HotelPoints's early expansion of the incentive scheme to other business clients keen to offer loyalty schemes to their customers".

Bookassist managing director wins eircom.net Golden Spider Award

December 1st, Bookassist managing director Dr Des O'Mahony was the recipient of a prestigious eircom.net Golden Spider Award for his design of the Dublin Institute of Technology's School of Physics website, which won Best Educational Institution Website for 2005.

The award was presented by Fintan Lawler, Managing Director of eircom.net, to Des at the gala blacktie awards ceremony in the Burlington Hotel. The website features an unique and comprehensive annual student yearbook, an online content showcase of graduates' final year projects and introduces new technologies such as Physics Blog and RSS/XML news feed.

The Golden Spider Awards are considered to be Ireland's most prestigious internet awards and were established nine years ago to promote and reward excellence in the internet industry. They have become an established landmark in Irish business and technology with hundreds of websites nominated annually across twenty five categories.

Bookassist in European top 100 companies in Deloitte Fast 500 Technology Companies

Award-winning Irish online reservations firm Bookassist, recently ranked 8th fastest growing company in Ireland, has been positioned number 100 in the Deloitte Fast 500 Technology companies in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) region.

Accepting the award in London on November 28th, Bookassist Director Dr Robert Whittle said "The Deloitte recognition of Bookassist's achievements is a very welcome one. This year has been a stellar year for the Bookassist team and all the indications are for even more spectacular performance through 2006".

The Deloitte Technology Fast 500 program covers public and private companies across EMEA, and is based on five-year average percentage revenue growth. The awards are researched and sponsored by the Deloitte Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) Industry Group. "This is the fifth year of the ranking in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and we are beginning to see some interesting regional and global trends emerging," said Eric Morgain, Deloitte's Partner in charge of the Technology Fast 500 EMEA. "Western Europe still dominates the ranking, with 61% of companies featured in the Fast 500 from this region (a drop of 11% compared with 2003). Northern Europe's presence in the ranking has grown, with 25% of winners from this region, a rise of 8% compared with 2003. Also worth noting are the number of companies from the Middle East & Africa, which make up 7% of the ranking, compared with 4% two years ago."

Bookassist rises to top 10 ranking in 2005 Deloitte Fast 50 Technology Companies

The leading Irish online reservations firm Bookassist scooped 8th place in the annual Deloitte Fast 50 Technology awards in Belfast on November 24th, rising rapidly from last year's ranking of 42nd. Director Kieran Fives, who accepted the award from David O’Flanagan, Partner with Deloitte, said "the achievement reflects the commitment of a very dedicated and talented team at Bookassist that it has been my pleasure to work with over the last 5 years, and it also speaks volumes for the confidence in us expressed by over 1000 accommodation providers who trust Bookassist to act on their behalf each and every day".

The Fast 50 programme, now in its sixth year, ranks the fastest-growing technology companies in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland based on turnover.

Bookassist Galway workshop cautions on brand-diluting web practices, introduces new Trafficbuilder promotions programme

On November 9th, members of the Bookassist team hosted a very successful workshop in the Galway Harbour Hotel. Topics for presentation and discussion included "Designing websites to maximise online business", "Secrets of Search Engines", "Effective Online Marketing", "Current issues in the online accommodation business" and others.

Managing Director Dr Des O'Mahony introduced this latter session as "cautioning on current online marketing practices which, while bringing short term gains, may ultimately be detrimental to the hotel's brand. The Bookassist approach on the other hand is to always build the hotels own brand first and foremost". An expert session on getting the most from the Bookassist administration system was also on the agenda, hosted by Roshan McPartland and Director, Kieran Fives. A lively discussion of all topics was had, and Bookassist's Claire Sawier and Jude Murray introduced the newly revamped Trafficbuilder web promotions package designed to tackle the total visibility of the hotel brand online and to propel online business to the maximum achievable. The new Trafficbuilder programme is exclusive to hotels using Bookassist on their own sites.

Bookassist's Des O'Mahony honoured by the Irish Internet Association

The Irish Internet Association has awarded Bookassist Co-Founder and Managing Director Dr Des O'Mahony the 2005 Netvisionary Award for Online Trade. Presented at the annual awards ceremony in Clontarf Castle in Dublin, the award recognises the recipient's contribution to online trade and commerce and reflects Bookassist's innovation in the tourism and accommodation marketplace and its commitment to delivering cutting edge technology.

Bookassist was first to introduce live credit card checking, true dynamic currency conversions, configurable family rooms with dynamic pricing, SMS text message confirmation of bookings, touchscreen booking at Dublin Airport and at ferryports, These developments have kept bookassist at the forefront of e-commerce development for the accommodation sector in Ireland and internationally.

The NetVisionary Award for Online Trade was held by Aer Lingus in 2004.


IIA Chairman Colm Lyon, NetVisonary for Online Trade 2005 award winner Dr Des O'Mahony of Bookassist, and category sponsor representative Andrew Yoakley of Realexpayments.

Bookassist wins Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Award at first attempt

Bookassist has been awarded a Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Award celebrating the success of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in Ireland. The award is based on growth in turnover over the previous 3 to 5 year period and objectively recognises the phenomenal success and growth of the Bookassist community in Ireland, Spain, England and Scotland.

This is the first year that Bookassist has been eligible for consideration in the Deloitte Fast 50 programme.

Bookassist Managing Director shortlisted for Innovator of the Year Award

The award-winning Bookassist reservation system recently earned Managing Director Dr Des O'Mahony a finalist position for the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Innovator of the Year 2004 award.

The award recognises innovation in hospitality sales and marketing either in technology or in novel applications. The Bookassist approach of providing the reservations system together with the Trafficbuilder online marketing expertise as a partnership service to hotels was the primary motivation for the nomination, according to the nomination board.

Bookassist touchscreen system to launch at Dublin Airport

Bookassist is the exclusive supplier of the touchscreen booking technology and reservations content for Dublin Tourism's new touchscreen information services at Dublin Airport.

Bookassist will make extensive use of its last-minute booking capability to allow arriving passengers to book from a range of accommodation, both in Dublin and throughout Ireland, for arrival up to midnight on the booking date. According to Kieran Fives, Bookassist Co-Founder and Director, "the system incorporates a number of industry-first features such as SMS text confirmation of bookings for touchscreen users and travel directions delivered directly to the user's phone. Touchscreen users making last minute bookings wouldn't usually be able to print their confirmation details, so the SMS capability is a significant advantage of the Bookassist system".

Dublin Tourism to use Bookassist as preferred accommodation channel on visitdublin.com

One of the most popular internet sites in Ireland, visitdublin.com, is to utilise the Bookassist system as its source of hotel bookings for the capital and throughout Ireland.

Operated by Dublin Tourism, visitdublin.com is a highly professional, high traffic site with definitive information on Dublin City and County. According to Kieran Fives, Bookassist Director, "the decision to use Bookassist in preference to all other providers was largely based on the market-leading penetration of the Bookassist system in the Dublin region, where more hotels are online with Bookassist than with any other system".

Dublin Tourism is the Official Tourist Board for Dublin City and County.

Bookassist launches industry first eVouchers: buy online and redeem online

In an industry first, Bookassist has launched an entirely electronic voucher system to allow customers to buy, deliver and redeem vouchers online.

The eVoucher concept is simple - buy an eVoucher gift online for someone, have it electronically delivered to them by email, and let them redeem their eVoucher online while booking in their own time. "By redeeming online, the eVoucher concept removes the administration for hotels in dealing with vouchers, and eliminates the worry some customers would have of turning up with a voucher printout. It's just more convenient and secure all round", says Dr Des O'Mahony, bookassist Managing Director.

eVouchers are available now for the Christmas and New Year market and are backed by a national media campaign as well as online promotion.

Bookassist Director delivers invited presentation on Dynamic DMS to WTO Asia-Pacific Conference

Dr Robert Whittle, Co-Founder and Technical Director of Bookassist, delivered an invited presentation to the World Tourism Organisation Asia Pacific conference on IT in Tourism which was held in Kunming, Yunnan Province in China on April 8-9.

The presentation brief was entitled "How to develop a dynamic Destination Management System (DMS)" and Dr Whittle broguht Bookassist's extensive knowledge of the key issues and solution technologies to the forum, and included a case study of the Softguides DMS with Bookassist integrated reservations system as used successfully in Spain and in Madrid in particular. The presentation was introduced by Peter MacNulty, Tourism Development International, a Bookassist partner.