Paris Seminar urges hotels to prepare for economic upturn

Bookassist has told French hotels that preparing now for the economic upturn is vital to ensure that they are not left behind. While the hotel industry is advancing through its economic cycle, not all hotels can expect to rise with the inevitable upswing unless they embrace current technologies and techniques.

Click for Seminar Slideshow


In a comprehensive seminar held in the magnificent surroundings of the Irish Embassy on Avenue Foch in Paris on Thursday November 26th, hotels were urged to consider the lifetime value of a customer to their business, not just the single first booking, and to engage with their clients continually through high level offline and online service. Bookassist speakers covered all aspects of online optimisation and marketing for client retention, while co-host Hoosta discussed the importance of social media for hotels doing business online.

The Enterprise Ireland and Irish Embassy supported seminar attracted over 60 hoteliers to hear presentations by Bookassist CEO and Founder Dr Des O'Mahony, Bookassist's Director of Business & Operations Yahya Fetchati, and co-host and Bookassist Partner Orso Filippi, Chairman of Hoosta (hoosta.com), who specialises in Social Media usage for hotels.

The seminar was opened by His Excellency Ambassador Paul Kavanagh, Irish Ambassador to France and was organised in conjunction with Ms Karen Hallez, Market Advisor for Software Services & Emerging Sectors at Enterprise Ireland's Paris office and the Enterprise Ireland team in Paris.

See also http://hoosta-webagency.com/?p=126

Bookassist at Northern Ireland Hospitality Exchange 2009

Come visit Bookassist's stand at the Hospitality Exchange 2009 at the Ramada Hotel Belfast and learn more about our Exclusive Offer for delegates and visitors.

Tuesday 13th October:
9am - 5pm (Trade Exhibition FREE)
Wednesday 14th October:
9am - 2pm (Trade Exhibtion FREE)

Hospitality Exchange has organised a host of seminars and guest speakers for this two-day event including Bill Kelly of Kelly's Hotel Rosslare, and a Chef Masterclass with Jason Atherton, Executive Chef at Gordon Ramsay's maze and maza Grill restaurants in London. For more information visit hospitalityexchange.co.uk.

For Further Information on Bookassist's presence or to schedule a consultation with a member of the Bookassist Team at Hospitality Exchange, please email: Sarah Collins, Paul Dooley or Kieran Fives or call: 00 353 (0) 1 676 2913

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

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 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

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 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.