Integrated e-commerce solutions to increase online bookings and offers

Fairfield, NJ – GuestCentric Systems, the social cloud provider of e-Commerce solutions for the independent hotel industry, announced today that the Boutique & Lifestyle Lodging Association (BLLA), http://www.blla.org will offer GuestCentric’s integrated e-Commerce platform as part of its distribution solution to optimize online bookings for BLLA member properties who choose to use the system. This opportunity for properties opens new markets and showcases GuestCentric as cloud solutions provider for the boutique hospitality segment.

GuestCentric’s innovative technology offers independent properties the opportunity to provide a rich online and offline experience to demanding guests, without entering in time-consuming and expensive customization projects.

“We are very pleased to be able to offer the GuestCentric platform which will assist members in optimizing their online business. This new relationship will provide our members who choose to utilize the program, with new, easy to use technologies that will contribute valuable information to enable them to be more competitive,” said Frances Kiradjian, CEO and Founder of BLLA.

Through the new consumer BLLA website, boutique hoteliers will have the means to distinguish their properties and brands and easily communicate their offerings directly to travelers. Thanks to GuestCentric technology, boutique hotels are going to be able to expand their guests online activity by allowing them to find a hotel based on experiences. In addition, the one screen-booking engine simplifies the transaction process and provides a fluid shopping experience to guests.

“There are very few initiatives designed to level the playing field for this emerging segment and BLLA has demonstrated to be a natural leader.” said Pedro Colaco President & CEO of GuestCentric. “The integration of modern e-commerce tools and innovative social marketing with BLLA best practices will give boutique properties the ability to differentiate their online presence and immediately capitalize on new trends that travelers search for.”

About the Boutique & Lifestyle Lodging Association (BLLA)

BLLA is the first and only hotel association dedicated to uniting the world’s boutique and lifestyle properties. Created to be the unifying voice of this distinctive subset within the hospitality industry, its goal is to unite the world’s collection of boutique & lifestyle properties and the suppliers that sustain them, offering them the opportunity to successfully compete on a level playing field with major hotel companies, as well as market themselves to meet the ever-increasing demand from discerning boutique-seeking clients.

About GuestCentric Systems

GuestCentric Systems develops and markets cloud solutions that revolutionize the way independent hotels work. GuestCentric provides a fast and easy way for hoteliers to take control over their online business and adopt the right mix between direct sales and distribution. By using GuestCentric’s next-generation hotel e-commerce and social marketing solutions, independent hotels can develop long-standing relationships with guests; improve online revenues and lower expenses associated with online distribution.

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.

GuestCentric Systems launches new pricing plans with great savings of up to 31% for integrated e-Commerce and social cloud solutions for hotels

GuestCentric Systems the social cloud provider of e-commerce solutions for the independent hotel industry just launched the ultimate pricing plan for its customers. New and existing customers can now choose from the new fixed fee pricing that includes all platform features or continue to enjoy the pay-as-you-go model that brought unrivaled adoption of the platform by smaller properties.

“After two years of contributing to the online success of independent hoteliers, GuestCentric’s platform is now becoming essential to a vast number of properties. We are experiencing enormous traction with boutique hotels looking for a modern and easy-to-use solution that can integrate with their social marketing efforts.” said Pedro Colaco, President and CEO of GuestCentric. “In order to advance our mission of offering top-notch solutions at reasonable prices for boutique hotels that have higher revenue volume, we introduced a fixed price package for as little as $400 per month for hotels up to 100 rooms.”

GuestCentric provides top-notch solutions that provide an easy and affordable way for mid-sized independent hotels to develop their online business and engaging guests on social media outlets. With GuestCentric’s solutions, independent hotels can finally level the playing field against chains by leveraging the power of the Internet.

“We have very much enjoyed working with a professional company like GuestCentric, they have been able to fully understand the needs and opportunities for a small boutique property like Casa de Madrid. The design of the website matches the look and feel of the property and the technology has provided a perfect solution for Casa de Madrid. Most importantly, the online bookings revenue the property receives has delivered a substantial return on the investment made into the GuestCentric product and services.” said Ashley Usiskin, Business Development Consultant at Casa de Madrid

With the new fixed fee packages independent properties can use GuestCentric’s integrated platform to its full potential, without having to pay any extra or hidden costs:

Powerful e-commerce

• Hotel booking engine – This best-in-class booking engine provides a unique shopping experience with unparallel speed and convenience for guests willing to book online. GuestCentric’s booking engine is the only portable booking engine in the market that can be directly integrated to different websites, like Facebook or partner websites.
• Hotel analytics – The backend dashboard allows you to keep track of the property’s online progress, check hotel visibility, sales focus, bookable offers, and overall performance.
• Guest CRM – The system automatically collects a complete guest profile with the guest’s stay history. This information is crucial to create successful marketing campaigns to promote special deals and loyalty.

Social customer engagement

• Twitter center – Send, track, monitor and schedule messages on Twitter and easily monitor what people are saying about the property.
• Follower specials – Increase the brand exposure, create a loyalty program and easily reward social media followers with special deals created and available exclusively for them.
• Customer intimacy – Provide a more personalize service to your guests and learn more about who they are, what they want, need or think. Twitter profiles as well as last post are fully integrated with guest’s profile.

Time saving tools

• Set and forget setup – The easy-to-use interface of the platform allows a quick setup process. After 45 minutes training session you can start discovering the potential of the platform.
• Multilingual support – Increase brand presence and reach other regions by offering the booking engine and website in up to 5 languages in a fast and intuitive manner.
• Picture manager – the most sophisticated and intuitive picture manager in the industry that allows you to easily upload and display images as you wish on your website.

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About GuestCentric Systems

GuestCentric Systems develops and markets web services that revolutionize the way independent hotels work. GuestCentric has built a cloud-computing platform that allows independent hotels to develop long-standing relationships with guests, improve online revenues and lower expenses associated with online distribution. Through use of Web 2.0 technologies, GuestCentric provides easy-to-use tools at reasonable prices that up until now were only available for hotels with big budgets.

Hotel Cuatro Naciones grows overall business by 180%

The challenge

The Hotel Cuatro Naciones is an independent property of 55 rooms located in the heart of La Rambla, the most visited street in Barcelona. Like many other hotels all over the world, Cuatro Naciones experienced a dramatic drop of 50% on their reservations at the beginning of 2009. Aware of the changes in preferences of the travelers towards online services, the hotel had to look for online solutions to help them overcome the economic crisis, provide exceptional services for demanding travelers and increase their direct online booking. After an exhaustive search with different providers, the manager of the hotel found in GuestCentric Systems the solution that best fit their needs; a company that focuses primarily on independent properties and provides a one-stop-shop online solution at affordable prices.

Solutions

Hotel Cuatro Naciones adopted GuestCentric’s full-feature platform, which provided them with powerful online marketing and distribution tools. Quickly they were able to deploy a brand new hotel website design powered with an innovative booking engine, a reservation platform and direct social media integration with Twitter and Facebook.

Based on the industry best practices and intensive usability tests, the new interactive website provides visitors with all the necessary information about the property and surroundings, focusing on performance, i.e. improving the visitors-to-booking ratio. Taking advantage of the multilingual website feature, the hotel expanded their target markets and now attracts visitors from Italy, France, United Kingdom and United States. With GuestCentric’s unique InstantHotel Technology, Cuatro Naciones can now take full control of their website, update, add and edit information whenever is necessary, forgetting about external programmers or designers.

Because GuestCentric’s platform is fully integrated, The Cuatro Naciones website comes with GuestCentric best in class hotel booking engine that provides a truly interactive shopping experience for visitors. This innovative one-screen booking engine has an interactive calendar that displays up to 550 days of real-time availability and pricing. Due to its ease-of-use Cuatro Naciones was able to reinvent its online offers and target more sophisticated visitors.

With its unique double security certification with security shields from VeriSign Secured and McAfee Secure, customers are ensured that all personal information submitted stays private.

In addition, the Hotel Cuatro Naciones can now simplify the management of the online and offline reservations through GuestCentric’s reservation platform, avoiding controversial issues like overbooking and double booking. The platform also simplifies guest and contacts management by creating an automated database with all the relevant information to help in the optimization of marketing campaigns.

“The analytical information provided by the dashboard helped us understand the importance of the international market for our property. The international traffic of the website accounts for 80% of the visits and more than 50% of our online reservations, after learning this information it was crucial for the hotel to simplify the searching process. That is when we decided to add another language to our website.” said Aurelio Saiz Hotel Cuatro Naciones e-commerce

The interaction with the BackOffice dashboard has helped the hotel manager better understand the behavior of their online visitors and measure the website success. With access to easy graphical information that was not available before, the hotel manager can now take timely actions like create and test different marketing campaigns to increase visitors flow and direct online bookings. And through the use of cost effective advertising campaigns combined with the latest trends of the market, Hotel Cuatro Naciones was able to adapt new ways to improve brand awareness and increase market share.

Results

The results for the Hotel Cuatro Naciones exceeded all expectations. Within a month and a half of launching their new website and booking engine, the hotel experienced a 190% increase on their direct online reservations. And in the middle of an unfavorable economic period, within 3 months of deployment the online reservations alone were responsible for an increase of 180% on the overall hotel business.

Especially important for independent hoteliers, the simplicity of the integrated platform allows the hotel managers to spend more time in strategically planning and taking care of their customers rather than only managing reservations.

“The old website provided basic information about the property, so it was never part of our sales tools strategy. The first time we saw the new interactive website, we immediately saw the benefits of using it as our primarily sales tool.” Continued Aurelio