Bookassist News & Press

Bookassist continues its leading online strategy development through an exciting partnership with TripAdvisor to allow our client hotels to offer a direct booking link to their hotel website from their TripAdvisor page.

The new TripAdvisor Direct with Bookassist is one of the strongest third party calls to action you can avail of to drive more direct traffic to your website and generate new direct business today.

How It Works

With over 50 million reviews, TripAdvisor is the major source of influential user-generated content online and generates significant referral business for any hotel. When a visitor views your hotel profile on TripAdvisor, a list of providers or “partners” is provided underneath the “Show Prices” button. Bookassist has integrated with TripAdvisor to add your hotel website as a direct link on the list of providers. An additional feature of the show prices area is that it is always shown as a page banner even if the visitor scrolls down the page.


Pricing and Reporting


Contact Us

Contact your local sales representative now and avail of TripAdvisor Direct with Bookassist - see the international contact details page or email sales@bookassist.com.

Labels: CPC, PPC, Reviews, Social Media, Traffic Builder, TripAdvisor

Bookassist has announced the appointment of Julie O'Sullivan as Business Development Manager for Ireland, based in the Dublin office.

Julie has over 6 years experience in the tourism and hospitality industry and most recently held a senior sales role with the Convention Centre Dublin (CCD) where she looked after the International association conference market. Julie was part of the pre-opening sales team and was involved in the high profile launch of The CCD in Ireland and throughout Europe. Prior to this she worked with Platinum One Ltd in sales and operations for corporate conferences, sports events and incentive groups. Julie holds a first class degree in Information & Communications Technology from Trinity College Dublin.

Labels: Appointments, Ireland

Bookassist has announced the appointment of Kirsten Rhode as Director of Global Distribution Services for the organization.

Kirsten was previously a senior executive with Genares Worldwide Reservations. Her most recent position was as Director of International Business Development. Fluent in German and English, Kirsten has experience working in several European markets. Throughout her career at Genares, she gained a reputation for expanding customer relationships and developing advanced revenue management strategies for a client base from small boutique hotels to large property groups.  She has significant social media, sales, GDS, marketing and call center operational experience.

Kirsten hails from Dallas, Texas and has a Bachelors Degree in Psychology from Texas Christian University.

Labels: Appointments, GDS

Bookassist has announced the appointment of Yauric Mercier as Vice President Sales for the organization.

Yauric was most recently Vice President of EMEA Sales for Paris-based online reservations company FastBooking. He has had a strong career within the hotel industry throughout Europe including stops at the Richemond Hotel in Geneva, La Réserve Hotel in Geneva, the Hôtels et Résidences du Roi Group in Paris, the Montalembert Hotel Paris and the Bel Ami in Paris. He was trained at the Glion Hotel School and went on to obtain a Masters in Hotel Marketing.

Labels: Appointments

Dublin, 18 August 2011

Bookassist, the technology and online strategy firm for hotels, has announced official certification of their booking engine software integration with the OPERA Property Management System (PMS) from the world's leading hotel solutions provider MICROS-Fidelio. The connection service allows hotels to automatically and seamlessly manage their online reservations from Bookassist via the OPERA PMS.

The connection service is the latest in a list of integrations between Bookassist's popular booking platform and the world's leading property management systems and channel managers.

Speaking about the advantages of the integration, Karen Moran, Sales & Marketing Director at Moran & Bewley's Hotels UK & Ireland said: "We're delighted to have direct integration between our online booking and our MICROS-Fidelio OPERA property management systems right across the group. It saves considerable time and effort, and more importantly makes sure that the reservations detail is end-to-end accurate. The automation allows our staff to get on with the more important business of running the hotel rather than worrying about technology."

Bookassist have collaborated with MICROS-Fidelio on the integration and client roll-out over the last 18 months culminating in official certification. A number of existing mutual clients have been using the integration since its first introduction in late 2010.

Discussing the official certification, Bookassist CEO Dr Des O'Mahony said: "A significant number of our clients in all the countries we operate in are also MICROS-Fidelio clients. This integration is a real advantage for them, reducing manpower, eliminating transfer errors, and improving efficiency. We expect a significant uptake of this new joint service."

"MICROS-Fidelio is pleased to offer connectivity between our hotel solution OPERA and Bookassist. The interface with Bookassist provides automated booking notifications directly into the OPERA hotel system," said Dr Peter Agel, Senior Vice President eCommerce and Strategic Solutions EMEA at MICROS-Fidelio.

Bookassist® (bookassist.org) creates and manages successful and proven online strategies for thousands of hotels and groups and is one of the leading hotel booking engine and online marketing providers in Europe. Headquartered in Dublin and with offices in 6 countries, Bookassist has received numerous awards in Online Trade, Online Marketing, and Technological Innovation.

MICROS-Fidelio International (micros-fidelio.eu), the global markets subsidiary of MICROS®, is the premier provider of enterprise-wide integrated information technologies for the hotel industry. MICROS-Fidelio has become "the standard" in the industry with over 25,000 installations worldwide. Its enterprise solutions include multi-property, fully integrated hotel systems encompassing property management systems, sales and catering systems, central reservation systems, customer information systems, revenue management systems, an Internet/global distribution system-based hotel reservation service called myfidelio.net, and installation and support services associated with the various software products.

Labels: Corporate news, CRS, innovation, PMS, technology, XML

Bookassist's fifth annual hotel strategy conference, Bookassist5, is scheduled for the Conrad Hotel, Central Dublin on September 27th next, with presentations from the Bookassist Team as well as keynote topics from Peter O'Connor, Oonagh Cremins, Krishna De, Giancarlo Carniani and John Fanning.

Places are limited, so register now at bookassist.org/seminars/bookassist5

Labels: Seminars

Dublin, Ireland.
Wednesday June 29, 2011

Technology and online strategy company for hotels Bookassist (bookassist.org) has launched Reputation Alert, a new service to allow hotels to continually track online customer comments and reviews across hundreds of social media sites and bring them together in one convenient place. Featuring TrustYou semantic analysis of reviews, the service helps hotels create effective positive action plans based on their customers opinions. Reputation Alert will dramatically simplify the burden faced by hotels today in monitoring what is said about them online and in managing their valuable online reputation.


The service is available this month to all Bookassist’s clients for a competitive annual fee and can be accessed directly through their existing Bookassist hotel administration system.

Bookassist has partnered with TrustYou (www.trustyou.com), the innovative semantic search and social media management specialists, for the provision of automatic online reviews monitoring that forms the core of the Reputation Alert service. In addition to TrustYou services, Reputation Alert will also automatically collect reviews from hotel guests who use the hotel’s web booking engine. As part of the service, Bookassist Account Managers for each hotel will additionally monitor online review data and work to create corrective action plans for hotel clients to actively improve online reputation.

“Online reputation is a critical influencer in decisions to book hotels", said Dr Des O'Mahony, Bookassist CEO and Founder. “With the proliferation of online review services and social media, it has become a daunting task for hotels to stay on top of their reputation, and to quickly act on that information. Reputation Alert solves this problem.”

“We are delighted to integrate TrustYou’s social data platform and semantic analysis into Bookassist’s systems to enrich their service. With our combined forces we are able to help hoteliers to collect, analyze and engage with customer reviews throughout the social web” said Benjamin Jost, TrustYou CEO and Co-Founder.

The service is not just about getting the volume of online information into manageable form. Hotels also need to act on this information and quickly correct issues arising. Bookassist Account Managers, as part of the Reputation Alert service, will work with the collected reputation data and with the hotels to create responsive action plans.

“No amount of online technology will make up for poor offline service”, says O’Mahony. “Hotels must use Reputation Alert as a monitor of their service levels and learn from what their guests are saying in order to begin the reputation improvement process”.

The service has already been in trial for a number of weeks and has received strongly positive reviews.

"It's challenging trying to monitor what is being said about our hotel. With Reputation Alert we can see everything on review and social media sites including Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Flickr. This will enable us to manage, respond and act very quickly" commented Denise Corboy, Director of Sales at Camden Court Hotel in Dublin (camdencourthotel.com).

"Bookassist’s Reputation Alert gives me a greater insight into what people are saying online about my property. I can also very quickly benchmark against my competitors and look for opportunities to differentiate myself from them. I particularly like the facility to respond to guest reviews directly from within system" said Martin Cassidy of Cassidy’s Hotel in Dublin (cassidyshotel.com)

"Reputation Alert is a very useful tool which will assist us in listening to what our guests are saying online. We gain valuable data allowing us to improve our overall service and product quickly", said Kim Murtagh, Sales and Marketing Manager at Stillorgan Park Hotel (stillorganpark.com).

Reputation Alert, incorporating TrustYou services, is rolled out this month in all of Bookassist’s key markets. For more information, see bookassist.org/reputation

Bookassist® creates and manages online strategies for hotels and groups and is one of the leading hotel booking technology and online marketing providers in Europe. Headquartered in Dublin, with offices in Madrid, Paris, Rome, Vienna and Prague, Bookassist is a Deloitte Fast 50 Technology Company and Top 100 Deloitte Technology Company in Europe. The company has received numerous awards in Online Trade, Online Marketing, and Technological Innovation including the Irish Internet Association’s NetVisionary Internet Entrepreneur Award.

TrustYou gathers and semantically structures opinions found online in reviews, posts, and comments, and makes them accessible through a range of applications and APIs. TrustYou-Analytics, the leading social media management tool worldwide, allows hoteliers, destinations, and travel companies to analyze and react to the quality and reputation of their hotels according to the data collected from reviews posted online. Current customers include hundreds of hotels and travel giants such as InterContinental Hotels, Best Western Hotels, Maritim Hotels, Worldhotels, Trust International, Micros-Fidelio, HolidayCheck and many more. TrustYou was founded in 2008 by Jakob Riegger and Benjamin Jost. In November 2010, PhoCusWright honoured and recognized TrustYou as one of the leading innovators in travel.

Labels: Corporate news, reputation, Social Media, technology

Bookassist has completed a series of very successful seminars in Prague on 31.05.2011, in Karlovy Vary on 01.06.2011 and in Paris on 07.06.2011. Over 200 delegates participated overall with presentations on reputation management, social media integration and ecommerce, mobile opportunites for hotels and much more. See Bookassist's Facebook page on facebook.com/bookassist for some pictures of the events.

Labels: Bookassist clients, Czech, France, Seminars

Bookassist has announced the appointment of Elaine McCormack as Legal Counsel to the company, to be based in its Dublin Headquarters.

Elaine is a commercial solicitor with over eleven years experience working as a commercial lawyer before joining Bookassist. She has previously worked in a number of large commercial law firms and has also worked as a lawyer in the Irish Telecommunications Regulator and in Pioneer Investments. Elaine qualified as a solicitor in Ireland in 2003 and in England and Wales in 2010.

Elaine holds a Bachelor of Corporate Law and LLB from NUI, Galway and a Diploma in Commercial Law from the Law Society of Ireland. Elaine is also an Irish and European Registered Trade Mark and Design Attorney.

Labels: Appointments, Ireland

Pietro Filippi has been appointed Director of Sales for Italy. Pietro comes to Bookassist with a wealth of experience in hotel contracting in big organizations around Europe. He has previously worked as Director of a CTS travel agency and in Transhotel as Sales Executive. He then joined Albatravel Group as Sales Manager, rising to Senior Contract Manager. More recently, he has been at Kuoni Group as FIT Contract Manager for Italy and Malta.

Fiamma Franceschilli joins Bookassist as Senior Account Manager for Italy. Fiamma has extensive experience in the online travel industry. She started and built a large part of the Venere.com affiliate network at the very early stages of that company's growth. She has since been in a business development role for GTA in Italy before moving to Booking.com as Account Manager for Distribution.

Lucrezia Pettinato joins Bookassist's existing team in Rome as Support Coordinator. Lucrezia has previous experience in a number of 5 star hotels in Rome and Edinburgh with responsibility for Online Marketing activities, competitive analysis and rate management. She holds a Masters in Hospitality and Hotel management.

Labels: Appointments, Italy

Wilhelm Pichler has joined Bookassist as Sales Manager for German speaking markets.

He has worked as Country Manager Austria for the well known B2B online platform Transhotel for more than 4 years being responsible for growth of the Austrian market, as well as for a property management software (PMS) company. Prior to that he was Business Development Manager for Orange Wings, a modern startup hotel group in the low budget segment, as well as managing a resort hotel in Kenya/East Africa as Hotel Manager. He has also in the past held many other hotel positions and has run his own travel agency. Wilhelm brings excellent CRM experience and sales know-how also from his experience as Product Marketing Manager for a CRM software company. He has a degree in Hotel and Tourist Management from the HLF in Krems.

Labels: Appointments, Austria, Sales

John Braine has joined Bookassist as Senior User Experience Designer, based in the Dublin office.

John has over a decade of experience in a variety of web roles. In page7media he developed a system to produce car dealer web sites from existing raw data to full working sites. He then moved to Palm, where he was responsible for the suite of European corporate web sites. More recently, John was with Green Island Interactive as both Art Director and Senior Web Designer, working on their custom built CMS and designing/building client sites. John also worked for the E-learning company Third Force as a script writer and process manager. He has a Master’s degree in Multimedia Systems.

Labels: Appointments, UI, UX