GuestCentric Winter Platform 2008

Hello again, I want to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year!

This winter season has been very active for GuestCentric not only did the new website go live but also we launched the GuestCentric Winter 2008 Platform that brings exciting upgrades and new features to the service.
Take a quick look at what the new platform has to offer:

• Expand your market
  Promote your property to new prospects with Multilanguage support. This easy to use system allows you to create and manage your website and booking engine in different languages.
• Contact forms

GuestCentric knows that some of your website visitors feel more comfortable with a more personal contact with the hotel that is why a new contact form page was added to the backend of your website. With this new option you can receive all sorts of inquires and ensure not to lose any prospective clients.

• Guest Relationship Management

The easiest and faster way to identifying loyal guests and rank preferred guests accordingly.

• New Yielding tools
  After long internal and external usability cycles we simplify the management of price and availability. Now you have tools that will make this tedious process simple and faster.
• Enhance your website
  New rich media gadgets with the latest interactive technologies were added to your website. Promote your property with YouTube videos, dynamic promotions and local weather information in one simple click.

For more details on the new features please contact our customer service.

Filipe Tappenbeck
VP of Product Management

Hi, my name is Joao Trindade and I’m with GuestCentric’s Marketing department. I’m stoked to present to you our new website.

For the last year or so we’ve been collecting feedback from customers and website visitors, trying to understand their needs and doubts. What we realized was that in most cases there’s a great lack of understanding on some fundamentals about how the online channel works and the significance of its rapid evolution.

The first glimpse we had regarding this subject was around 8 months ago when we finished the “The Online Gap Report“. This report clearly showed that concerning the online channel, there is a wide gap between the independent hotels and the big chains; most of it caused by this lack of information I’ve just mentioned above.

With this website we are aiming to provide a better service for independent hoteliers and offer you valuable information about the “whys” and “how-tos” of this always evolving online travel market – and we will break it down into numbers. In these uncertain economic times, numbers are more important than ever, as hoteliers seek to ensure their return on investment (yes; the infamous “ROI”).

Most of all, we want to show you how our stalwart one-stop-shop service, with website design, secure hosting, booking engine, reservation platform and hotel marketing can help you boost your business like it did for Hotel Aiken, who continue to increase their direct online bookings by the day and are thus a prominent example of our customers’ success stories.

Our blog was designed as our main source of communication to all of you, so you’ll be able to choose from different categories to help you find the information you’re looking for. Starting January, we will also launch a series of webinars to help you on topics related to website design, yield management, and much more – so stay tuned!

Most of all, we want to continue to receive your feedback, so don’t be a stranger and contact us!

PS. We will also continue to post our videos on our YouTube channel, so make sure to check those out.

We’ve just released on our website the “US GAP Report”. This study is based on the results from a survey that shows that the online presence gap is widening between smaller, independent hotels and larger hotel chains in the US. The survey was conducted by GuestCentric in February 2008 and 300 hotels located in the US were polled showing dramatic differences in terms of leveraging their online websites to book consumer and business travel online between independent hotels with less than 80 rooms and branded chain hotels.

This gap is revealed in all of the main aspects analyzed in this survey: website and ability to receive online reservations, presence on internet distribution systems and average occupancy rate.

The content of this report was widely publicized due to the nature of the numbers, where for instance, the GAP between independents and chains regarding having a booking engine on their website stands above the 50% mark.

In the next couple of weeks we will release the “Independent Hotels and the Online Channel”, UK and Spain Reports, so stay tuned.

This great new article just came out on The Advocate (Stamford) by Michael C. Juliano and he goes right to the point. Check it out:

Making it to the top of the hotel chain: Area company helps with reservations, marketing

A local marketing firm is offering a cost-effective way for smaller hotels to incorporate online booking and marketing services, enabling them to compete with larger chains.

GuestCentric, a Stamford-based online hospitality software as a service provider, has created a Web site allowing independent hotels to manage online and offline bookings. On the site, hotel managers also can keep track of online performance and market their hotels on the Internet.

Pedro Colaco, GuestCentric’s president and chief executive officer, said he realized two years ago that independent hotels were using outdated booking software with no access to the online market.

“Their problem is really distribution,” said Colaco, who co-founded the company in 2006 with vice president Filipe Machaz. “This is about giving the small guys the ability to compete with the big guys at a reasonable price.”

Within two weeks of using GuestCentric, online bookings for South Carolina’s Hotel Aiken, which uses other Web services such as expedia.com, had doubled from 25 to 55 reservations per week, said Lindsey Wise, the hotel’s sales coordinator.

“We’re getting at least one reservation a day from GuestCentric,” she said.

Bookings at the 64-room hotel have increased dramatically with GuestCentric because people can make reservations on the hotel’s Web site, said Wise.

“This makes our Web site more user-friendly,” she said.

According to its Web site, GuestCentric’s rates vary from $70 per month to $500 per month.

GuestCentric, which has offices in Portugal and the United Kingdom and less than 100 clients, plans on marketing its service by calling hotels, Internet promotion and holding presentations across the United States and Europe, Calaco said.

“We believe the smaller hotels are community-based,” he said.

Susan Henrique, director of sales and marketing for the Norwalk Convention & Visitors Bureau, said GuestCentric offers a very inexpensive alternative for small hotels trying to get online business.

“This is a definite plus for hotels and inns,” she said, adding that developing an independent Web site can cost thousands of dollars. “If I were filling hotels as an independent, I’d certainly look at this.”

Writer Michael C. Juliano can be reached at michael.juliano@scni.com or 964-2417.

Using highly scientific methods of observation, I’ve discovered that 92% of hoteliers will ask “How much will it/does it cost?” within 56 seconds of a first time conversation. This is a valid concern these days. Understandably, in the current economic climate few business owners are looking to increase their bills but even fewer can afford to miss the opportunity to increase revenue and exposure. GuestCentric’s revolutionary platform includes a sophisticated, professionally designed website, a real time booking engine and a backend management system that will provide oodles of useful information in a format that rivals paint-by-numbers in the user friendly department with the even friendlier condition of NO start up or set up fee. After doing some more rogue research I found that, for most hotels, one to two room bookings per month pays for our sensibly-priced-no-contract service and then some.
This is, of course, after having taken it for a free test drive first. So, with a free trial to give you a head start on getting some commission free bookings followed by pricing that offers instant return on investment – how can you lose? In today’s economic climate and online environment we could all use more services that not only pay for themselves but generate more virtual attention and real business.

Deirdre Knowlton
Senior account manager
+1 203 883 9830
Contact me online

The Management Report on Hospitality

Hospitality Tech Advisor

December 11, 2008 Volume 24, Issue 13
by Rachelle Claret

Page 13 – In November it was reported that Hotel , an independent 64-room hotel in South Carolina, has seen its online revenue increase since the launch of a new website and booking platform using GuestCentric’s SaaS. Hotel Aiken can now offer guests online real-time availability and pricing, hotel discounts and a streamlined shopping experience. (see full article)