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

In a media release yesterday, the Ministry of Tourism Research have confirmed that New Zealand travellers are increasingly using the internet to book more than just accommodation. The report comes as a result of the latest Regional Visitor Monitor (RVM) survey.

“We’re seeing a real trend to domestic travel being booked online across a range of travel purchases,” said Bruce Bassett, Ministry of Tourism Research Manager.

Mr Bassett said that these findings show that tourism operators in all areas of the industry needed to get their inventory web-ready and keep their web content fresh and relevant.

“This data sends a clear message to operators that domestic travellers, who account for 56% of tourism spend in New Zealand, are expecting to be able to plan and book as much as they can online. It’s important for operators to make sure their website meets this expectation.”

If it is not done well, online bookings can be a complicated, costly & unproductive exercise. The really good news for NZ tourism operators, is that BookIt makes online bookings easy and accessible for everyone. Since 1999 we have been building online booking systems for the travel and tourism industry and for over 5 years we have packaged this knowledge into our BookIt online booking engine.

With clients that range from NZ's largest tourism organisations and RTO's, through to family run B&B's, BookIt can plug into your website for FREE to capture this growth in online booking activity.

Contact us, or register for free today!

What do you do when a customer wants to cancel their booking? This short guide explains the different options available for every party involved.

For Suppliers:
If a customer contacts you to cancel a BookIt booking, you do not need to send them back to BookIt, or back to the Reseller website owner.

Simply log in to your BookIt account (http://business.bookit.co.nz), search for the booking in the “Bookings” section and select the “Cancel” option at the bottom of the page. If you have forgotten your password click the “Forgotten password” link and your password will be emailed to you.

The BookIt system will apply your applicable cancellation policy. You also have the option of waiving your cancellation fees if you need to, or even if you’re just feeling generous that day!

And of course, make sure to cancel the booking in your own system if it is not directly integrated with BookIt.

If you need to check or update your cancellation policies, go to:
Product Details -> Edit Business -> Cancellation policies and special terms

For Resellers:
If a customer contacts you to cancel a BookIt booking made through your website, you do not need to send them back to BookIt.

You can log in to your BookIt account as per the Suppliers section above and cancel the booking. The BookIt system will apply the appropriate supplier’s cancellation policy and then notify the supplier of the cancellation.

You can also advise the customer that they can cancel the booking themselves, read on…

For Customers:
When a customer wishes to cancel their booking, they can log in to their BookIt account at http://bookings.bookit.co.nz. A login password will have been emailed to them when they made the booking. Customers can also login with the 10 digit itinerary code printed on their voucher.

The BookIt system will apply the appropriate supplier’s cancellation policy and then notify the supplier of the cancellation.

Amendments:
Please note, amendments are also no problem with the BookIt system. You can amend a booking in a very similar manner to the above, simply select the "Amend booking" option and follow the wizard to make the necessary changes. Any refunds or additional payments required with the customer and adjustments in payments and commissions are all calculated and generated instantly!

Support:
If you get stuck, BookIt’s support team can help:

During business hours:   Toll free 0508 BOOKIT (0508 266548) or email to support@bookit.co.nz
After hours & public holidays:  Email to support@bookit.co.nz

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

The fourth annual Fraud Awareness Week was kicked off earlier this month with a speech by Hon Heather Roy, Minister Of Consumer Affairs at the Trade Me offices in Wellington.

Fraud Awareness Week is run in New Zealand by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and the Commerce Commission as part of the Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce - a group of 19 Australian and New Zealand government agencies. The Taskforce works together to reduce the incidence and impact of frauds and scams and, each year, co-ordinates an information campaign for consumers timed to coincide with other global consumer fraud prevention activities.

In the world of online bookings, attempted fraud is an unfortunate inevitability. But don't worry, we've got your back. The team at BookIt have intercepted a number of fraud attempts over the past few years successfully preventing any losses on behalf of our customers.

The most common scam is for a fraudster to make a large booking using a stolen credit card. Shortly after making the booking, they will ask for a full refund to be made, either to another credit card, or via an international transfer service such as Western Union. It is very important to never process a refund to another credit card or via Western Union. All refunds should go through the BookIt system and will automatically be processed back to the original credit card.

If you receive a booking that looks suspicious, don't hesitate to contact us immediately. We have a number of measures in place to detect and avoid internet fraud and are here to help.

For more information visit http://www.consumeraffairs.govt.nz/scamwatch. SCAMwatch is an information service provided by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.

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.

We would like to say a big "thank you" to all our clients and suppliers for your support this year. It has been a great year for us and we are looking forward to working with you in 2009.

Have a very merry Christmas and fantastic New Year!

We are pleased to announce that Beds24.com is now supported on BookIt. Suppliers using Beds24.com can now have their inventory automatically updated in BookIt. Please contact us if you require assistance setting up this feature.

One of the great things about BookIt is the "software as a service" (SaaS) model that our business is built around. What does this mean? It means that we can easily roll out new features to the booking system without requiring our customers to install complex upgrades. It also means that if one of our clients requests a new feature, then all our clients benefit because that feature becomes available to everyone.

To give you some examples, we've recently rolled out a few new features to the BookIt booking system: 

Feature 1: When selecting a date, the availability of a product is dynamically checked "on the fly"
The customer can instantly see what dates are available, not available or "on request"



Feature 2: Improvements have been made to the cross-selling system
Making it even easier for customers to add more bookings with either the same supplier or 3rd party suppliers



Feature 3: A progress indicator when saving changes
Re-assures the customer while the page loads 



We think these features will make the booking process even easier to use for customers. We've got plenty of new features in the pipeline and as always we welcome your feedback. What new features would you like to see? 

Does the BookIt system support tracking code such as Google Analytics? You bet! BookIt can even track conversions and e-commerce data.

If you would like to use Google Analytics on your BookIt booking pages please follow these steps:

1. Log into Google Analytics and activate e-commerce tracking
2. Send us your Google Analytics tracking code by following these steps
3. We will then install the tracking code into your BookIt pages
4. We'll also activate conversion and e-commerce tracking on the BookIt confirmation page so you can see what people are booking, for how much and what their BookIt reference is

Once the tracking code is installed you can see all sorts of useful data and wizzy graphs:

Please note a setup charge applies for the installation of Google Tracking code. Contact us for more details.