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.

Russian language release for Bookassist Booking Engine

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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, 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