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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
We’ve just completed a major revamp of the Bookit booking process. The new process is cleaner, feature-rich and requires only 1 or 2 steps to complete bookings. Early indicators are that the new booking process has directly increased conversions by up to 30%.
If you use BookIt on your own website you’re already running on the new version. We’ll be sending a detailed feature summary so look out for this in your inbox soon.
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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It has been a busy start to the year for the BookIt development team and we've just released our new 'daily inclusions' feature.
What is daily inclusion data you may ask?
It is a short summary of what your guests will enjoy with the room/product they book. Inclusion data should describe what the customer is paying for, eg "includes buffet breakfast for two and free wi-fi internet", rather than a full room description. This information will also appear on the Travelbug confirmation page and the traveller and operator confirmation emails.
Here's how it looks on Travelbug:
 How to load inclusions data
If you are a customer of Siteminder, Seekom or STAAH you just need to ensure you have loaded inclusion data at that end and BookIt will do the rest. Take a look at your listing on Travelbug to see how it looks.
If you are not using one of the channel managers above you will need to load and manage the inclusions directly in your BookIt account.
- Login to BookIt
- Click on the 'Inventory Manager' tab
- Click on the 'Manage inclusions' link
- Enter your default inclusions for each product. Where a rate includes just the room, enter "Room only"
- Click 'Save' when you are finished
If you need to enter separate inclusions for individual dates, click on 'Override inclusions' - again don't forget to click 'Save' when you are finished.
Both the BookIt booking confirmation email and booking details pages will include the relevant inclusions data for the booking, so you and your team know what the guest has paid for and is expecting. Login to BookIt now
If you have any questions at all, please contact us any day of the week between 9am and 5pm on 0508 BOOKIT or support@bookit.co.nz
Happy inclusion-ing!
It's now February and 2011 is in full swing. We've been busy and have a number
of exciting new features to tell you about and a cool new activities reseller on the network. Check them out and
as always, let us know if you need anything!
Cheers - Daniel
In this issue:
- Using BookIt in your own website or for the new-look newzealand.com
- New BookIt features
- New Travelbug features
- Trade Me auctions reminder
- New resellers in the network
- Reseller feature - activate-me.co.nz
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BookIt, low cost self-retail and the new newzealand.com
You may know that you can use BookIt to sell your own product on your own website, but you may not know that it only
costs 4.5% commission for accommodation bookings and 6% for non-accommodation - including credit card fees and commission.
With the new newzealand.com providing you
the opportunity to link to your own website, make sure you are maximising all your traffic by offering quick and easy
bookings for all visitors to your site. Adding BookIt to your site is quick and easy and is available for no upfront cost.
You can add BookIt to your website for no upfront cost or you can choose to
add your own website's look and feel for a small additional cost.
Contact us for more information.
You may know that you can use BookIt to sell your own product on your own website, but you may not know that it only
costs 4.5% commission for accommodation bookings and 6% for non-accommodation - including credit card processing fees.
With the new newzealand.com providing you the
opportunity to have a 'Book Now' link to your own website, make sure you are
maximising all your traffic by offering realtime (and secure) booking services to visitors to your site. Adding
BookIt to your site is quick and easy and is available for no upfront cost. You can choose to add your own website's
look and feel for a small additional cost.
Another reason for adding BookIt services to your own website is to be able to measure the effectiveness of your
website, and cut down on the steps potential guests/visitors need to make to confirm a booking. Recent
feedback from Flying Kiwi Parasail in the Bay of Islands was very positive, they have had over $5000 in
direct bookings since adding the BookIt calendar to their website in December - prior to that it was difficult to differentiate where the booking closed i.e. web, email, phone or walk up.
Contact us for more information, and for assistance in adding BookIt services and tools to your own website.
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New BookIt features
The dev team have recently released a few cool new features on BookIt
including:
- Manage products outside your channel manager - if you've ever wanted to
run a short-term promotion on Travelbug but have been unable to because it takes
too long linking it with your channel manager, good news! You can now choose to
load a product and manage it manually by entering rates and inventory directly
in your Inventory Manager.
- Product descriptions on accommodation bookings - travellers and operators
now get the full product description on confirmation emails. This makes it
easier for both parties to see what has been booked. Please make sure you are
happy with your product descriptions today.
Login to BookIt and check out these new features.
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New Travelbug features
Trevor the Travelbug continues to sharpen up his act. There will be more cool
new features coming out soon (so watch this space) but for now here are the
recent improvements:
- Travelbug enquiry feature - we now allow back-and-forth enquiry threads
between travellers and Travelbug properties to enable easier enquiry and reply.
These enquiries are free for operators and so we'd ask that wherever possible
you direct travellers back to your Travelbug listing to make their booking.
- Travelbug deals of the week email makeover - one property per week will be featured at
the top of the email and in the subject
line. If you have a deal that you would like featured, email
deals@travelbug.co.nz and send us the
details.
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| Trade Me auctions reminder |
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Have you tried auctions on Trade Me yet? You can load accommodation
auctions in BookIt for no upfront cost (just a 10% commission on confirmed
bookings) and there is no post-auction hassle.
Auctions are great for selling distressed inventory but even more useful
for getting free exposure for your business. To maximise the opportunity you
should make your auction name interesting, make your description stand out and
try $1 reserve auctions - they attract more bids, more pageviews and therefore
more buzz.
Login to BookIt and
load some auctions today!
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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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Reseller feature - Activate Me
Activate-Me.co.nz is a website devoted to promoting activities throughout New Zealand. Like Accommodate-Me, every listing can
display pictures, video, description text and BookIt calendars and secure booking service.
All Activate Me listings will display on Accommodate-Me accommodation listings enabling you to be viewed by over 50,000 visitors every
year. We invite all BookIt customers to list on Activate-Me for a yearly fee of $59.95 + GST.
To view the site go to Activate-Me.co.nz or for more
information, contact steve@accommodateme.co.nz
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BookIt billing address change
Please make sure you have the correct billing address for BookIt - it is:
BookIt
C/- Trade Me Limited
PO Box 11042
Wellington
New Zealand
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Thanks for reading. 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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We are only closed for a couple of days over the Christmas and New Year period to provide you the best service possible. Opening hours:
| Now until 24th December |
9am-5pm every day |
| 25th and 26th December |
CLOSED |
| 27th December - 31st December |
9am -5pm every day |
| 1st and 2nd January |
CLOSED |
| 3rd January onwards |
9am-5pm every day |
On the days we are closed we will be checking the inbox for urgent matters. If you have something that cannot wait until the next business day, send us an email with "URGENT" in the subject line and it will be picked up when we periodically check the inbox. We wish you a safe, prosperous and enjoyable festive season. Happy holidays! 
 August 18, 2010 15:47 by  daniel
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Spring is just around the corner (I promise) and we're pleased to be able to announce
that we will soon be launching a Travel category on Trade Me. Please read on for
more information about that and much more.
- Trade Me Travel auctions
- New Travelbug feature
- Vianet shutting down 30th September
- GST changes
- Rugby World Cup 2011
- Reseller feature - Kidsfriendly
- E-tourism conference, Auckland, 31st August
- New resellers in the network
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Trade Me Travel auctions
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We will soon be launching a Travel category on Trade Me where anyone will be able
to list their accommodation, event tickets, flights and other tourism-related product.
But the really exciting news is that you will be able to load and manage Trade Me
accommodation auctions through your BookIt account. Trade Me members will be able
to bid or "buy now" and then redeem through Travelbug.
This will take payments, re-listing, reporting and traveller communications out
of your hands so you can concentrate on selling rooms.
Watch out for further information from us in the next couple of weeks.
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New Travelbug feature - on request clarification
We have added on-request indicators to Travelbug's booking calendar to make it clearer
to travellers whether their booking is going to be instantly confirmed or if it
will be subject to confirmation. Instantly confirmable bookings are the traveller's
preference, so you should switch to instant confirmation in BookIt if you can. BookIt
links to most channel managers and many PMS, and you can also allocate rooms using
our 'inventory manager'.
Visit your Travelbug listing and see how
your property looks to potential guests.
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Vianet shutting down 30th September
We will be turning Vianet off for new bookings on 30 th September 2010.
Forward Vianet bookings and funds are safe and you will still be able to log into
your Vianet account to review existing bookings and draw down funds. The upcoming
change in GST has helped define the 30 th September deadline. While BookIt
is ready to go for these tax changes, Vianet would need a lot of work to allow it
to process bookings at the new tax rate. As the intention was always to switch Vianet
off by the end of the year, it is practical to do so before these changes take place.
If you are using Vianet in your website to process bookings, you'll need to swap
the Vianet tools out for BookIt ones. The code can be downloaded within your BookIt
login. Simply visit the Product setup > edit business > link manager page
and you'll find what you need.
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GST changes coming into effect 1st October
On 1 st October 2010, the GST rate will rise from 12.5% to 15%. The main
questions suppliers are likely to have are when will the traveller be charged 12.5%,
when will they be charged 15% and what rate do I need to account for? The rate to
be charged is dependent on when 'supply' is deemed to have taken place. Under the
GST Act, a supply is deemed to have taken place at the earlier of an invoice being
issued or the time of payment.
When a traveller books through BookIt on or before 30 st September 2010,
an invoice is automatically issued and the applicable GST rate will be 12.5%. This
is the rate at which you will receive payment for that booking. All bookings made
from 1 st October 2010 onwards will have GST charged at 15%.
This approach is consistent with the professional advice sourced by TIA and the
NZ Hotel Council. A copy of which is available on the members section of the TIA
website at www.tianz.co.nz. Alternatively you
can contact us at accounts@bookit.co.nz. |
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Rugby World Cup 2011
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You may already be sick of hearing about the Rugby World Cup, but we thought it
important to remind you that some BookIt resellers can sell your rooms for the Rugby
World Cup already. Do you know what price your property is selling
for in September 2011?
Take this chance to login
to BookIt today and make sure that you are happy with your rates and availability.
Travelbug sells rooms up to 12 months in advance, so as soon as individual tickets
go on sale on 10 th September, you should be ready to receive bookings. |
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Reseller feature - Kids Friendly New Zealand
KidsFriendlyTravel.com is a one
stop shop for families who love to travel. The site has teamed up with blue chip
operators, the likes of Air New Zealand, Qantas, Budget Rental Cars and BookIt to
provide families travelling with children an easy way to choose and book a trip.
Along with flights, rental cars and campervans, visitors can start to book their
accommodation from any page on the website. The site is ideal for any activity or
accommodation business which targets the family market. Check their site out
here.
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E-tourism Conference
Daniel, Chris and Alex are heading along to the e-tourism conference, to be held
at the Ellerslie Event Centre on the 31 st August and 1 st September
and they hope to be able to say hello to you in person at our stand.
Take a look at the programme here. |
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New resellers in the network
Chris keeps signing up resellers and helping them come over from Vianet. Here are
the resellers that have gone live with BookIt in the last month:
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Thanks for your continued support. If you have any questions at all, make sure you
contact us on 0508 BOOKIT or email support@bookit.co.nz.
In the meantime, watch out for more news soon about managing Trade Me auctions through
BookIt! |
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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.nzAnswers to some frequent questions: Travelbug bookings - 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.
Travelbug changes - 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.
BookIt information - 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.
Vianet information - 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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:
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Alex Fala
Trade Me
Ph 021 896 363
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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.
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