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.