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Irelandhotels.com - A Response to the Evolving Market
Over seven years ago an online version of the Be Our Guest guide was developed by the Irish Hotels Federation to initially establish an online presence for the guide, which was then called www.beourguest.ie.
In early 2001, the Federation decided, that to best service the evolving market, it was necessary to develop a portal site for the accommodation sector. This resulted in the establishment of www.irelandhotels.com as the new online version of the Be Our Guest guide. Every hotel and guesthouse featured in the Be Our Guest guide is automatically included on Irelandhotels.com, free of charge.
In order to succeed in the competitive online marketplace, the new website needed to provide the consumer with more than just an accommodation directory listing online. This resulted in the provision of an online booking engine on the site and the development of various special offer and activity sections, such as golf and angling. To best cater for the European and developing markets, the site is available in 4 additional languages: German, French, Spanish and Italian.
Ongoing Developments
Irelandhotels.com was officially launched in December 2001 and since then the site has been continuously adapted to best suit the needs of the online consumer. The ongoing developments to the site, including the implementation of a new booking engine in April 2004, has resulted in Irelandhotels.com becoming one of the most important Irish Hotels and Guesthouses accommodation portals, with over 30,000 unique visitors to the site each week.
Since going live with the new booking engine in April, there has been major growth in revenue generated through Irelandhotels.com, with over €80,000 generated through the site for the week ending 24th July 2004. With the continued promotion of the site and new initiatives coming online - the only way is up!
Regional Sites
One of the recent developments for the site has been the establishment of almost 20 regional sites. These are;
These additional sites are been promoted on the major search engines, such as Google, to ensure that consumers looking to book accommodation in Ireland in general or in a specific region will be catered for by the overall Irelandhotels.com umbrella. The IHF is encouraging the individual branches of the IHF to take full advantage of the existence of these regional sites by running promotions and initiatives with the focus being on receiving additional online bookings through the regional site.
For example, the Dublin branch last year ran a winter promotion in the UK through www.all-dublin-hotels.com. This promotion consisted of Dublin hotels and guesthouse setting a specific per person sharing rate depending on the star rating of the property. A flyer was produced to promote the website which was distributed at various consumer and trade shows along with advertisements being placed in strategic UK media.
The Benefits of Becoming Bookable Online
Online bookings through Irelandhotels.com have grown at a phenomenal rate. Bookings made through the site during the first two weeks of July 2004 have risen by approximately 200% on the same period last year. The number of visitors to the site has also doubled for the same period. With the continued development and promotion of the site along with the development of a number of new initiatives and strategic partnerships, the phenomenal growth pattern for www.irelandhotels.com is set to continue for the future.
Irelandhotels.com drives a considerable amount of extra business and revenue to members. As a result, the IHF is encouraging all hotels and guesthouses currently featured on Irelandhotels.com to take full advantage of what the site offers. The best way to benefit from the increased level of business that the site can generate is to accept online bookings through irelandhotels.com.
Get Your Hotel Bookable Online
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