It was good to meet many of you at the World Travel Market, it seemed to be a very good show, and we certainly have our names down for next year.
The importance of selling rooms online has been growing for the last 6 years or more, but it seemed to us that 2008 was the year that everyone woke up to the idea of 'Inventory Distribution' ie using Online Travel Agents such as http://www.booking.com/ to sell rooms online. All the talk at the show was 'What are you using for Channel Management?' ie What tool are you using to manage all these different Booking Engines. There appeared to be many new entrants into the market although 'Rate Tiger' appears to be the dominant player.
At one time Channel Management software was seen as a luxury that allowed a hotels receptionist to have a longer coffee break. Now however it is seen as an essential tool, allowing hotels to sign up with more Booking Engines but more importantly practise 'Rate Flexing' and 'Yield Management' on a daily basis.
AccuBook's own Channel Management Tool, AccuSell, has provided unexpected benefits. We expected it to be seen as a tool to save the poor reservations managers time by only having to update one Booking Engine. Although this is true what we have seen is that Hotels are more willing to sign up to Booking Engines if they dont have to manage them, and, at least with AccuSell they are more willing to practise Yield Management (because with AccuSell they only have to enter hotel occupancy, they no longer have to change prices).
This of course means that we are now able to offer the full range of products and services ie Website, Booking Engine, Channel Management and Online Marketing. Stay tuned for our news about Reservation System tie-ups.
Note - AccuSell Channel Management is avilable on a FREE 3 MONTH TRIAL if ordered in November.
We thought this might be an ideal time to talk about other AccuBook features;
Our detailed, 100 page Online Marketing Guide is now complete and available to our customers with a page by page description of our Website, Content Management System, Booking Engine and Channel Management Tool. Give us a call if you have not yet received a copy +353 74 97 23411
Our Knowledge Database and Help Section contains the same guides to all our software tools
We now have a 'Ticket System' that allows you to raise issues with us that can be tracked through to completion.
We have a Discussion Area where issues surrounding our software tools or Online Marketing in general can be raised
Previous Bulletins
AccuBook Bulletin Nr 17 - Online Gift Vouchers
AccuBook Bulletin Nr 16 - Online Marketing Case Study
AccuBook Bulletin No 15 - Demand Management Made Easy
AccuBook Ltd
Tel + 353 74 97 23411
Info@accubook.net
http://www.accubook.net/