apex hotels web booking engine andrew jacques, it director
TRANSCRIPT
Apex HotelsWeb Booking Engine
Andrew Jacques, IT Director
Apex Hotels
Apex HotelsYear end 08/09 - £2.5m
Year end 09/10 - £4m Year end 10/11 - £6.1m
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Business Needs
• Shop window to the world – 102 Countries
• Improve ease of use– Service Innovation– Online Payments – Tracking– Affiliate Links– Live Chat
• Reduce costs and Increase Revenue
Working partners
• Consultation – Scottish Enterprise– Expertise– Experience – Funding impetus
• Tender process– Four prospective vendors – £30k to £250k
Project Review• Implementation
– Planning / Lead times – Design Concepts – Initial Prototype / Staging – Testing– Phased Deployment
• Challenges – Performance of 3rd Party
vendor– Credit card payments– Testing Time
• Innovations – Service through up selling – Cross selling with limited
availability
Reduced Costs
• Commission fees of £4.50 per transaction negated
• New booking engine commission no charge
• Minimal maintenance
• Overall saving of £100,000 on first 12 months
• Servebase credit card commissions negotiated to £0.02 per transaction
• No manual agent input
Advanced Purchase
• Previously unable to display promotional rates
• After 12 months of installation – Bookings increased 11%– Pre-paid increased 145%– Revenue inc year on year 26%– Money in the bank
Return on Investment
Considerations• London Wall Hotel, and
increased business in Apex Waterloo Place Hotel
• TV advertising campaign• Changing economy
Highlights• Increased automation• a growth of 27.65% in no.
reservations year on year• Look to book conversion
rates up 23% - new records in Jan
• average length of stay has grown by 0.59 days to 2.42 days
Future projects
• Affiliate links
• Chinese Language– Japan – Russia
• Mobility– £51k since launch (£31k on ipad)– 1 in 10 visitors approx mobile– 63000 unique mobile visitors– QR codes / Mobile advertising
• CRM / Loyalty – Personalising the experience– Reducing commission fees
• Online Check-in– Using an app
