I hope you had a great Spring. Now that Summer 09 has arrived, so has the update to the GuestCentric system. While in Spring 09 we focused on the guests’ needs, we focused this new edition on the needs of the hoteliers: fine-tuning usage of the platform to make daily tasks easier.
We are working hard to boost direct business while providing an easy-to-use tool, so listening to suggestions is critical. If you have anything you would like to tell us, do not hesitate to let us know by sending us an email to suggestions@guestcentric.com, and keep checking back for additions and improvements.

Readibility
	The first thing you will notice is that we worked extensively on the look and feel of system with more space and icons on all pages for better readability.
Better website control
	Many of our users wanted improvements in the website control area. The new Summer 09 edition includes: Revamped Website management area: Improved workflows, icons and introduced descriptive notes. Gadget content display in Preview: E.g. Google Maps, TripAdvisor previews provide better control before publishing website. Orderable pictures: Pictures in the picture gallery can now be ordered. Automatic Google Maps coordinates: Latitude and longitude coordinates inserted automatically from the property address. Landing pages: Pages can now be created without being displayed in the menu or footer to target advertising or promote special events and services.
Improved SEO
	The SEO section has been improved to provide automation of default configuration and explanatory notes for advanced users. Default keywords: Set of default keywords like hotel name or city of the property inserted in new pages. Best-practices: Notes with best practices regarding setting page titles, keywords and page description added for users that want to improve SEO beyond the default configuration.
One-click booking for room types
	Similar to the Promotions page, the Rooms page now boasts a book now button that pre-selects the offer in the booking engine making them truly one-click away from completing the booking.
Monthly Report ( Silver and Gold Edition only )
	An executive summary of your GuestCentric platform performance will be sent by e-mail in PDF format at the beginning of every month so you can monitor your most important e-Commerce performance indicators.
Integration with Google Adwords/Analytics (BETA for Gold Edition only )
	For advanced Google Adwords/Analytics users performance tracking is now simpler by inserting the tracking codes on your GuestCentric site. Google Adwords conversion codes can now be inserted to track AdWords campaign performance Contacts and Reservations can now be tracked under Google Analytics with pre-defined URLs for conversion pages and funnels. Note: This feature is currently under beta testing. This feature will become available for Gold customers only.

Enjoy!
GuestCentric Team
Filipe Machaz
VP of Product Management

During this economic crisis it is important for hoteliers to encourage guests to share their experiences in the property. This will help them to expand their web presence and improve online reputation.

What you can do?

• During check-out ask your guests to review your property and advertise your presence in social networking sites. (TripAdvisor, Igougo, WikiTravel, Holiday WatchDog, Expedia, Global Hotel Review, TravelPost, TravBuddy etc.)
• Send your guests a “Thank you for your stay” email with links to your social network pages so they can directly review your hotel
• Make it easy for your guests to find your social network pages. Place the links of your social networking in your website.
• Show your guests that you care: Monitor your reviews and answer them.
• Make sure you use social networks like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and Flickr to promote your property and to communicate your special offers. And invite your guests to join your networks.

How to profit from the reviews?

• Post your reviews on your website! Let everyone know what your guests are saying about your property.
• Use customer reviews as quotes in different pages of your website.
• Search on your guest review for keywords to add to your website content in order to improve your SEO
• Improve brand loyalty; keep a close relationship with your guests particularly those that write positive reviews about your hotel. They are your best reference.

There are a variety of online providers for independent hotels but only GuestCentric Systems offers an integrated platform that provides tools that simplify the management of the property. The interactive dashboard allows you to easily monitor your property’s reputation by automatically gathering what is said about your property in the internet. And GuestCentric’s InstatntHotel Technology integrates TripAdvisor reviews directly on your website so your visitors don’t miss the comments!

(http://www.marketmetrix.com/en/default.aspx?s=research&p=Writingonlinereviews)

Hi, I would like to share with you my latest experience with User Generated Content.

For the memorial day long weekend I decided to visit Vilnius in Lithuania, I had heard wonders about the city. I asked my friends from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for some advice of where to stay; unfortunately no one had been there. So I thought I was going to struggle to find a place to stay. Then I did what 60% of the online travelers do; I visited some social networking websites (TripAdvisor, Igougo, WikiTravel, Holiday WatchDog, Expedia, Global Hotel Review, TravelPost, TravBuddy among other) and read the reviews posted by guests about the hotels.  Based on the reviews I came up with a list of 7 hotels that interested me because of their location, the descriptions or the enthusiasm of the review.  I then visited each one of the hotels’ websites to learn more about the hotel, find rates, see pictures and of course to check for online bookings. I must confess I had to leave behind a couple of hotels because of the look of their website and lack of online booking.

The reviews pointed me to a hotel that fitted perfectly to my needs; it was all I expected it to be. Of course afterward I shared my experience online, because let us be honest who are people going to believe: the marketing department of a hotel that only writes positive things or a person that has stayed at the hotel and is not afraid to speak his or her mind about it?

Did you know that in the US more than 82 million people created content online during 2008 (http://mashable.com/2009/02/19/user-generated-content-growth/) So let me ask you, what are you doing to encourage guests to write reviews about your hotel? How do you monitor your reviews? and How do you react to them?

**Next week I will tell you about techniques that could help you increase your hotel reviews and benefit. from them

Melia Palacio da Lousa Hotel launches brand new interactive website and innovative booking engine

USA and Portugal - Melia Palacio da Lousa Boutique Hotel, is Portugal’s first boutique hotel of the hotel chain Sol Melia, uses GuestCentric Systems innovative service to optimize their online presence and increase their direct online bookings. GuestCentric’s integrated service provides high-end tools for online marketing and distribution at affordable prices to independent hotels.

“During this time of economic crisis the trends of the travelers are changing, as time goes by there is more demand for online services. Says Pedro Colaco President and CEO of GuestCentric Systems. “It is crucial that hoteliers take control of their offer and that they provide their customers with high-end online services.”

With the use of the best technologies, the new website provides customers all the necessary information about the property and ensures a secure service to make online reservations. GuestCentric platform creates an attractive property display using the industry best practices and intensive usability test, providing the visitors with a unique experience. With GuestCentric’s unique InstantHotel Technology, Melia Palacio da Lousa Boutique Hotel can have full control of their own website, update and edit information whenever is needed.

“Since our Hotel is the first hotel from the chain Sol Melia of its class in Portugal we wanted to make sure that our customers received a unique experience not only while staying with us but also while navigating our website and making their reservation. GuestCentric immediately understood our necessities and provided us with the tools to guarantee a unique experience to our guest.” Said Pedro Mendes, sales executive Melia Palacio da Lousa. “GuestCentric service simplifies the life of hoteliers, the service is very easy and fast to use at affordable prices. With GuestCentric service we have control our website.”

With GuestCentric integrated platform Melia Palacio da Lousa Boutique Hotel can now offer the rich, secure and interactive online experience. The innovative booking engine offers visitors a fluid shopping experience with a calendar overview that shows up to 550 days of real-time room availability and pricing information, visitors are guaranteed to find the best available rates when booking online. The new one-screen booking engine decreases the reservation abandon rate by offering a simple and faster booking process.

The Melia Palacio da Lousa also provided with a full featured reservations platform that simplifies the management of the online and offline reservations and maximizes revenue.

Lastly, through the promotion channel the hotel can reinvent their offer. The special offers feature allows the hotel to create promotions with yielding restrictions like max and min stay, advance payment, sell limit and specific dates.

“Two weeks after we contacted GuestCentric our new website was ready to be published. We are very satisfied with the progress of our online service, in one month we increased the number of website visitors and due to the interactive booking engine the reservation abandon rate has decrease.” Said Pedro Mendes

About Melia Palacio da Lousa Boutique Hotel

The Melia Palacio da Lousa, the country’s first boutique hotel, is an emblazoned eighteenth century property, recently transformed into a four star hotel, which combines the charm of historic environments to advanced technology. The building is classified as historical heritage and offers ideal conditions to relax and enjoy an exquisite treatment, in a scenario guided by the need for refinement and style.

For more information visit: http://www.palaciodalousa.com

About GuestCentric

Headquartered in Stamford, CT with offices in the UK and Portugal, GuestCentric Systems is a Software-as-a-Service provider that revolutionizes the way independent hotel operators compete for customers with larger players in the travel industry. Its online marketing and booking platform offers a simple and cost-effective way for hoteliers to create a professional web display of the hotel property, integrate direct booking and online marketing capabilities to increase online bookings, lower expenses and develop long-standing relationships with guests.

For more information visit: http://www.guestcentric.com

It’s not a secret that the economic crisis is affecting the travel industry. According to a recent study released by PhocusWright (http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2009-04-28-online-travel-decline_N.htm), 2009 online travel bookings will experience a 3% drop for the first time in 10 years. Now, more than ever, hoteliers must be able to reinvent their offer constantly and instantly to compete for customers.

By creating special offers on your hotel website you create an incentive for travelers to choose your hotel over the competition, optimize your SEO and most importantly you can sell stressed inventory. “Despite the economy, travelers are trading down, not out. Consumers are seeking out packages to book, staying fewer nights, and comparison shopping online to save money“. Said Peter Yesawich President and CEO, Y Partnership during the third virtual Resort Conference webinar session (http://www.hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/traveler_sentiment_index_going_up/)

Through the use of the special offers or promotions channel hoteliers are able to increase guest numbers, attract specific customers by creating packages targeting particular markets, boost sales, compete effectively and reward loyal customers. “Being able to reinvent our offer according to our needs has had an impact on the success of our direct online reservations, especially since 20% of our online reservations come from our special offers” said Lindsey Wise, sales coordinator for Hotel Aiken a 67 room independent property that is using GuestCentric Systems service.

It is important that once your special offer is created you promote it on different internet channels. You can create a press release announcing the launching of your new offer at no cost on free distribution centers, accordingly to your target audience (among others; PrLog, PrCanada, Free Press Release) Also you can create a blog to announce important information about your property. Remember the internet is a very powerful tool that can help you promote your property; you just need to take time to explore it.

To learn more about GuestCentric Service go to Tour

GuestCentric finishes McAfee certification

GuestCentric Systems, Stamford-based software-as-a-service provider for the independent hotel industry, has completed its McAfee Secure certification. GuestCentric is the first software-as-a-service vendor in the hotel industry.

McAfee tests and certifies daily that GuestCentric’s service exhibits no vulnerabilities, dangerous content or links that could expose consumers’ computer and personal information to malicious use.

With offices in the United Kingdom and Portugal, GuestCentric Systems offers an online marketing and booking platform as a way for hoteliers to create a Web display of the hotel property, integrate direct booking and online marketing capabilities to increase online bookings, lower expenses and develop relationships with guests. (see article)

In order for a website to be successful it should transmit to the visitors the look and feel of the property. This is particularly important for the independent hotels since most of the success of their business comes from the personal experience provided to their customers. This personalized experience should not start when the guest arrives to the property but from the moment the visitor opens the website of the property.

When you look at websites from hotel chains you can notice that they have a couple of things in common: the way the information is presented, the ease to move around the website (navigation) and the simplicity of the information. GuestCentric conducted a series of research to different websites trying to understand the website patterns of hotel chains vs. independent hotels. It didn’t take a long time to arrive to the following conclusion: while chain hotels create their website based on different usability tests that cost a lot of money, independent hotels create their website based on their good feelings and recommendations from different people. As customers, we create purchase patterns and we don’t feel at ease when they are broken. Take a look at your website and make sure your main menu provides a good navigation flow, that your menus are easy to access, that the information about your property is accurate and to the point and that your pictures are of good quality.

“My husband and I have just returned from our honeymoon in Sagres. We stayed at Memmo Baleeira for a week, and I can honestly say we loved it. I’m always a bit wary when hotel websites are as professional as the Memmo one, as all too often they don’t live up to the impression they give online. However, in this case the opposite is true - the hotel was everything we expected from our website research.” (comment posted by a customer of Memmo Baleeira Hotel on TripAdvisor: September 4, 2008)

Talking about e-commerce security is not easy; if your website doesn’t transmit confidence to the visitor they will never feel comfortable booking directly with you. Even if you have certificates that provide a secure website! According to a study conducted by Forrester Research 31% of US online leisure travelers hesitate when sharing their personal information, if on top of that you add a website appearance that is not trust worthy your e-commerce is doomed to fail. That is why a professional design and security shields are of extreme importance in a website.

Think of your website as your best sales representative and not as a brochure!

GuestCentric’s Services Certified by McAfee Secure for Maximum Security and Privacy

GuestCentric’s Services Certified by McAfee Secure for Maximum Security and Privacy Increased Trust by Online Shoppers Increases Hotel Online Bookings by up to 14%

GuestCentric Systems, the premier Software-as-a-Service provider for the independent hotel industry, today announced the completion of McAfee Secure certification. As the first Software-as-a-Service vendor in the hotel industry achieving this certification.. (read news)

GuestCentric Strengthens Online Reservation Security

GuestCentric Systems, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider for the independent hotel industry, announces the completion of McAfee Secure certification. As the first Software-as-a-Service vendor in the hotel industry achieving this certification, GuestCentric continues to lead the industry in its mission of delivering high-end tools at affordable prices to independent hotels.(read news)

GuestCentric’s Services Certified by McAfee Secure for Maximum Security and Privacy

STAMFORD, CT, Apr 20 (MARKET WIRE) — GuestCentric Systems, the premier Software-as-a-Service provider for the independent hotel industry, today announced the completion of McAfee Secure certification. (read more)