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Hi everyone!
We hope you all enjoyed the 'tournament of the year' - we certainly saw increased tourist activity both through BookIt and around BookIt HQ on Wellington waterfront at the Fanzone. Most importantly though, our boys in black have managed to pull out another history-making performance and bring the Webb Ellis Cup home!
Things are settling down a bit now, so it might be a good time to take a load off and relax. This month we've got some interesting facts and figures, insight into what we're working on here and more. Enjoy!
Interesting stats throughout the 'Tournament of the Year'
You won't be surpirsed to learn that we've seen an increase in booking activity over the past few months. Tourists have flocked from around the world to support their respective motherlands and New Zealanders have played host in a fantastic way.
We noticed large increases in bookings and arrivals over 2010 as per the charts below. We've also seen big lifts in international travellers with a suspicious rugby bias:
Christmas and New Year - Updating your inventory
With the festive season fast approaching, it's worth making sure that your BookIt inventory manager is up to date to avoid double-bookings.
If you're using a channel manager to facilitate your BookIt inventory, that's great. If you update it manually but need a refresher course, here's how to do it:
- Login to your BookIt account and click on 'Inventory Manager' at the top
- Scroll down to see a list of your products along with its allocation on each date
- Find the dates using the calendar on the top-left or the '1 Week/2 Weeks' buttons at the bottom
- Inside the corresponding box for the product and date, put the number 0 to show no availability
- Click 'Save' underneath the calendar to lock in the changes
This should ensure that travellers aren't able to book for dates you're unavailable. Have questions about this process? You'll find our customer support contact details at the bottom of this newsletter.
Well, that’s it for another month. Before we go, we wanted to share this brilliant news from Tourism Dunedin's annual report: "...we integrated the country's best online booking service (BookIt)... within the first 6 months of 2011 Tourism Dunedin had already surpassed end of year online targets."
Awesome!
Thanks for reading, and remember - if you have any questions about your BookIt account, please feel free to contact our support stars on support@bookit.co.nz or 0508 BOOKIT.
Kind Regards,
The BookIt team
BookIt Newsletter April 2011
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BookIt Newsletter
April 2011
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Wellington is feeling the early grip of winter, but things are heating up around
the Travel office at Trade Me with plenty of exciting new features and changes on
the go. There's something for everyone here so grab a cuppa, a hot cross bun and
take a look.
Cheers - Daniel
In this issue:
- New BookIt features
- New Travelbug features
- New resellers in the network
- Cancellation fee increase to $20
- Secret Sale - Travelbug's new opaque channel
- BookIt Easter Support hours
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New BookIt features
- Cancellation policy seasons - you can now set a specific cancellation
policy against a specific date range. So a normally fully-refundable product could,
for example, be made fully non-refundable for September and October bookings. Simply
select "this policy only applies between specific dates" when setting up a new policy
- Inclusions - hooray! Inclusions now show on Travelbug and on operator
and traveller confirmation emails. Make sure your inclusions are showing by visiting
Inventory manager > Manage inclusions. You can set default inclusions that apply
to all dates, and override inclusions that only apply to specific dates.
- Coming soon - we're doing the biggest overhaul of the standard
BookIt booking process ever, to give it a fresh look and make it flow better. We'll
tell you more soon but at this stage we're looking to release it in early June
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New Travelbug features
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- Affiliate programme - we've got a flash new affiliate programme
for Travelbug. If you have a website, you can add links or widgets to offer your
users NZ accommodation, and you'll earn a share of the commission on confirmed bookings.
Email Chris Larcombe for more information.
- Inclusions - we've updated the grids to show inclusions information
to Travelbug users.
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New resellers in the network
We've got more new resellers selling product around the world every month, here
are the latest additions:
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Cancellation fee increase to $20
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Back in 2004, Andrew and Ryan set the traveller fee for cancellations in BookIt
at $10, based on the average booking value and their booking mix at the time. Things
have changed a lot since then and we're looking at lifting the fee to $20 to better
reflect the booking values in 2011. You'll still have the flexibility to ask us
to waive the fee for extraordinary circumstances. If you have any concerns, please
let us know, otherwise we'll be making these changes for all bookings made on the
BookIt system from 9 May 2011.
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Coming soon - Travelbug Secret Sale
We've got a cool new opaque channel launching on Travelbug in a couple of weeks
that we're calling "Secret Sale". It will work much like other opaque channels,
whereby Travelbug users will be able to book great deals if they're willing to take
a risk and book before they know exactly where they'll be staying. We’re launching
in Auckland, Wellington, Queenstown and Rotorua to start with, and will roll out
further from there. Take a look on Travelbug from 2 May 2011.
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Easter Support hours
Crystal will be on deck this Saturday and Sunday, but on Friday and Monday we won't
have full time cover. Instead, the marvellous Jeff Hunkin will be checking the inbox
for super-urgent issues, so if you need help that can't wait until the next day,
email us with "URGENT" in the subject line.
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Thanks for reading, and happy Easter. If you need any help, please contact us on
0508 BOOKIT or email support@bookit.co.nz.
Kind Regards,
The BookIt team
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Our friends over at Travelbug and Holiday Houses are giving you the chance to win a $3,000 Kiwi holiday.
All you have to do is enter your details online and you could win accommodation of your choice, up to the value of $3,000. You can also get extra entries if you recommend friends and they enter too.
Enter here.
Good luck!
Trevor, our trusty Travelbug, turned three this year and we thought he deserved an upgrade. Everyday kiwis will now find it even easier to find and book great accommodation deals at over 2500 properties throughout New Zealand. The list of changes Trev' has seen to his home is a bit long for this blog post, but the results speak for themselves. Shoot over to Travelbug now and check it out for yourself. Trev says it's looking fantastic and we're sure travellers using the site will think so too.
When you're visiting the new site, keep an eye out for Trevor in the photos of one of the hotels featured on the homepage and you can go in the draw to win some U2 tickets.
Visit www.travelbug.co.nz now!
Trade Me have launched the new ‘Travel, events & activities’ category today. You’ll see it tucked in there below ‘Toys & models’ on the homepage.
This new category lets Kiwis buy and sell pretty much anything related to travel and tourism in New Zealand. Right now, you’ll find accommodation from around New Zealand at $1 reserve, and there are some cool international holidays being sold too. We expect the category will soon be home to everything from gift vouchers through to bungy jump experiences, event tickets and flights.
The 3-year old accommodation booking website Travelbug (fronted by Trevor the travel bug) is heavily involved in this new category too, with many of the 2300+ Travelbug accommodation operators supplying deals to Trade Me. There won’t be any mucking around after winning a Travelbug auction either - stay dates are confirmed instantly on the Travelbug website and to keep it simple, payment is by credit card only.
Note too that there is no requirement for operators wanting to list auctions in the new category to be existing Travelbug partners. The opportunity is open to anyone operating in the New Zealand travel and tourism market.
Check out the new Travel category on Trade Me here.
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Trade Me accommodation auctions can now be created from your BookIt account! On Monday the 6th of September Trade Me will launch accommodation auctions with a difference: travellers will be aware of the dates that are available before they bid and operators won’t need to worry about taking bookings or payments manually. To participate in this, you don’t even need a Trade Me membership as you are now able to create these Trade Me auctions through BookIt.
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| How will the auctions work? |
BookIt accommodation operators will be able to load and manage Trade Me auctions through their BookIt account directly. Travellers who win auctions will use Travelbug to redeem their auction and make a booking for the value of their winning bid.
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| What does this mean for you? |
This gives you a chance to run auctions for need periods, high-demand periods, interesting packages or anything else and let the system do the work. BookIt will relist for you until the number of auctions you’ve specified has run out. You don’t need to worry about taking payments, sending confirmation emails, or invoicing as Travelbug will take care of all this for you. What’s more, you’ll be able to report on the auctions you’ve run, the number of nights they’ve returned, and the revenue they’ve generated.
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The fee for these auctions is 10% of the cost of sale. This includes credit card fees, gallery and bold title features on Trade Me, and all photos. The fees and payments will be processed automatically by Travelbug in the usual manner. There are no other costs at all, only the 10% commission processed by Travelbug.
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You can start loading auctions through your BookIt account from today but these auctions will not appear on Trade Me until we launch the Travel category on the 6th of September.
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- There are no ‘subject to availability’ periods for BookIt-generated auctions. Whatever travel period you specify in the auction must be made available for booking by the winner of the auction.
- Auction winners have 24 hours to secure their booking through Travelbug.
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- Try $1 reserve auctions. They will draw visitors to all of your listings and attract a lot of bids for the $1 reserve auctions.
- Be creative. Auctions that are a little bit different are more popular and will grab attention.
- Try multi-night auctions and auctions for specific nights.
- Make sure your listing has as much information as possible. Better descriptions attract more bids and fewer questions.
- Load great photos.
- Try low buy-now prices for nights that you really need to fill with lots of inventory behind them. These can create ongoing interest in your property and generate buzz.
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Have fun loading auctions and if you need any help please contact us on 0508 BOOKIT or email support@bookit.co.nz. |
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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:
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BookIt makes Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific
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Tourism Auckland launches BookIt system
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New BookIt suppliers getting great feedback
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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.
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