We are thrilled to advise that the migration of Travelbug to BookIt is complete. As of 3.15pm on 1st June, the BookIt system is processing all bookings on Travelbug.

Congratulations to Pinewood Lodge who was the first operator to receive a Travelbug booking through BookIt - a Travelbug t-shirt is on its way to you!

There are a few things we need you to know about how "new Travelbug" differs from "old Travelbug". While it is essentially working in exactly the same manner, thereare a few differences that come out of the extra flexibility that the BookIt system enables, so please see below for the answers to our most frequently asked questions.

Thank you for helping us meet our targeted date of 1st June. Please let us knowif there is anything we can do to help you get the best out of the BookIt system.

Kind regards,The Trade Me Travel team
support@bookit.co.nz

• As Travelbug bookings are processed by BookIt, you will receive booking emails and invoices from BookIt. These are formatted differently to the old Vianet emails but have all the information you need. Here's an example of how your booking confirmation/invoice email will appear:
  
  
  
• You can now amend Travelbug bookings within your BookIt account, with extra charges or refunds processed automatically back to the traveller's credit card.
• The minimum cancellation fee on BookIt is $10, rather than the 20% minimum that was applied on Vianet. Please make sure you set your cancellation policies in BookIt on the 'Product setup' page.

• We've added BookIt traveller feedback to Travelbug so there may be some new feedback on your Travelbug listing page.
• Rankings have changed slightly as a result of the switch. Bugrank still applies, however, and offering instant confirmation is still the best way to rank highly in search results. Give us a call if you need help to move to instant confirmation.
• Regions and districts have changed, please check where you appear and make sure you are happy with your region and district. We can't add every little district but we'll do our best to help you out.

• By default, payment for BookIt bookings are made to your nominated account automatically 7 days before arrival, with weekly payment runs on a Thursday evening. If you already have a BookIt listing and have changed your payment terms, your settings will not have changed. You can view payments due on the 'Billing' tab within BookIt.
• If you have lost your BookIt login details go to http://business.bookit.co.nz/pub/PwdRecover.aspx and enter the email address ich this email was sent
• BookIt does not currently offer a text message notification service for booking requests and confirmations.

• We won't switch Vianet off until around the end of September. Funds for forward bookings are secure and will be paid out as normal.
• Please keep updating Vianet for self-retail (if using Vianet within your own site) and other Vianet reseller websites. If you don't want to manage instant confirmation on both systems, please use Vianet for on-request and make BookIt instant confirmation.
• If you use Vianet in your website for direct bookings, you will need to switch to BookIt. The code is available for you to download within your BookIt account so please let us know if you need any help with that.

It's been a while since our last newsletter - since we joined Trade Me, in fact - and we thought it was about time to welcome you to the BookIt network, or welcome you back if you've been around for a while. We'd also like to tell you about some exciting changes to the system and update you on the integration of BookIt into Travelbug.

New BookIt features We've recently added some new features to the site: Inventory manager - allows you to view all products and their rates and inventory on one screen to more easily manage your business. You can use it to copy inventory and prices across and down, manage minimum stays and block out unavailable dates.   Cancellation policies - you can now assign different cancellation policies for different products. This is perfect for non-refundable and fully-flexi products.   Login removal - travellers no longer need to create a login to book. This makes things faster and easier for them, while you benefit from more bookings.

Moving from Vianet to BookIt We're well into the migration of Vianet to BookIt, with all Vianet accounts now mirrored on BookIt and either approved or ready to approve once rates have been loaded. If you haven't already, please log in to BookIt and load rate seasons, rates and inventory ready for when Travelbug switches to BookIt at the start of June. We will switch the Vianet system off for new bookings later this year.

BookIt tips and tricks If you are new to the BookIt system, here are a couple of things you might find useful: Booking notification emails are sent to the "master" user email address, or the reservations user email address if there is one. Please make sure you are happy with the email address loaded in your account. Amendments are a great feature of the BookIt system. Do you have a guest that wants to change their dates of stay or the number of nights? Simply view the booking and use the editing tools at the bottom of the page - refunds or extra charges are made automatically to the traveller's credit card.

Fraud and chargebacks There's no escaping the fact that there are dirty, rotten scoundrels out there who make bookings on other people's credit cards. We get a few chargebacks from people questioning the charges they find on their cards; unfortunately, it is up to you to match the person who checks in with the person who made the booking, and where possible obtain: a signed registration form a copy of their ID If you have this information, we'll be able to provide it to the bank if the charge is questioned by the card holder. If the information is not provided, the chargeback is likely to hit your account.

Moving from Vianet to BookIt While we're part of Trade Me, we're our own little team and we're here to bring you online exposure and bookings. If you have any questions at all, make sure you contact us on 0508 BOOKIT or email support@bookit.co.nz. Thanks for reading this newsletter, we'll be in touch again soon. Regards, The Trade Me Travel team

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’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.

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

We all know that real-time confirmation of bookings is a "must have" feature for both customers and operators. But did you know that BookIt can provide a real-time link to the leading channel managers and Property Management Systems in New Zealand?

A real-time link via a channel manager is a great way of giving customers an instant confirmation, saves you time and prevents double booking situations.

We've been working hard to connect BookIt to as many channel managers as possible and we are pleased to say that we now work with the following:

We are also building links to the systems below and will make an announcement as soon as these are ready:

• ChannelDirect
• Availability
• SmartFX 

The entrepreneurial ecosystem
by Diana Burns ~ bright magazine June / July 2009

Just as in a forest, small and large plants rely on each other for survival, so too in the business environment are small and large companies mutually dependent, needing each other to boost their chances of success.

Image credit: bright magazine

In Kenya, if you see a large buffalo it will probably have a small oxpecker bird perched on its back.  The oxpecker lives on the buffalo’s ticks, a relationship that benefits both creatures. In the natural world, only the fittest survive... and smaller creatures sometimes do so by cleverly developing a mutually beneficial relationship with larger ones. 

The same is true in business. Despite the worldwide recession, some of New Zealand’s smart small companies are thriving as they partner with large firms.  What are their secrets?

“Being highly specialised and clear about what you can offer,” says director of BookIt,  Ryan Baker.

BookIt emerged in 2004 from the stable of Dunedin-based Taylormade, best  known for its innovative America’s Cup graphics, to provide on-line booking systems for  travel and tourism.

Its ‘out-of-the-box’ system plugs seamlessly into existing websites, and  has big business clients that include Tourism Holdings, Yellow Pages Group, Intercity Group and Trojan Holdings.

With only six staff including two part-time, BookIt already processes $1.5 million in bookings a month, and has been averaging year-on-year growth of 200 percent for the past six months.

Baker says the secret to his company’s rapid rise is knowing how they can fit in with the strategic plans of larger companies.

“Big businesses like a specialised service they don’t have in-house that complements  what they do. Big companies are clear about their own business, so it’s up to the smaller  partner to work out what you can offer that fits with that,” says Baker.

BookIt has been used extensively by umbrella tourism company Tourism Holdings Ltd for online bookings of everything from hotels and activities to bus tours, motorhomes and ski passes.

THL’s various tourism operations all had their own websites using different systems. BookIt offered them a way to move to one simple platform.

“The team at BookIt have a wonderful knack of surpassing expectations!” says Kate  Meldrum, marketing and customer experience manager for Tourism Holdings.

“Our customers want a hassle-free experience – as do we and our business partners”.

Read the full article here or grab the June / July copy of bright magazine.

In this newsletter:

• BookIt named finalist in NZ hi-tech awards
• WellingtonNZ.com take online bookings to a new level with BookIt
• Winter bookings kicking in early this year
• Enhancements to the BookIt system
• Feedback from travellers
• Welcome to over 200 new members

Read the March 2009 newsletter

TouchNZ provide information kiosks in high traffic locations around New Zealand. Utilising BookIt's reseller API, the kiosks now allow customers to book iconic activities and attractions throughout the country. You can read more about this partnership in the press release from TouchNZ below.

PRESS RELEASE
FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2009

Positive story about Kiwi ingenuity providing free Hi Tech information service to travelers in New Zealand.

We are pleased to announce that BookIt (BookIt is a provider of  advanced technology, central product database and booking processing services for the tourism industry) is now supported on TouchNZ (part of the multi award winning Sell Smart Biz group of companies).

“TouchNZ business is to grow our advertisers business by making them visible in places where people don't traditionally have access to the internet - 26 touch screen information kiosks have been placed in sites such as Airports, Sky City Casino, Kaikoura Whale Watch - places where there is a concentration of travelers, are serviced with TouchNZ kiosk information servers.”

“TouchNZ kiosks are  positioned in high traffic locations across New Zealand providing travelers with free access to information. (December 2008 served 90,000 pages of information to an estimated 10,000 travelers*).”
 
“Tourism customers are able to freely search for attractions and make on the spot informed decisions.”

“TouchNZ is doing things in a way that drives visitors to BookIt attractions!”

“A variety of added value tools can help ‘attractions’ promote themselves above and beyond BookIt search results -  options include highly visible  banner adverts, featured category listings, telling the story via ‘multimedia presentation and podcasts .”

“With the help of the speed of TouchNZ kiosks, we are adding further value to the experience of travelers by giving ‘BookIt attractions’ the option of an interactive page with professional voice over , a video presentation and inspirational music. Attractions also have the option to provide on the spot audio tours via the podcast service ”

“All in all this relationship with BookIt is about bringing people together in exciting ways that inspire motivate and educate on the spot.”

Read more about TouchNZ here

If you are wanting to view basic statistics on your suppliers there is now an easy way to view this information. Simply go to your resold product and click on the "details" link next to an operator. This will bring up a screen similar to the below:



From here you can select a date range (the default is all time) and BookIt will tell you:

• the total number of booking requests (e.g. confirmed, cancelled, declined)
• the total number of confirmed bookings
• the conversion rate (e.g. how many booking requests actually converted)
• the total value of confirmed bookings

Thanks Garry at New Zealand Tourism Guide for this useful suggestion!

Remember there is still the full suite of reports in BookIt should you require more detailed reporting. Also this function is only available to resellers. Suppliers should use the existing reports menu when logged into BookIt.