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Once again HotelConnect have been named the Scottish Passenger Agents' Association's 'Best Hotel Booking Agency'. This great accolade is voted for by SPAA members, and is further proof of HotelConnect's continued excellent service to its agents. Ian Ackland, Commercial Manager, said, "Congratulations go to Business Development Manager, Diane Duncan, who takes care of the Scottish Agents, and to the entire HotelConnect team for playing a role in helping to win this award. Most of all we would like to thank all those who voted for us, and we look forward to working closely with all our Scottish agents in the future."
To go the website, click here.
HotelConnect were recipients of the coveted Best Travel Trade Website award at the Northern Ireland Annual Travel Awards on Friday 17th October, hosted by ITV's Craig Doyle who is no stranger to the industry, having hosted the BBC's Travel Programme.
This is the second year in a row that HotelConnect have won the Best Website award, and is thanks to the ongoing efforts of the entire HotelConnect team, consistently providing agents with a fun, easy-to-use website and great after-sales service.
HotelConnect thanks all those agents in Northern Ireland who voted and look forward to working with them in the future.
To go the website, click here.
Once again HotelConnect staff were celebrating being voted Land Supplier of the year by Flight Centre staff. It was a double celebration as HotelConnect were also voted Best Hotel Supplier.
"We're so pleased that our dedication to customer service and determination to supply quality hotel product has been recognised for the second year running by Flight Centre staff," said Key Account Manager Michelle Lindsay.
Accommodation only partner HotelConnect has been awarded the maximum score in Advantage Travel Centres' new Agent Friendly rankings.
In the score-based system suppliers are awarded 'ticks' based on assessment of four vital areas of business - including policies on Training & Support and Direct Marketing.
HotelConnect has been awarded the maximum four ticks, confirming that it is extremely agent-friendly.
"We work in partnership with our agents and see it as our role to support them and provide advice on the best way to sell our product," says HotelConnect's commercial manager Ian Ackland. "We now communicate marketing plans and business growth ideas to each of our key agents on a regular basis and this is paying off with an 18% rise in agent business year on year."
HotelConnect was presented the 'Dynamic Packaging Provider Offering Product and Service Excellence Award' from Short Breaks & Holidays magazine presented at World Travel Market.
Short Breaks and Holidays is the leading UK trade magazine dedicated to this growing market sector and its awards are voted for by Travel Agents online.
The Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association named HotelConnect the ‘Best Hotel Booking Company’ at their Annual Travel Awards Dinner on November 6, 2007 at the Glasgow Hilton Hotel. An entertaining evening - featuring a Rod Stewart sound-alike – was had by all. Tribute was paid to staff members who helped detain perpetrators of an attempted terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport in the summer.
Diane Duncan, HotelConnect accepting the award from new SPAA President Jimmy Martin of Jimmy Martin Travel (pictured right)
HotelConnect was awarded the ‘Best Travel Industry Internet Booking System’ title at the 6th Northern Ireland Travel and Tourism Awards Gala at the Slieve Donard Resort and Spa on October 19th. The event, hosted by Angela Rippon was attended by HotelConnect’s very own Emma McNamee and Diane Duncan.
Emma & Diane were on hand to accept the award from Tony Seanman, from award sponsor Attraction World, and NI Travel News Girl Hayley McDonald (pictured right). This is another award voted for by Travel Agents, something of which HotelConnect is very proud.
HotelConnect are celebrating winning the best accommodation only provider category at this year's TTG awards on September 13th at Old Billingsgate, London.
Winning a TTG award is a great accolade from the industry and we’re delighted that our agent partners have nominated and voted for us. Ian Ackland, Commercial Manager commented that ‘to have our agents vote for us and to have the added stamp of approval from the industry judging panel is a really good sign that we're doing what we set out to do - providing an experience that encourages agents to come back to us time and time again.’
Service and quality have always been a key focus at HotelConnect and it's very reassuring that it is these elements that are winning us awards.
The team at HotelConnect is celebrating a double win after being voted top supplier by Flight Centre staff.
The online hotel specialist is the travel agent’s Land Supplier of the Year and also picked up the award for Best Customer Service, Land Supplier.
HotelConnect staff, including the operator’s trade mascot Secret Agent (back left) plus (front row, left to right) head of sales Emma McNamee, account manager Michelle Lindsay and managing director Chris Fraser are pictured with the awards.
Staff at online accommodation specialist HotelConnect have gone Green, launching a number of initiatives to reduce their company’s carbon footprint.
A team representing all areas of the business – which employs over 100 people at offices in north London – has called in SmartWorks to carry out a ‘green audit’ of the company. The Green Team hopes to set targets for reducing the office’s energy and water consumption and the amount of waste produced. The company is also looking at off-setting their business travel flights.
First steps include replacing disposable plastic cups with re-usable beakers, installing re-cycling points for everything from plastic bags to office paper and cardboard.
Staff have chosen to support WWF – the wildlife charity - with their fundraising efforts and the company has already received an award from the Charities Trust recognising its efforts to promote payroll giving. The company contributes £2 for every £1 of charitable donations made by staff.
Leading online accommodation specialist HotelConnect is re-launching its dedicated agents’ website with extra features and additional product not available direct to the public.
The changes to the website are being made as a result of feedback to the company’s field sales team as well as consumer market research commissioned by the company. “The qualitative research carried out with both agents and consumers highlights many positives, with 86% of customers surveyed ‘Very Satisfied’ and a further 14% ‘Quite Satisfied’ – and a zero level of dissatisfied travellers,” says new commercial manager Ian Ackland.
“We get excellent feedback from agents about the quality and the prices of our properties, as well as for the ‘extras’ we provide, such as hard-copy confirmations of booking, and the 24-hour helpline clients can call while they’re abroad. But it was clear that agents need more flexibility when it comes to searching for, and showing clients what is available” says new commercial manager Ian Ackland.
Changes to the dedicated website www.agents.hotelconnect.co.uk include search results returned with a thumbnail picture of each hotel plus a two-line summary of the hotel and its facilities. “Agents no longer have to click through to each hotel to see what it is like and the fully-inclusive complete price is clearly displayed,” says Ackland.
“Agents told us that they needed to be able to use several search criteria at the same time, such as star rating and price as well as whether or not there is a special offer."
“In addition, our new short-list option means agents can hold up to six different hotels in a short-list to show the client, making comparisons easy and speeding up the client’s decision making process.”
As well as these features, HotelConnect has hundreds of special prices and offers at hotels that are not available on its customer-facing website.
“Instead of prices and offers being kept for a direct-sell site, as so often happens with operators, HotelConnect has done the opposite – we have many fantastic deals at top brand hotel chains that are not available to direct bookers, and can only be booked by agents either via the dedicated site or through our XML dynamic packaging feed” points out Ackland.
The re-launch of the improved website is being supported by a trade promotion that combines an agents’ competition for concert tickets with a ‘Summer of Free Nights’ campaign to boost European city break bookings. Agents can download point of sale material for their windows from the website and enter the competition online or by post.
HotelConnect is a preferred partner for Advantage Travel Centres, Flight Centre and other agency groups. It acts as a principal and now offers over 3000 properties in 250 cities and resorts across the UK, Europe, North America and selected long haul destinations. 50% of its bookings are made by agents using www.agents.hotelconnect.co.uk or via XML feed into dynamic packaging sites.
Former Cresta commercial manager Ian Ackland has been appointed by accommodation specialist HotelConnect to head up a combined sales, marketing and pricing team.
Managing director Chris Fraser says “With his trade-focused experience Ian’s appointment underlines our commitment to agents, and will help us develop identify and develop further partnerships."
Ackland added “HotelConnect has a great reputation among agents for customer service and high standards. 50% of our business already comes from the trade, but we have an ambitious growth strategy and are actively seeking new business partners who share our values."
“New bed-banks – including those with a direct-sell background - enter the market on a regular basis, but with 14 years of personal and technological commitment to agents under our belt we're in an excellent position to aggressively grow our partnerships business. At the same time, HotelConnect’s field sales team has been strengthened by the promotion of Diane Duncan as business development manager."
Leading online accommodation-only and dynamic packaging specialist HotelConnect is adding 14 new cities and resorts to its range, to reflect increasing agent and consumer demand for ‘secondary’ destinations.
“The market has come of age and it’s no longer just about offering beds to match up with low cost flight routes,” says head of sales Emma McNamee. “We already have the best choice of quality accommodation in the most obvious cities and our contracting team is constantly looking at new opportunities in secondary destinations like Houston in the US or Lucca in Italy.”
The list of new destinations coming onto www.agents.hotelconnect.co.uk by the end of March is: Aix-en-Provence, Avignon, Dallas, Houston, Innsbruck, Interlaken, the Italian Riviera (including Portofino), Lausanne, Lucerne, Montreux, Oman, St Tropez and Zermatt. Prices start at £26 per person per night at the four-star Ghironi Hotel in La Spezia on the Italian Riviera
These destinations bring HotelConnect’s portfolio to more than 2500 hotels and apartments across Europe, in the UK, North America and key long haul destinations. Hotel Connect – an ABTA member – contracts all properties direct and acts as the principal.
For more information about HotelConnect, please visit our about us section, or contact Maretta Moriarty, Product Development Manager, on 020 8731 1515 or mmoriarty@hotelconnect.co.uk.
