| |
 |
|
|
| |
Trade Me has reached conditional agreement to acquire the business of BookIt Limited.
Dunedin-based BookIt is a leading online software provider for New Zealand tourism operators. The company has been providing booking tools and payment processing services for a network of more than 40 reselling websites and 1700 tourism suppliers for the last five years.
BookIt co-founder, Ian Taylor, explains the sale to Trade Me would bring a level of online expertise and resource that would allow BookIt to realise its full potential.
"We have been looking for a strategic partner for some time who shared our vision in the online booking space. Trade Me was the perfect fit and feedback from our clients has been positive".
BookIt was recently included in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 for the Asia Pacific region, having experienced very strong growth over the past two years. It has three staff who will continue on in the business as Trade Me employees.
Trade Me’s Head of Travel Alex Fala said the deal would be good for existing customers of both Trade Me and BookIt.
"Users of Travelbug and our reseller network will be able to choose from a deeper selection of accommodation and a broader range of products, including activities like skiing and sightseeing tours. Suppliers to BookIt and Trade Me will benefit from a larger audience.”
Mr Fala said Kiwis are using the internet more to book their travel, and the move made sense. “Trade Me made it easy for people to buy and sell online, and we’re confident that Travelbug will continue to make booking travel in New Zealand easier too.”
The new Trade Me travel team will be working with suppliers and resellers to ensure a smooth integration.
Contact:
|
Alex Fala
Trade Me
Ph 021 896 363
|
About Travelbug
Travelbug, launched in September 2007, is a website offering accommodation booking services with over 2,500 bookable properties across New Zealand. Travellers can book all accommodation types with no booking fee up to 365 days in advance, and then rate their experience to help keep other travellers informed.
BookIt has launched in Australia with top Holiday Rental Accommodation website Stayz.com.au. Holiday seekers are now able to pay directly online through Stayz, and property owners can use the system to simplify the management of their booking payments.
This new system ensures Stayz meets consumer demand for online transactions and will boost consumer confidence in holiday rental bookings.
Benefits for property owners include quick and easy collection of funds, the ability to manage their own amendments, cancellations and refunds at the touch of a button, and prominence of the online payment facility.
Kirsty Shaw, General Manager for Stayz, explains.
"We researched a range of different technology options for providing online booking and payments on our website. When selecting BookIt we were confident that we had found not only the right software, but the right team and expertise to deliver the solution."
The site upgrade launched prior to Christmas with immediate success.
"It's great to see guests and property owners embracing the new system to transact." explains Jon Harrison, Product Manager for Stayz.
The team at BookIt are looking forward to other opportunities in the Australian travel space.
"This foothold is a great chance for us to assess the market in Australia." explains director Ryan Baker. "BookIt is working really well for our New Zealand clients, so it is a logical next step to look to offer the service in Australia."
Plans for the next phase of the Stayz project are underway with further releases due to go live in the first quarter of 2010.
About Stayz:
• The number 1 website in Australia for online holiday rentals, with over 20,000 property listings from over 1,400 locations throughout Australia
• Ranked 3rd in Australia for online accommodation
• Visited by over 590,000* unique browsers each month and has over 200,000 subscribers to its fortnightly e-newsletter (*Source: Neilsen//Netratings, Market Intelligence, total audience average 2009)
• Offers Australian home owners an opportunity to list their rental property online and make the most of their investment.
In this Newsletter:
-
BookIt makes Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific
-
Tourism Auckland launches BookIt system
-
New BookIt suppliers getting great feedback
-
BookIt Xmas support information
Click here to read the newsletter...
We are thrilled to announce that BookIt has been ranked on the 2009 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific - one of the region's most comprehensive and respected rankings of fast-growing technology companies.
The Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific program is now in its eighth year. The program recognizes technology companies that have achieved the fastest rates of annual revenue growth in Asia Pacific during the past three years. It includes companies based in Australia, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Macau SAR, Malaysia, Philippines, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
The awards luncheon was held at the prestigious Intercontinental Hotel in Hong Kong on Thursday, 10 December 2009, and was attended by hundreds of CxO’s and senior management from winning companies across Asia Pacific. Immediately following the awards luncheon was the regional media conference, which was attended by key regional and press/media.
“Making the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific ranking is a testament to a company’s commitment to technology,” Ian Thatcher, partner in charge of Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific program. “With its 150% growth rate over three years, BookIt has proven that its leadership has the vision and determination to grow in difficult conditions.”
BookIt ranks 293rd on the index with growth of 150% percent during this period. It is excellent to also see 51 New Zealand businesses making the index this year, compared to 31 in 2008 and 38 in 2007. Go Kiwi!
To read more, visit the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific website.
BookIt has been selected to provide the online booking system for Tourism Auckland's website. As New Zealand's largest city and the main gateway to the country, Auckland is the biggest contributor to the New Zealand tourism sector. "We are proud to play our part in providing the best possible online booking experience to this key market." says Andrew Schofield, director of BookIt Ltd.
The website leverages BookIt's complete product suite including the last minute booking, cross-selling and dynamic packaging tools.
"As an ongoing part of enhancing our service, the AucklandNZ.com website now offers a complete one-stop shop allowing travellers to book everything from hotels and motels, to rental cars, campervans and local tours and activities." explains Hayden Bairstow, Online Marketing Communicator at Tourism Auckland.
"Phase 1" of the BookIt powered AucklandNZ.com website launched in October with strong early sales and customers making bookings for accommodation, rental cars, bus tours and attractions. Additional features for "Phase 2" are under development.
BookIt’s accommodation suppliers can now find themselves squarely on the map with the recently re-launched Yellow™ Maps website.
Under a deal announced in May, BookIt provides live feeds of room rates and availability within a new dedicated accommodation search feature on Yellow™ Maps. Visitors to the website are able to search, locate, compare and book from a range of available options.
“The partnership with BookIt is a great fit for us”, explains Campbell Brown, Senior Product Manager for Yellow’s Digital Media team. “Yellow Maps is a key component of our digital strategy and providing accommodation search is a natural progression for this site. Along with the fundamentals like maps, driving directions, and business listings we needed the best possible solution for accommodation search. With the BookIt solution we are able to directly access the data that we need and present this on a map specific to the user’s requirements.
“BookIt’s software also gives us a full, out of the box, online booking engine that we can plug directly into the Yellow Maps website. “
In collaboration with Auckland-based Marker studio, Yellow have now launched an improved version of the Yellow Maps website.
“The move to the new design is a direct response to client feedback.” explains Mr Brown. “Visitors wanted more map space, less clutter and the ability to simply display the map on its own. This also means that we have far greater space for displaying our key content from partners such as BookIt’s ever expanding accommodation inventory, which is fast becoming a prominent feature on Yellow Maps™. “
“We are also looking at plans to expand the booking technology developed with BookIt into other Yellow™ sites in the not too distant future.”
New Zealand accommodation operators seeking a free listing on the Yellow Maps™ website can register online at www.bookit.co.nz.
Five years ago, on the 21st of September 2004, an unsuspecting Japanese chap by the name of Yusuke booked 2 nights accommodation at the Novotel hotel in Queenstown. Little did he know, a small team in Dunedin, New Zealand were anxiously awaiting the moment. Completely unaware was this man that his booking had generated the first $10.80 of revenue for a fledgling internet start-up.
Thanks Yusuke! :)
And thanks to those who popped around on Friday night to share a birthday drink with us. It was great to see you all.
The main objective of the E Tourism Conference is to create awareness, educate and update the travel industry with the latest e-travel strategies. This will enable tourism providers to achieve maximum return on their advertising investment and teach them how to do this effectively in the minimum time necessary.
Andrew and I are really looking forward to meeting delegates and fellow exhibitors at the conference. It will be a great chance to catch up and we'll have demos of the booking engine available from our booth. If you are attending the conference and would like to arrange an appointment please contact ryan@bookit.co.nz. Otherwise feel free to play it by ear and come and see us any time that works for you.
For more information on the conference, or to book conference accommodation (powered by BookIt of course!), visit www.etourismnz.com.
bookings.bookitsecure.com
|
Notice for all BookIt clients (not including suppliers):
On the morning of the 20th August we will be changing the live URL of the BookIt booking process from http://bookings.nzbookit.com to http://bookings.bookitsecure.com
The main reasons for this change are that we are phasing out the nzbookit.com domain name and internationalising the booking process for our overseas clients.
What you need to know:
- Any links on your website that point to the current BookIt URL will
continue to work and you don't need to change anything here (these
links will redirect to the bookitsecure.com domain name)
- However, any future booking links we supply you will be on the
bookitsecure.com URL
- If you use any analytics tracking code you may need to update this with
the new URL. For example, if you use Google Analytics tracking code and
have created "goals" that refer to the nzbookit.com domain name, these
will need to be updated to the bookitsecure.com domain name. Below are
the pages commonly used for this purpose
- Once the changeover is complete we advise you
to check your tracking code in the days following the rollover to
ensure everything is working as expected
Main booking pages affected:
Configuration page:
http://bookings.nzbookit.com/pub/config.aspx changed to http://bookings.bookitsecure.com/pub/config.aspx
Quote page:
http://bookings.nzbookit.com/pub/quote.aspx changed to http://bookings.bookitsecure.com/pub/quote.aspx
Payment page:
https://bookings.nzbookit.com/sec/itin.aspx changed to https://bookings.bookitsecure.com/sec/itin.aspx
Confirmation page:
https://bookings.nzbookit.com/sec/status.aspx changed to https://bookings.bookitsecure.com/sec/status.aspx
To update "goals" in Google Analytics, log into your account then choose "Analytics Settings" in the nav bar. Then click "edit" next to the goal you want to amend and update the Goal URL and steps with the new URL's above.
UPDATE:
The new URL is now live
|
|
|