Archive for August, 2010

Five Reasons why holiday rentals are becoming mini-hotels

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Five Reasons why holiday rentals are becoming mini-hotels

by Pedro Colaco

Due to the recent economic downfall guests are searching for alternative accommodation products for their leisure travel.
Vacation rentals are capitalizing on this trend and finding ways to reinvent their offer and look for new online distribution channels.
Firstly, there are now important distribution sites like Homeaway to sell their units.
Secondly, vacation rental owners and managers finally understood that having their own website and a reliable e-commerce system with social marketing tools can help them grow their business.

Posted in Clipping, GuestCentric Blog, Tips for hoteliers | No Comments »

GuestCentric Summer’10 edition

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010



	Hi, The new Summer Edition is now live! This edition is a major release with many new features to make your online presence as strong as ever. This Summer 2010 release focuses on three vectors: Usability and performance enhancements to better serve a rapidly growing user base Incentives to book mean more reservations for you Social Media enhancements for Facebook and Google Buzz

	In detail:


Usability and performance enhancements to better serve a rapidly growing user base

	Easier Revenue management Same features, simpler process, better overview. After extensive usability tests, we rebuilt the entire revenue management area in a way that is more intuitive and easier to work with. It supports all features that you are familiar with, allowing you to manage your hotel prices and availability in a simpler way, saving you precious time. This is a major change so we invite you to click here to learn more

	Notification Bar We want you to be always informed about what is going on with your online business. To accomplish this we added a notification bar at the footer of your back-end. This discreet collapsible area gives you real time information about tasks that require your attention.

	Even better support We have no shortage of positive feedback from our customers about our support but still we want to improve. We want our customers, you, to use our platform more extensively and take more advantage of what it has to offer. The new help website, introduces you to all key areas from the back-end, allowing you to instantly clarify any doubt or question you may have about the back-office usage. Check it out at http://help.guestcentric.com/

	Improved infrastructure to serve you better We just finalized a massive upgrade to our infrastructure and optimized loading times in order to provide you a better experience with our application. The application runs now quicker and more reliable than ever in a SAS 70 Type II certified infrastructure.

Incentives to book mean more reservations for you

	Dynamic low availability information Now your guests can see in the booking gadget real time warnings of low availability per room type so booking decision process gets faster and bookings higher.

	Best rate guarantee stamp We added a “Best rate guarantee” stamp in the Booking gadget to firmly establish the hotel’s direct online channel as the centerpiece of your marketing strategy. Maintain strict rate parity across all marketing channels and keep your best rate guarantee.

	A picture’s worth a thousand words Now you can show larger images of your room types in the booking engine so guests can better understand what are they actually booking.

	Reservation inquiry form New enhanced reservations inquiry functionality that enables hoteliers to transform generic contacts in booking offers. In one simple click you can send offers to your contacts. This reduces the probabilities of expensive errors and also increases the booking conversions.

	Booking engine usability enhancements We recently concluded a study with the Charleston College in support of our continuous effort to improve booking ratios. Based on the conclusions of the study we performed some updates to the calendar color scheme, label order and price/taxes information as well as other minor adjustments to maximize booking ratios.

	Website banner enhancements Now you can insert an appealing promotion gadget to the website banner to increase the visibility of your special offers and conversion ratios.

Social Media enhancements for Facebook and Google Buzz

	Social booking engine Engage your guests directly via social media, now it’s possible for the guest have a simple communication with friends and “share” specific offers with others over email, Facebook or Twitter.

	Facebook promotion Create your Facebook community and reward them with special promotions exclusively available for Facebook followers. Start your Facebook community by creating special offers that are exclusively available for your Facebook friends. Your brand exposure will increase and you will increase your hotel loyalty programs.

	Reservations Source You now can see where your reservations were initiated and have a better understanding the source that drives reservations to your hotel in order to base your strategic marketing decisions on real data.

	Sharing reservation information as calendar invites In order to better manage their schedule the guests will receive the reservation confirmation email with a calendar invite.

We also want to hear from your experience and we invite you to become part of our Voice of Customer Community and share your comments at http://getsatisfaction.com/guestcentric or just drop us an e-mail to suggestions@guestcentric.com.

Posted in GuestCentric Service | No Comments »

StayinEstes.com case study

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

StayinEstes.com grows direct online revenue by 700% after implementing powerful e-commerce solutions

Aware of the new online searching patterns of travelers, StayinEstes.com a 9-loft independent property located in Estes Park, CO was committed to create and control a successful e-Commerce strategy. At the same time they were concerned about how to provide a professional looking website that increased their direct bookings.

Integrated e-commerce platform design for independent properties

After a long search among different providers StayinEstes.com found in GuestCentric Systems the only easy to use integrated platform that could meet the needs of properties like theirs. The property was equipped with powerful marketing and distribution tools that focus on the development and management of direct online bookings:

A new professional website design
Powerful booking engine
Reservation and revenue management platform
Automated Guest CRM
Integrated user reviews and user generated content
Social networks integration

With a professional web design, the new hotel website transmits the look and feel of the property and provides relevant information to visitors that increases conversions. Thanks to GuestCentric’s Instant Hotel Technology, StayinEstes.com now has full control of their website. They can update and change the content anytime without having to worry about additional charges.

Customers love the simplicity, speed and safety of the booking engine

StayinEstes.com is very pleased with the ease-of-use of their new online reservations system and the one screen-booking engine that provides a calendar overview of up to 550 days with real time availability and pricing. The booking engine provides simple and complete information about rooms and booking restrictions. This means that customers have all the necessary information to make a purchasing decision without having to exit the booking engine.

The reservations platform is a time saving tool that simplifies the management of the online and offline reservations. Now the property can focus in creating strategies to increase business. With the complete hotel analytics provided by the back-end, finally the property has a clear view on the website’s performance, number of visits, visits per country as well as detailed information on revenue.

Monetizing social media

Aware of the rapid changes in the searching preferences of online travelers, StayinEstes.com integrated GuestCentric’s portable booking engine to their Twitter account and Facebook page. This technology allows them to sell their rooms, simplify booking transactions by providing direct access to the property’s booking engine through Facebook and Twitter in fewer clicks.

Outstanding results, one secret: Look, Book, Interact

Look – Two months after the new website went live, StayinEstes.com experienced an increase of 230% in unique number of website visitors. By having control of their website StayinEstes.com can immediately react to the demand and preferences of their visitors and guarantee the best offer available online. “The website and booking engine not only provide visitors with the best available rates but we also try to provide them with a wider offer where they can choose based on their needs and wants” Said StayinEstes.com manager Mark Despain

Book – The increase of the website traffic increased the booking engine visibility and thanks to GuestCentric’s easy to use powerful e-Commerce tools, the direct online revenue of the property had an outstanding growth of 700% in four months. “We couldn’t be happier with the results of our e-commerce. Our previous online system was not user-friendly and lacked the necessary tools to optimize direct online revenue. As a small independent property we are happy to have GuestCentric as our online partner, because it is guarantee that we will always have the latest technology available to manage our e-commerce” continued Despain

Interact – Satisfied online customers provide and share good reviews and comments about the property. To potentiate the interaction with new customers through social networks, StayinEstes.com integrated GuestCentric’s Portable Booking Engine to Twitter and Facebook. This allows the property to expand their visibility in new distribution channels. Now StayinEstes.com has all the necessary information to create strategic viral marketing campaigns to increase market share. Online reservations through these channels account for 5% of their overall online revenue.

It is not easy for a small independent hotel to succeed in such a crowded and demanding environment. GuestCentric’s Look-Book-Interact Cycle pushes new customers into the hotel network as a result StayinEstes.com numbers keep on increasing month after month.

Posted in Press Releases | No Comments »

Hoteliers and HTML5

Monday, August 9th, 2010

What hoteliers need to know about HTML5

By Pedro Colaco GuestCentric President and CEO

The introduction of HTML5 will affect the future of how people use the web. At first glance it seems to be a subject only related to web developers but it relates to all of us. So, for all you non-web-geek-hoteliers that want to know how it will affect the future of your hotel website.

Let me begin by explaining what is HTML5: HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language = the code websites are built on) was developed by W3C. In 2004 a group of members of the HTML working group realized there were too many plug-ins being used to add features to regular HTML to allow it to fulfill real world needs. With that in mind, they formed a new group called WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group) that would be in charge of creating a new standard for web development. Although they didn’t come up with a great group name, they did focus on turning HTML5 into the web’s next big thing. And now it’s here!
HTML 5 is now starting to be used by developers and its new functions that can greatly benefit Internet users. HTML5 introduces a number of new elements and attributes that will turn the web experience richer, yet lighter. Here are some highlights:

The new canvas element can be used for rendering graphics or other visual images on the fly. All done without having to rely on third-party plug-ins like Adobe Flash. This is a completely new open field with endless possibilities. If you heard about the controversy on Apple no longer supporting Adobe Flash on its mobile devices, it is directly related to HTML5.
Embedding video also used to be impossible without third-party plug-ins such as Apple QuickTime or Adobe Flash. Thanks to the new video element, chances are this will become the new standard way to present video online. YouTube already has HTLM5 in beta testing, so you can join and take a look http://www.youtube.com/html5
Today most websites already sniff the user’s location by means of IP address detection. But as good as we try to make it, its not always as reliable as one would like to. HTML5 geolocation presents an alternative method of correctly pinpointing a user’s location by capturing this information from Wi-Fi towers and GPS.
The other major addition that is grabbing everyone’s attention is the ability to store offline data for Web apps. This means that you will be able to create files in a web application like Google Docs or draft e-mails on Google Mail when offline. These changes would be automatically synced the next time you’re connected.

All of this matters to hoteliers because your daily Web activities will become easier, you will be able to have a richer experience and you will also be able to have this same experience on a light, portable, universal platform like a phone or an iPad. In fact, you’re probably already taking advantage of it and you don’t even know it. Safari (both mobile and desktop), Google Chrome and Firefox 3.6 all support at least some elements of HTML5. Although Internet Explorer 8 is very limited, it seems that version 9 will take advantage of the full potential of HTML5.

Most importantly, HTML5 matters to you because in a constantly changing world, you need to know what’s out there so that you can use it to provide better service to your website visitors. Make sure you push the envelope and take the most out of what this new technology can do for your business and at the same time make sure your providers are able to follow you into these unexplored waters.

Posted in GuestCentric Blog, Tips for hoteliers | 2 Comments »

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Archive for August, 2010