A bit more about ROI

Understanding ROI? Hmmmmm...

Why bother? Well most don’t but if you start getting into the habit of looking at your marketing spend and analysing just what it generates you may very quickly realise that you’re facing the wrong way. It can be a serious wakeup call and when applied to the potential returns from online marketing be a “Road to Damascus” moment.We ran an articale at the beginnng of the year about ROI being King and the result was a few emails requesting more information on how best to interparate Return on Investment. So we have tried below to give an insight from our perspective.

The oft raised issue with online marketing is understanding just what you’re paying for when it comes to your website and associated spends. Using a basic ROI calculation may help you understand just a little bit better why diverting your spends towards your online marketing is well worth considering.

Very basically Return On Investment is calculated by working out the returns on your activities against the resources put into achieving those results.

In formula terms ROI % = ((Returns – Investment)/ Investment) x 100

Calculating Returns

Returns on investment should not be based on simple sales but the contribution or Gross Profit figure. Room sales should, for example, include the additional Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) including servicing, commission paid on the sales and other directly related costs.

While many marketers will happily calculate the ROI based on sales only it is not a truthful figure for your business and you should always use the Gross Profit figure. An online marketing campaign aimed at increasing room sales must be calculated on gross profit of those sales not the total sales. Similarly so should any F&B promotion or campaign.

Therefore the figure can more accurately be represented as

Return on Investment = (Gross Profit – Investment)/Investment
Simply divide it by 100 to calculate your percentage

Calculating Investment

For an online marketing campaign for example, the following annual costs should be included in the investment side of the calculation.

• Website design costs
• Pay Per Click Costs
• Emarketing costs
• Project Management Time

We would suggest that direct cost of the sales is calculated in the returns side of the equation. For instance for a restaurant promotion

Website Design Costs

Obviously include the development costs but ensure to spread the costs over the lifetime of the site. Don’t plan to hold on to your website for more than two years – so spread the costs over the projected lifespan. Include all related costs for maintenance, hosting, email services.

Pay Per Click

Online advertsing costs are easily managed. Set a planned budget for the year but track results. Is it converting to bottom line?

Look at your offline advertising budget and consider matching it (not always appropriate but good starting point – remember ROI!)

Emarketing Costs

• Licence or fees - £20 - £50 per month?
• Build in time to write newsletters – 2 hours each?
• Analysis – 1 hour a month?

Project Management Time

Be realistic and include the time you or a member of your team need to devote to making the project work. In online marketing time is the most precious resource and without allocating it your online projects will fall short

• Management of direct online availability – Five hours a week?
• Management of website copy – two hours a week?
• Management of Blog articles – five hours a week?
• Facebook and other social Media – five hours a week?
• Management of Review sites (such as TripAdvisor)and website references – two hours a week?

Only you can look at the time you have for your online marketing costs but whatever you do make sure you use an estimate and don’t discard. To achieve results online someone’s time is required. The website, the social media, the booking engine, the search engines are the vehicles available for your business but you have to take the responsibility of getting behind the wheel and driving the vehicle.

An online marketing campaign without a driver should not be expected to reach your destination on time or on target

Calculation of Return on Investment – Web Campaign
Returns
Estimated Additional Sales	25000
Gross Profit %	85%
Return (Gross Profit) on Additional Sales	21250
Investment
Project Costs	2500
Costs of Time	2500
Total Investment	5000
ROI	3.25
ROI %	325.0%

ROI is King!

Excuse the schoolboy French pun but as we move into 2010, Return on Investment really is King.

Every penny spent must lever the maximum return possible in all areas of the business. No more so than with online marketing.

So what should you plan to do in 2010?

Well this year is being labelled by many online marketing gurus as “The Year of The Independent”. So what does that mean?

Well in our eyes it means that the technology has come of age and now allows the independent operator access at an affordable cost to the same tools previously only available to the larger operators or to the Online Travel Agents (OTAs)

Accommodation providers need to focus on developing online marketing initiatives that bring the highest rates of return in terms of higher rates, lower commissions and the most bookings.

So what should you’re online focus be for the next twelve months? Well it should be the things that have got the best means of providing the Return on Investment.

Concentrate on the basics as they consistently bring in the most bookings and the highest returns. Some industry analysts estimate that more than 75% of hotel website bookings originate directly from these four basic areas alone.

• Website Redesign
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Paid Search
• Email Marketing

Website Redesign
If you haven’t done your website in the past eighteen to twent four months then it is most likely that it requires some sort of surgery. New technology will have passed it by, the design may be dated. A new website with positive images, rich content and integration of social media is now a basic of any hotel website.

It almost goes without saying that a fully integrated online reservations system such as Bookassist is essential.

Search Engine Optimisation
No point having the best website in the world if no-one can find it. Don’t expect loads of business just because your hotel name comes up first. The vast majority of your potential bookers are not looking for you by name. We’ve developed our own 3-6-9 SEO Audi which will help you analyse your website not only month on month but against your key competition. Management of SEO terms and your website content is an ongoing process that once again can provide stunning increases in traffic leading to greater opportunity to convert.

It is essential and whilst the investment may be unseen, the results are not.

Paid Search
If used without caution it can be expensive but managed properly pay per click can provide excellent rates of return on the money spent. It really is worthwhile to allocate a decent budget to paid search for 2010 and monitor click throughs and bookings generated. It can be easily managed and monitored and should not be overlooked.

Email Marketing
Direct contact with your previous customers is maybe an accepted principle but it like the other basics above requires creativity and strategic planning. It’s no longer just about sending out brochures. It may involve post departure email questionnaires, deep linking to exclusive offers and certainly strong management of the design and content of newsletters. Mailing to customers who know you is very rarely viewed as junk or annoying, it may not be relevant at that particular time but one of those occasions it will push the button.

If you can focus the majority of your 2010 online marketing budget and efforts on these four areas and monitor your results so that you can allocate more of your budget to those specific elements in each initiative that works.

It doesn’t mean you systematically ignore Social Media and other offline tools but get the basics right when money is tight and can see dramatic increases in Return on Investment.

For more information on improving your ROI give us a call on 01292 521404 or send us an email

Positive Start For 2010 for Scotland's Online Reservations

The New Year has started positively for Bookassist powered properties throughout Scotland according to Ian McCaig from the Ayrshire office.
"The first few days in January are showing fantastic growth on the beginning of last year and we're hopeful that this is a pattern that can be continued throughout the remainder of the month.Hotels are understanding much more clearly the need to grow their direct online sales and for the more proactive amongst them this is producing clear results."
He continued, "As well as providing a highly specified booking engine to the guests which makes it easy to book, hoteliers are beginning to recognise the need to support the reservations engine with marketing activity. A booking engine on its own is no longer enough. A site needs to portray their product graphically and attractively, it must ensure that the site is being found for the appropriate search terms by the appropriate markets and then Bookassist will convert and we believe convert more highly than any other online reservations system."
To achieve the above, Bookassist in Scotland don't only provide the online booking system but also the knowledge and marketing support to help secure the increase in direct sales that is required.
"Of course we understand why hotels have been looking to Online Travel Agents over the past year. The market for some areas in Scotland has been flat and reservations from any source are welcome but we don't beleive that this should be at any cost.
It's a simple question that we ask of our prospective clients; "Do you think the demand for booking direct through your own website is going to increase or decrease over the coming decade?" It may almost be a rhetorical question for sure but it focusses the mind on the need to take the provision of the online reservations service more seriously and actually plan strategically in order to speed up the growth."
Businesses who are looking at their online booking options are being encouraged to look at their whole online marketing strategy by the Scottish Bookassist team - search engine optimisation, paid advertising, e-marketing, social media (with purpose), guaranteed best rates, merchandising of rooms and add on products, online agency and corporate relationships and even best practice in designing a new website.
"All of these areas require not only consideration but action. We see examples of hotels plowing hours of time and hundreds of pounds a week into their local newspaper advertising and radio schedules and then skimming over their online marketing programmes and website content. It is our resolution in 2010 to work even more closely through our account management structure to build the understanding of how integral to all areas of their business an online strategy must be - even to the smallest of operators"
If you wish more information on building your direct online reservations contact scotland@bookassist.com or telephone +44 (0)1292 521404.

New Features

Based on feedback from our clients we are pleased to announce a couple of minor improvements to the Bookassist booking engine, ahead of it's next major release in the new year.

• Manage Year Close Outs - you can now manage up to 24 months of close outs in advance, this allows you to manage your rooms and longer term availabity and rates more effectively.

• Restrict Number of Rooms Sold - you can now setup a maximum number of rooms sold in any one booking, this will allow you to protect against all your rooms being sold in one booking

To manage your close outs please login to the Hotel Admin tool and go to Manage Rooms and then select the Manage Year option. Once the page loads simply select either 18 or 24 months from the drop down menu, then click on the dates you wish to close out and finish by clicking Update Year.

If you would like to use the rooms for sale restriction, please contact James.Kennedy@bookassist.com and advise of the limits you wish to set and James will update this for you.

Guaranteed Best Rate will Maximise Conversion from Your Own Website

Make Sure More of YOUR Guests Book Direct on YOUR Website

In current times some accommodation providers still wonder why they get so many bookings from third party sites as opposed to their own.

As we’ve said before in other areas of online marketing simply put yourself in the place of the online customer and make it as easy as possible for them to find you and book with you.

One of the most asked questions we get is why am I getting more bookings from third party sites and not from my own website?

There are a number issues around website visibility, Search Engine Optimisation, content, design and others. This briefing simply looks at Guaranteed Best Rate or Best Available Rate.

Hotels offering online reservations on their own site have to make strategic decisions about what rate they offer to website visitors. Quite clearly many hotels are found in third party websites or Online Travel Agents (OTS’s) such as, for example, Booking.com, HotelRooms, LateRooms, VisitScotland and Hotels.com.

Whilst hotels this year in particular have been glad of the third party marketing undertaken on their behalf the market will continue, as with other travel sectors, to move towards booking direct and a growing shift to actually source the hotel they have found via the third party website.

Increasingly, if your site can be found by name and it offers the same or better deal, the customer will be more likely to book direct with you.

Potential customers however will by nature browse and whether we like it or not this will often involve price comparisons. If they can book your hotel somewhere else cheaper they invariably will. They close down the hotel’s own booking engine and books through the third party site at a higher commission level. Sound familiar?

Okay it’s a booking but here’s the impact

• Higher commission paid; lower room rate achieved
• Lower conversion on your website
• Customer details now shared with third party

The reverse is also true. A customer searched for a hotel in your area and finds your property on a Price Comparison site. They like the sound of your property and wish to make a booking. Do they just click Book Now? Actually, no. They will still search out the best price and many will then type in your hotel’s name into their search engine, click through to it and check price and availability DIRECT! If you have Guaranteed Best Rates on your site you will have increased the chance of securing a direct reservation at a higher rate and the knowledge they are your direct customer!

So for the independent or smaller hotel that is trying to drive increased traffic through their own website is it essential that they offer a Guaranteed Best Rate assurance through their own website. If some of your marketing contracts insist on you offering them guaranteed best rates then the worst your own website should offer is “rate parity”.

It’s simple really, if the booking comes through your website, you retain the customer details and avoid future third party marketing diverting them away from you; you make the direct contact, retain the booking information and the booking is clearly direct with the hotel – something that increasingly the online buyer is considering valuable.

Online Promotion

We would suggest that all accommodation providers should be strongly considering their pricing strategy and giving serious and immediate consideration to ensuring that the Best Available Rate is available at all times on their own website.

• Analyse rates on third party websites and ensure there is at least rate parity on your own website
• Heavily promote the Best Available Rate on your website. Consider making the statement site wide with deep linking directly to the booking page.
• Install a Best Available Rate banner on your homepage with a direct link to your online availability.
• Create a Guaranteed Best Rate banner for third party websites and make it available for them to use
• Put Guaranteeed Best Rate on every outgoing email – make it prominent and graphic with a direct link to your booking page

Off Line Promotion

Online sales must always be supported by off line activity. It must become a way of life for your business.

Promote the message everywhere! Everywhere you promote your website promote your Best Rate Online Guarantee. Here’s a few ideas to start with

• All leaflets, brochures and promotional materials – make sure it’s a clear call to action
• All invoices, envelopes and letters – create a banner and add it to the foot of every piece of correspondence going out or even onto your mailing labels or SmartStamp postage
• All receipts from tills, check in, check out
• Internally on Room cards (when you next go to print), key fobs and room information packs
• All offline advertising in newspapers, magazines or radio
• Non converted telephone enquiries should end with the assurance that you can get guaranteed best rates online

Contact Us

If you need further help with developing graphics or strategies for your Guaranteed Best Rate or any part of your online marketing strategy send us an email to scotland@bookassist.com or visit the Bookassist website

Oban Hotel Delighted with Online Booking Service

When the Kelvin Hotel in Oban redesigned their website in 2009 they recognised the importance of improving the visual appeal of the site, in addition to managing the keywords and meta tags to ensure that they improved the ranking of their website in Search Engine results.

Once this project was completed, the next step in the development of the Kelvin’s online strategy was the selection of a booking engine for the website. Kelvin Hotel owner, Sheena McLean picks up the story, “We did some research on the web and identified a number of potential companies to work with, including Bookassist. We also recognised the increase in online bookings over recent years had raised the expectation of our guests and it was no longer acceptable to ask them to email an enquiry to us. We were also concerned about losing bookings from customers and wanted to offer them the option to book online at our own website”

One of the key requirements of the Kelvin Hotel was a speedy implementation, the contract had been agreed in early June 2009 and the plan was to maximise any last minute summer bookings as well as realising the potential for advance bookings in the normally quieter “shoulder months” of October – March.

Bookassist were able to conclude the website integration and staff training over email and telephone in the week or so that followed. This was of real benefit to the Kelvin Hotel as Manager Lewis Ross explains, “We are a relatively small (but busy) hotel and as such the staff tend to cover many roles within the hotel and we don’t have much spare time to dedicate to new projects. However Bookassist were great, as part of integration all we had to do was complete a simple data capture form, email it to them and they loaded all of this into the system for us. Next we did some telephone training which was less than 30 minutes and was very easy to follow.

Once the training was completed, Bookassist worked with our Web Developers to launch the booking engine on our website, leaving us to concentrate on managing the hotel. Within a matter of days we had started to receive bookings which have gone from strength to strength throughout July”

The implementation of the Kelvin Hotel is very typical of the way in which Bookassist Scotland operate, as Business Development Manager, James Kennedy confirms, “We specialise in providing Online Sales & Marketing Solutions for hospitality businesses and as such we really understand the challenges that these businesses face, particularly the time pressures they are under. This enables us to build the integration timetable around the hotel needs, allowing them to continue running their business whilst we co-ordinate the Web Developers and the staff training”

James Kennedy will be visiting Oban from the 4th – 6th August and is happy to meet with interested businesses at their premises. To make an appointment please email james.kennedy@bookassist.com or contact the office on 01292-521-404.

Don't Delay - Online Bookings Today!

When we're meeting up with potential clients for the first time one of the more frequent questions asked is how long will it take to see the bookings come through. The answer's a lot longer than the question and is worth a blog post tomorrow to highlight how you can improve your chance of increasing your online reservations but in the case of The Oak Tree Inn at Balmaha, the answer to the question was about eighteen minutes!
We've worked closely with the Oak Tree's web developers to embed the booking engine quickly and once the hotel had undergone training the site was set to live and got it's first reservation less than twenty minutes later. Why? Well it's a mix of good site design, good search engine optimisation and a booking engine that can convert easily.
Not rocket science really just good common business sense.
The lesson however is as clear as a bell... for every minute you put off making the changes to your site design, or your content or your booking engine you are quite clearly losing uncharted volumes of potential business.
So if you're website's not converting into online reservations give us a call and we'll see how we can help - quickly!

Luxury Scottish Inn Joins Bookassist

The tranquil, picturesque parish of Strathblane is the idyllic setting of the Kirkhouse Inn, where you will always find memorable hospitality, delectable cuisine and outstanding comfort.

You will now also find the Bookassist booking engine offering an on-line reservations to match the quality of the product.
The site went live following integration of the booking engine at the beginning of the month and the results are already impressive.
The system features images for every room type, integrated Google Map and management controlled Guest Reviews.
Have a look at the Kirkhouse Inn site or why not just book a wee short break away from it all!

Make Your Guest Comments Work For You.

As we all know Customer Reviews can be a very useful tool when deciding where we should be heading off to. Whether it be a First Choice resort in Egypt or a business venue in Edinburgh we're pretty quick these days as consumers to hit TripAdvisor before we go too far along the line.

And of course that's what our own customers are undoubtedly doing as well and in recognising that fact (not necessarily liking it!) we all have to ensure that our consumer profile on-line reflects our businesses as we would wish.

Our ethos with Bookassist in Scotland is to help accommodation providers drive traffic to their own website; always has been and always will be. It made sense therefore to put Customer Reviews onto the system as well to ensure that reviews could be seen from the hotel's own site.
Once a client who has booked using Bookassist has left the hotel, they will be emailed asking them to rank and review both the system and the accommodation experience.

The former helps us identify where we may need to support a hotel or improve our reservations service but even more importantly the second allows you to get a very quick turnaround on your guest comments.
Sure, you may not to publish them all but even negative comments can be used to retrieve negative publicity either through the guest's word of mouth ot if he's web 2.0 literate his psoting on to TripAdvisor or other travel sites.
It simply has to become part of your PR/Customer Relations/Market Research to spend some time in this area to improve your service, identify problems and in the end improve your bottom line.
To make this easier, Bookassist's latest upgrade now allows all administrators the ability to manage their own guest comments choosing to either reply or publish each one. Publishing comments onto your website couldn't be simpler. Just let us know and we'll activate both the tab that shows your comments - with no interference to your own website structure - and the function allowing you to manage your comments. You can then do so on a daily or regular basis when updating your rates and availability.

1. Review your guest comments regularly
2. Respond to negative comments positively and directly
3. Publish positive responses on-line with Bookassist
   

Couldn't be easier...
For more information and to quickly update your system give James or Ian a call on 01292 521404

Managing Your Online Availability

A question which we are often asked is “how many of my rooms should I put online” and whilst the temptation exists for us to say “put all of them on” the reality is that this will really depend on your overall approach to online selling and distribution.

The key factors to consider are,

• Do you work with Online Travel Agents (OTA’s), if so, what percentage of rooms do you allocate?
• Do you have a Booking Engine on your website? if so, what percentage of rooms do you allocate? If not, how much time do you spend answering email enquiries?
• What percentage of your business comes from the OTA’s and your Website?
• How much time have you allocated to update your website and OTA websites?
• What commission do you typically pay OTA’s and your Booking Engine provider?

Once you have the answers to the questions above, you are ready to set some strategic goals for your online business, such as...

1. Reduce time spent answering Email Enquiries and Increase Direct Online Sales via your own website by investing in an easy to manage Booking Engine
2. Reduce time spent on updating OTA websites that are not performing
3. Reduce the allocation (or cancel the contract) of non performing OTA websites
4. Reduce the commission bills from OTA websites by increasing production through your own Booking Engine

Bookassist Makes Managing Availability Simple and Quick
The Bookassist Booking Engine enables you to easily manage one simple Room Allocation which can be sold on the website in a number of different packages, for example.



This reduces the amount of time you need to spend in updating 4 discreet room allocations, you simply update once and the availability cascades to all the relevant Room Offers that are linked to that Allocation.

This reduction in time makes your reservations operation more efficient, cutting down wasted time spent in updating OTA websites and giving you more control over your direct business via your own website.

The Bookassist Booking Engine has also been integrated with 3rd party Property Management Systems (PMS) such as Softbrands & Micros Fidelio which can increase your staff productivity even further by connecting your room inventory directly with your own website.

For More Information
Contact the Bookassist Scotland office on +44 (0)1292-521-404 or email Scotland@bookassist.com

Make your Booking Engine work for You!

At Bookassist we are all too aware of some of the challenges faced by Hotels in managing their business. In many cases staff are multi-disciplined, covering 2 or more roles, there is also a higher than average turnover of staff and the use of seasonal staff.

All of this means it can be difficult to be on top of some tasks, like effective administration of your booking engine. We are constantly striving to develop our software to make administration of your booking engine as hassle free as possible. Some of the key features include,




We are confident that our administration tools are easy to use, will enable you to maximise productivity and increase bookings. This is definitely time well spent. There are many other features of the Bookassist Booking Engine including;

• Multiple Language – Key reservation information is translated into 10 other languages as well as English
• Multiple Currency – Rates information can be translated into 15 other currencies as well as GBP
• Corporate Bookings – Give your key customers access to password protected special rates you control
• Loyalty Scheme – Reward frequent Corporate Bookers with points that can be used against overnight stays
• Integration with Google Analytics – Measure the exact ROI from your booking engine

What to do next
Bookassist Scotland can be contacted on +44 (0)1292-521-404 or Scotland@bookassist.com

Effective Online Rate Merchandising

There are many opinions out there about the most effective way to manage your online rates; however the principles are more or less exactly the same as you would apply to your Revenue and Yield Management Strategy. We won’t go into that in detail in this briefing; rather we will focus on some of the best practice being employed today.

Offer a “Best Rate Guarantee”
This should be the keystone of your Online Rate Strategy, you are essentially letting customers know that the BEST price they will pay, is DIRECT with you on your website. This engenders brand loyalty and protects you from erosion of your revenues via Online Travel Agents (OTA’s) websites, where you will pay a hefty commission but be expected to maintain rate parity.
You also need to make a noise about this guarantee, let existing customers know about it, use it in all your offline marketing to drive traffic to your website, and not an OTA website.

Enable “Rate Shopping” on your Website
You will be aware of the multitude of OTA websites and also Price Comparison sites, where consumers can compare rates from multiple hotels in one place before making a booking. Consumers are now very adept at identifying good value, and you should enable them to do this on your site by offering a selection of different room grades & board options on all room types. (see diagram).





Offer Extras and Packages
Have you ever been tempted at the checkout by the tasty chocolates or special offer, whilst you are waiting to be served? Your Booking Engine should be able to tempt customers in exactly the same way, by offering them some tasty extras to enhance their stay with you. From something as simple as Wine on Arrival, or Single Red Rose, or even a 3 Course Dinner in your Restaurant, this is a great way to maximise your revenue per booking and also make the guest feel special.

Bookassist Booking Engine enables effective Rate Merchandising by,

1. Allowing you to easily create multiple Room Grades, Room Types and Board offers
2. Gives access to our “Linked Pricing” function that allows you to change one rate that then cascades through all linked Room Types, Grades and Board Basis, saving you valuable time.
3. Providing you with a Best Rate Guarantee logo for your website which links straight through to your booking pages.
4. Creating as many “Add On’s” as you want in order to deliver the customer with a tailor made package.
5. Use our “Group Variation” function to group & sort similar Room Grades or Board Basis offers together that make it easier for the consumer to “Rate Shop”.

What to do next
To find out more about how the Bookassist Booking Engine can benefit your business, contact the office on +44(0)1292-521-404 or email Scotland@bookassist.com

Merchandising Your Online Rooms

The old adage borrowed from another industry of, “Retail is in the Detail” should be applied to how you promote your Rooms online. Customers who want to purchase online have the same needs and wants as those that come through your front door.

You wouldn’t ignore a customer who was hanging around the reception desk waiting for some information on a room rate before booking, and neither should your website.

Among the key factors that concern customer’s booking rooms online are,

• What does the room look like?
• What’s included in the rate?
• Is the rate good value for money?
• Can I picture myself staying in this room, at this hotel?

If you are on an accommodation website and these questions cannot be answered then you are much less likely to book online. In some cases you may grudgingly call or email the property, if you really really want to stay, but it’s just as easy to go back to your search engine and find another hotel website which can answer your questions.

Bookassist Makes it Easy to Promote your Rooms
Every Room Package loaded onto a Bookassist Booking Engine benefits from clearly displayed rates, high resolution room images and lot’s of descriptive text, together with an accurate reflection of any applied discounts.

You can see the from the example image that the customer is drawn towards the discount information presented in brighter colours, thus illustrating the value for money.
They can also see an image of room itself, which will expand when you mouse over it. And underneath the rate information, (which helpfully spans 7 days) there is significant text descriptions that is persuasive and alluring.

In addition to these key features, the Booking Engine also enables you to group different packages together, as you can see in this example which shows the Superior Rooms options.

What to do next
To find out how the Bookassist Booking Engine can help you to promote your Rooms more effectively and increase your online sales, please contact the Bookassist Scotland office on +44 (0)1292-521-404 or email us at Scotland@bookassist.com

Building long term online Relationships

Web 2.0, Social media or User Generated Content are just some of the terms being used to describe the next age of the internet. If this means nothing to you then perhaps the names Tripadvisor, Facebook & Twitter will.

These websites boast global membership counted in the 100’s of Millions, how many of those users are your customers? , how many of them have posted pictures, videos or reviews of your business?

Evolution of the internet
The so-called Web 1.0 that we are all familiar with today, is based on a rather traditional marketing model where a company wants to promote its brand, products and services to potential customers who have traditionally used search engines to find what they are looking for. Once they have found the business, they make contact and possibly purchase.

The next version of the Web (so called 2.0) is all about collaboration, creativity, user generated content, reviews and most importantly CONVERSATION.

How will this affect you?
If you do not participate in the conversation it will continue without you. The most concerning aspect of this is that you begin to lose control of your online reputation & brand, which will make it more difficult for you to attract potential customers to your website where they should be able to purchase from you.

Today’s online customer is looking for openness, honesty & transparency, without it they will not feel able to trust you enough to purchase from you. Given that the latest predictions are that more than 60% of all accommodation bookings will be made online from 2010 onwards, you really cannot afford to ignore this.




Bookassist RelationshipBuilder
RelationshipBuilder allows you to get involved in the conversation immediately. We will act as your dating agency, setting up the contacts, introducing you to your potential partners and then let you build the relationship! More than that we’ll even provide some support on keeping the relationship on track when things get difficult.

Your customers are out there listening and RelationshipBuilder can provide the tools that will allow you to talk with them not just at them. The RelationshipBuilder Program will;

• Identify the key brand values to be promoted by the business and develop the appropriate communication style and tone
• Create or update accounts for each of the social media websites, including initial content for the following:- Google Account, Facebook, Twitter, Tripadvisor, Picasa, YouTube
• Integrate analytical ROI tracking of traffic and online sales and advise on how best to monitor results and maximise returns
• Deliver support and Briefings to key staff on managing each account or provide a managed service maintaining relationships on clients behalf

Our RelationshipBuilder can deliver tailor made solutions for businesses to enhance their online reputation across the majority of Social Media platforms to ensure that a consistent corporate message is delivered and sales opportunities maximised and measured, this includes the setup of accounts and the ongoing update of content if required

Cost:
The RelationshipBuilder programme has an initial fee of £995 and includes the setup of online accounts for all the key Social Media platforms. Ongoing content management and copywriting is available from £195 per month – we however recommend that you are always better to make the communications with your customers yourself.

Contact us on +44 (0)1292-521-404 or Scotland@bookassist.com today to find out more.

Why Hoteliers Must Keep the Booking Process Simple

A thought provoking report came into our inbox this morning - American research granted but has much resonance with our sector in Scotland too.

The key points jumped out at me as I read them.

1. According to a recent study conducted by Merrill Lynch, online bookings as a share of total reservations increased from 30% in 2006 to 40% in 2008. The same study projects that 45% of hotel bookings will be made online by the year 2010.


2. Booking is the leading preoccupation of hotel website visitors. In this way, hospitality websites face a basket of challenges not dissimilar to mainline e-commerce sites: optimising the transactional experience for visitors who are onsite to book and ensuring that researchers and rate shoppers are efficiently shepherded down the booking funnel.


3. Industry analysts expect a measurable slowdown in travel this year, as both business and leisure consumers forego travel plans to save money.


4. Looking ahead, those who do travel will no doubt change their booking habits – specifically, they will wait until the last minute to book in order to obtain the best prices, combing through the online brokerage sites to shave valuable dollars off room rates. Cost sensitivity is already having a negative impact on hospitality website satisfaction scores. The two weakest attributes in the sector pertained directly to price and perceived sense of value.


5. Only 51% of bookers were capable of completing their tasks. While some of the reasons underpinning this low rate might have been outside the purview of the web experience, significant numbers of bookers reported problems with site navigation, the booking flow, and insufficient hotel/room information, all of which fall squarely on the plate of interactive marketers and website developers.

The report goes on to say that to counteract this, hotel websites will need to focus on better engaging and persuading visitors at incipient stages of the booking cycle.

The research indicated that 50% of website visitors were onsite for the first time and thus not acclimatised to the site navigation, architecture, and functionality. Hotel websites struggled to effectively cater to this segment reflected in lower conversion rates.

To boost their efficiency in a troubled economic climate, hotel websites will need to focus on delivering simpler, more intuitive site navigation, a streamlined booking process, and more robust content, supplemented with better pictures and more lifelike virtual tours.

Ian McCaig from Bookassist in Scotland who provide the booking engine to an increasing number of accommodation providers across Scotland was not surprised at the findings, "A website requires three key elements; it must not simply reflect the accommodation providers product graphically, it must also be able to be found by the potential traveller but most importantly it must be readily bookable. The booking engine must be easy to understnad and navigate through at all stages - and this really must include language and currency options aimed at the increasing numbers of overseas markets visiting the UK.

Bookassist has recognised that conversion rates can only be maintained by making the Booking process user friendly. Creating unnecessary barriers such as frames linking out to other websites, or offering competitive product or no room descriptions only leads to the customer hitting the X button and closing down the process."

Ian McCaig continued, "The percentages however should be sobering to the accommodation provider and really should ensure that they look critically at the booking process on their own website;

• more than 1/3rd of the site visitors were on the site to book
• more than 50% failed to do so

In raw numbers? For every thousand site visitors to a website as many as 175 wanted to book but gave up! Hoteliers have to ensure that the booking process they offer is built around the convenience of the site visitor and not simply because the process comes with a PMS system or as an add on to third party distribution products. When deciding on how their bookings are offered the hotelier must make this the first box to be ticked; all else comes after."

You can get more information on Bookassist Booking Engine by clicking the link

Read the full iPerceptions Report here

Bookassist at VisitScotland Expo

Bookassist Scotland will be exhibiting at this years VisitScotland Expo at the SECC in Glasgow on the 22nd & 23rd April. We are on stand P9 and would like to invite anyone attending to drop by.

We are providing a "FREE" 10 minute website health check, providing you with some valuable expert insight into how to generate more business from your website and online strategy.

Come and find our more about the recent enhancements to the Bookassist product family

• GDS Manager
• Loyalty System
• Corporate System

Discover new ways to connect with your customers through our Relationship Builder service, which maximises the potential offered by Social Media and User Generated Websites such as Facebook, Twitter & YouTube.

Generate significant increase in traffic to your site using our Traffic Builder services such as E-Marketing, SEO Audits and Pay Per Click advertising campaigns.

To find out more visit Bookassist.org

Bookassist Scotland now on Twitter

We have been "following" Twitter closely recently to evaluate the potential benefits that this has for hotels in Scotland.

And we've come to the conclusion that there definitely is an opportunity for hotels to reach out to customers in a very easy and potentially rewarding way .

Which is why we have begun "tweeting" today, to allow us to learn a little more about this phenomonon, whilst developing products and services around this technology for our clients.

We will be updating our Twitter every day with the latest developments and news from Bookassist Scotland, so please "Follow us" to keep ahead of the crowd.

New Hotel Goes Online in Troon

The South Beach Hotel Troon are the latest privately owned hotel in Ayrshire to turn to Bookassist for their online reservations.

The hotel which has been in the Watt family for three generations is a well respected property for short break, business and golfing visitors to the world famous golfing destination. As well as incorporating the Bookassist Booking Engine into the website the hotel will also be doing more work on search engine optimisation with a tailored TrafficBuilder programme for the remainder of the year to improve their website presence and increase traffic.

Stuart Watt who now runs the hotel was finally convinced by the need and benefits for Bookassist following an onsite presentation to him and his team by James Kennedy of Bookassist in Scotland.

James said, "We've been really keen to get Stuart and The South Beach Hotel online for some time now and we're delighted that the hotel can see the future benefits of having 24 hour availability, multiple languages and currency and an easy to manage administration system. Being so close to Prestwick Airport and the number of inbound European visitors coming into the area expected to increase due to the weakness of the pound he thought it critical that his booking engine featured the language and currency facilities."

With The Open Championship returning to Ayrshire this year increasing number of hotels are looking at their online marketing strategy and turning to Bookassist for more advice and for many properties it is now recognised as a major part of their business generation.

As a footnote, the first booking at The South Beach Hotel was generated within two hours of the system going live!

Ayr Racecourse Selects Bookassist Channelbuilder

Bookassist Scotland are pleased to announce a joint marketing initiative with Ayr Racecourse to promote online availability from local Ayrshire hotels, B&B's and self catering properties on the www.ayr-racecourse.co.uk website.

The service will launch in early 2009 and will deliver great consumer value on busy race days and for large corporate events held at the racecourse. Bookassist already works with many accommodation properties in the Ayrshire region and we would encourage all our existing partners to ensure they have up to date availability to feature on the website.

Any accommodation businesses that do not currently use the Bookassist Scotland service and wish to provide online availability should contact James Kennedy at james.kennedy@bookassist.com or at the office on 01292-521-404

Darkstar Scotland selects Bookassist

Dark Star the dynamic, energetic and youthful pub, club & hotel group, have selected Bookassist to provide booking engine services to their four hotels in Scotland.>

Based in Glasgow and probably best known for its chain of Budda bar's and clubs in the city, the group has been evolving since 2007 by acquiring many new sites across Scotland, stretching from Ayr to Aberdeen.

The group now has four fantastic hotels where their guests can enjoy the complete Darkstar eating, drinking and clubbing experience, by booking an overnight stay in advance using the Bookassist booking engine.

In selecting Bookassist, Euan Bain, Director at Darkstar, said

"At Darkstar we recognise that many of our clientele are web savvy and need to be able to book accommodation online, the Bookassist booking engine is embedded seamlessly within our website and allows us to present fantastic offers for our guest to book 24/7"

The four hotels which feature the Bookassist booking engine are

• Ivy Rooms, Ayr
• Collective, Dunfermline
• Cove Bay, Aberdeen
• Whitehorse Inn, Aberdeen

For more information on how Bookassist in Scotland can help you increase your online business, contact James Kennedy on 01292-521-404, james.kennedy@bookassist.com

Fife Golf Group adds Bookassist Availability

A Fife golf marketing consortium have this week confirmed that they will use Bookassist to complement the online tee times launched on the website last year.
First in Fife Golf is a group of Fife golf courses working in partnership with local accommodation providers to promote golf breaks to West Fife.
The consortium is made up of the lesser known golf courses in the Kingdon who knew that they had to work together to compete with St Andrews and the neighbouring championship layouts.
The group have utilised really positive e-marketing and search engine optimisation over the past three years and last year implemented online tee time reservations for the first time. This will be supplemented this year not only by online bookings with Bookassist but also the use of Web 2.0 tools including a Blog, new Picasa galleries for each member and a focussed direct e-marketing campaign. As a result of their online activity the group are successfully achieving returns on investment above their expectations.
Just shows what a little vision and a lot of co-operation can achieve in tourism...

Scottish Tourism Wakes up to Web 2.0

Bookassist Scotland were in attendance at the recent Scottish Tourism Forum's networking event "Surviving the Crunch" at the Royal Hotel, Bridge of Allan.

The event was held to foster discussion and share thinking on the most effective ways for tourism businesses to operate during these difficult times. A number of key themes were constantly referenced by the presenters,

1. "Online Marketing is Marketing"
2. "Value and Quality will deliver growth"
3. "Your website strategy needs to keep moving"

Both Prof John Lennon and Neil McLean highlighted the need for tourism websites to embrace the latest developments in Social Networking, Photo & Video Sharing & Blogging in order to identify new customers segments and to help with ranking in search engines.

They also agreed that the weakness of the GBP against the Dollar and the Euro would see an influx of North American and European travellers in 2009 and that booking engines which easily allowed for currency conversion would be the main beneficiaries.

David Smith, owner of the Buccleuch Arms Hotel in Moffat and Debbie Taylor, General Manager of the Old Course Hotel & Spa in St Andrews both spoke of the need to stay true to the principles of quality and service and find innovative ways to use latent staff skills and enthusiasm to upsell.

Bookassist is already ahead of the game with innovative solutions which will allow accommodation businesses and their partners to "Survive the Crunch"

Our booking engine offers unparrallelled features such as

• Multiple Languages
• Multiple Currency
• SMS Text confirmations
• Detailed Reporting
• Easy Integration
• Competitive Pricing

All of this is supplemented by an Online Marketing Support Package which assists in bringing together all the elements of the accommodation providers online marketing to maximise site visits and conversion to booking. Our whole ethos is developing partnerships that have longevity and mutual benefit.

So if you're not sure where you're online strategy is heading why not give us a call or drop us a quick email. We can arrange an appointment or just discuss how the Bookassist products could benefit your business immediately.

Contact us by email on james.kennedy@bookassist.com or call the office on 01292 521404.

VisitScotland.com brought back into public hands

The following statement has been issued by VisitScotland:

"Today we announced that VisitScotland has reached agreement to bring the national tourism website VisitScotland.com back into public ownership. The website, which attracted over 11 million visits in 2007 and has delivered over £65 million in bookings since it was launched, will be brought under the direct control of VisitScotland in a move to allow it to adapt more flexibly to changing consumer trends and tourism industry needs. The changes will also give VisitScotland more flexibility to assist businesses and to respond to the current economic downturn. As technology advances VisitScotland.com needs to respond to those changes and be able to work with market leaders to deliver a high-quality website that can change and develop quickly. Changing internet usage and developing consumer trends have meant that the original model developed over six years ago—that of a ‘one-stop shop’ that meets all the customer needs for information, booking and sales—now needs to evolve to ensure that VisitScotland.com remains able to fulfil the needs of the Scottish tourism industry in the 21st century.

Following discussions with its partners in the joint venture – Tiscover, Partnerships UK and Atos Origin – VisitScotland has reached agreement on the terms of a deal to take control of the operation. VisitScotland is currently working with the partners to ensure a smooth transition. VisitScotland is committed to ensuring continuity and stability throughout the changes and we will engage fully with VisitScotland.com staff. The website will continue to operate as usual, tourism businesses and consumers will see no immediate change, although the website will continue to evolve and develop over time. Further information on the changes announced today is contained in the attached briefing document. If you have any questions on any of the above, please do not hesitate to get in touch."

What does this mean for online tourism in Scotland will only become clearer in the days and weeks ahead. However with the technology that we offer Bookassist look forward to a much closer working relationship with the national tourism body on behalf of all our accommodation providers.

Another Nairn Hotel Turns to Bookassist

It's always nice when you get an enquiry based on a recommendation so we were delighted to receive a call from Nairn hotelier Ian Bochel who was looking to update his website. He'd heard about Bookassist from a fellow Nairn hotelier and after a in depth introductory discussion about our ethos we agreed a way forward.

The result is a brand new website with a fresh feel that reflects the hotel's dynamism, incorporates Bookassist online reservations and is built around the Bookassist Sitebuilder Standard web package.
Sitebuilder allows hotels the opportunity to manage their own content and, when ready, upgrade further to the Pro version with its additional Web 2.0 tools.

Ian knew he needed an online booking engine but was confused by the plethora of options available to him. We discussed his requirements fully with him and once the key benefits of Bookassist were outlined he was confident that he had a fully integrated and future proof online package.

So from introduction to new website was less than six weeks and we've looked after not only design and content management but online reservations, search engine optimisation, domain transfers and training.

Ian can head off on his own holiday confident that his web presence is in safe hands.

Scottish Inns Online!

Online reservations has been seen by too many as the preserve of large hotels and groups. Well with Bookassist that just ain't the case. In Scotland some of the most successful partnerships have been with smaller independatly run inns offering personalised styles of accommodation and service.

The Drovers Inn on the West Highland Way just north of Loch Lomond is perhaps the finest example of a small property able to maximise its room revenues using Bookassist. It's now been onlien for more than three years and continues its staggering growth.

The Inn at Lathones near St Andrews is another prime example of a rpivately operated former coaching house using online reservations to its full and now tying it in with Web 2.0 tools including an innkeepers blog and YouTube video footage.

In the Highlands just outside Inverness Graham Cross at The Old North Inn has been using Bookassist to drive his website for a couple of years as well.

So with our portfolio of Inns oncreasing all the time we're delighted to welcome The Galley of Lorne in Ardfern in Argyll on board. The Galley of Lorne Inn is a 17th Century Drover's Inn and country retreat situated in the picturesque village of Ardfern which nestles among the hills beside Loch Craignish. This beautiful corner of Argyll has long been a favourite for yachtsmen, artists and those who appreciate beauty, wildness plus the good things in life - and now it's bookable online using Bookassist.

If you're wanting to know how your property can benefit from online reservations with Bookassist give James a call on 01292 521404 or email scotland@bookasssist.com for your information pack.

Fife Country House Hotel Joins Bookassist

Well known Kirkcaldy country house hotel, Dunnikier House Hotel, has this week gone live with Bookassist and has signed up to use both its Sitebuilder and TrafficBuilder products.

The Fife hotel which is well known locally for business and weddings markets was recently taken over by Stewart Dykes who also owns the Crusoe Hotel in Lower Largo on the East Neuk of Fife and is benefitting in a series of upgrades to both the property and the marketing activity.

We sat down with Stewart and identified what was required of the new site and the need to start ensuring that the hotel website was used more effectively to market business and leisure stays.
The new site has been completely redesign using Bookassist's Sitebuilder Pro and gives the hotel marketing and reservations team complete control over content, images and even a series of web 2.0 tools including a new blog.

The Bookassist booking engine is integral to the site and offers the reservations team control over availability and rate management that they've never previously had with other booking systems. And from the guest point of view they can now be assured that if the visit the Dunnikier House Hotel website they will receive Best Available Rate - guaranteed!

The hotel is taking advantage of tools such as Google Picasa Gallery which only enhances the website experience. It is also using the Bookassist Trafficbuilder programme to enhance its visibility on the search engines. This includes working with the account management team at Bookassist to make sure that search terms are appropriate, Google Adwords campaigns managed appropriately and optimisation stays high priority.

Ian McCaig from Bookassist office in Scotland was delighted to be working even more closely with the hotel, "The new website is a great example of what can be incorporated into a Web 2.0 hotel site and how Bookassist technology can become the driver for hotels' online marketing activities. Increasingly we are seeing independant hotels the leghth and breadth of Scotland recognising the benefits of not only having a booking engine on their site but having a booking engine that has strong marketing support working alongside it. Bookassist provides this partnership support and in the current economic climate it is being seen as a major benefit by our accommodation partners."

Tartan Army Select Bookassist

As the national team prepare for a crucial World Cup Qualifier with Norway at Hampden this weekend, Bookassist have come off the bench to provide the Tartan Army website with their own booking engine.


TartanArmy.com is now featuring availabiltiy across the whole of Scotland to visitors to their site and it gives accommodation providers the opportunity in these difficult times to target their local market for short breaks.


Ian McCaig from Bookassist's Scotland office was delighted that The Tartan Army site was live, "Bookassist is the best solution for accommodation providers looknig to get their own rooms online on their own website with competitive commission rates and easy to manage rates and availability. However it is also a superbly powerful tool for niche distributino channels such as TartanArmy.com and is perfect for organisations promoting date or area specific events. We are indeed talking to another couple of football and sports related websites and hope that these will also be going live in the coming weeks.
Don Lawson, Director of Tartan Army Ltd, was delighted to have sign up to the Bookassist team, "The integration of the technology was painless and doesn't affect the look or feel of our site at all and in the future this will give us the opportunity to sell accoommodation offers with selected hotel partners for major matches. In addition it offers our site visitors the chance to just book a short break at any time of the year. We're delighted to have Bookassist on our site."
You can check out Bookassist now at http://www.tartanarmy.com/

Scottish Team at World Travel Market

With just over a month to World Travel Market we're delighted to confirm that the Scotland Office will be represented over the complete event.

The event which is this year taking place between the 10th and the 13th of November at London's Excel is going to be doing business under the shadow of seriously testing world tourism market conditions.

For the accommodation provider the market is going to test the mettle of everyone from guest house to largest group. At Bookassist our focus on technology that works is combined with an understanding that, more than ever, our hotels, guest houses, self catering properties and even DMO's are our partners.

Our commitment to working with our partners in the next year can lead to establishing best practice in a host of areas; our Booking Engine offers multiple langauges and currencies, easy to manage administration, totally flexible room and rate management to react to markets easily; our Trafficbuilder programmes will help you with gettting visitors to the site with PPC management, search engine optimisation and implementation of Web 2.0 tools. We can even offer state of the art web development with our brand new suite of Sitebuilder products designed with the Scottish market in mind.

So whatever the markets may throw at us all in 2009, you can be assured that the Bookassist team will be standing with you through it ensuring that your online business can continue to develop, can continue to reduce costs and can continue to drive new revenues.

If your an accommodation provider, hotel group or destination management organisation in Scotlan and wish to discuss your online market development opportunites drop us an email to scotland@bookassist.com - Ian McCaig will be on the stand on Monday and Tuesday and James Kennedy on Wednesday and Thursday.

Golf Channelbuilder Tees Off in Scotland

Bookassist's team in Scotland have added a new club to their bag with the launch of Golf Channelbuilder on the website of 2009 Open Championship Qualifying course Kilmarnock Barassie Golf Club.

The club which lies in the midst of Ayrshire's golfing links coast has added an availability checker to its website allowing site visitors and potential golf tourists the chance to not only check their golf but also reserve their accommodation.

Ian McCaig of Bookassist's Scottish office was delighted at the latest development, "Golf tourism is such an important part of the tourism mix in places like Ayrshire, East Lothian, Fife and The HIghlands and this recognises the potential golf courses have for converting on line enquiries to online bookings for accommodation providers."

The Barassie website offers a wide selection of accommodation from five star to self catering and small B&B's and is the first of many.

"We're already working on embedding the booking engine into a few more of Scotland's most famous courses. It really brings together the golf course with the accommodation provider and offers genuine joint marketing opportunities. Our aim would be to work with golf courses throughout the country in making sure that their website offers the visitor the very best availability and rates in their area."

Any golf course or accommodation provider looking for more information on how Bookassist online booking enginen benefit their business should contact the Scottish office of Bookassist on 02192 521404 or email scotland@bookassist.com
You can view the system at http://www.kbgc.co.uk/

Bookassist Drives New Hotel Websites

Bookassist is delighted that Open Rooms Scotland has this week introduced the first in a series of upgrades for its users giving a choice of three new "skins" for the accommodation websites driven by Bookassist's booking engine.

The Open Rooms Scotland website package combines The Claymore Project tourism database with Bookassist's booking engine and offers affordable ecommerce ready web design for the largest or smallest operator with prices starting from £695 plus VAT inclusive of hosting, website development and integration of Bookassist into the site.

The new changes allow accommodation providers to select the design they wish from a selection of three options with others added over the next couple of months. The site remains fully content managed with the website owner able to update content, images and news. Events and Job Vacancies can also be added to the system for publication on a range of third party websites. Current users can view the different styles currently available by clicking on the Site Appearance area of their control panel and select a new one to apply to their website which will update immediately.

And of course if you're interested in changing your website in the future you could now perhaps consider Open Rooms Scotland with Bookassist embedded as the perfect future proof answer.

For further information on the package and how you can get your rooms on line email us on scotland@bookassist.com

Open Rooms Scotland Website Package comes inclusive of

• Bookassist Booking Engine
• Domain Name
• Web Hosting Package
• E-mail package
• Site Optimisation Tools
• Embedded Google Map
• Integrated destination information
• Free distribution on third party websites
• Integrated Google reports
• Full management of your content including
• Contact information
• Google Map
• News
• Special offers
• Updateable room rates
• Information on facilities, dining, weddings, meetings
• Integrated information on attractions, golf courses and travel in your area
• Photo gallery and easy image uploads
• Upload PDF menus, business packages and brochures
• Updateable metatags for search engines
• Classified adverts section

Online reservations facility complete with:

• Low commission rate
• Multiple language function
• Multiple currency
• Mobile phone text confirmations
• Powerful reporting functions
• Full rate and availability control
• Integrated live availability map
• Guest comments function
• Gift vouchers
• Sell guest add ons

The evolutionary, perhaps revolutionary, Open Rooms Scotland website is powered by The Claymore Project database and Bookassist online reservations and will link into other accommodation providers, visitor attractions, golf courses and destination marketing websites to support your own marketing activities.

All the information is easily updated through The Claymore Project database with full online assistance, an FAQs section, help functions and ongoing marketing support and hints.

So if you're looking at your web presence for 2009 don't put your web in a closed box; make yourself available through Open Rooms Scotland. Contact them directly on 01292 521404 or at scotland@bookassist.com