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

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 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.

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).

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.