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.

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 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

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 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 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.