BookingCenter Customer Newsletter Summer 2006

Greetings from the BookingCenter Team!

We hope this message finds you well. At BookingCenter, our goal is to empower you with tools that make managing your property easier and increase your occupancy, rates, and satisfaction. In this edition of the BookingCenter Customer Newsletter you will find:

Top 10 Ways to Maximize your BookingCenter Potential
BookingCenter Software Improvements - and new Online Forum
BookingCenter partners with GenaRes to expand Global Distribution
Welcome New Customers, Partners, and Team Members

Make 2006 the year you maximize your investment in BookingCenter.

Your feedback and comments are always welcome. We love to hear the various ways BookingCenter is helping your business. Please contact us with your success stories and ideas on new ways we can improve the services we provide.

As always, we appreciate your continued support and enjoy helping your property get more bookings with less work.

All the best,

Jeff Tweddale & The BookingCenter Team
President, BookingCenter

Top 10 Ways to Maximize your BookingCenter Potential

Empower yourself with the smartest ways of using BookingCenter for your business. There are many features already 'built in' to BookingCenter software that can decrease your labor and increase your marketing reach without raising your expenses.

These Empower yourself with the smartest ways of using BookingCenter for your business. There are many features already 'built in' to BookingCenter software that can decrease your labor and increase your marketing reach without raising your expenses.

These are ten simple and often free, things you can do, to improve your customer service, as well as the bottom line.

  1. Add seamless credit card processing directly to your bank.
  2. Add BookingCenter on additional computers.
  3. Sell value-added items and packages from your website.
  4. Customize and brand your guest communications.
  5. Send personalized email promotions to repeat guests.
  6. Use the Member's Area for remote access and reporting.
  7. Have you data backed up everyday, automatically.
  8. Track your sources for more targeted marketing.
  9. Update your property's marketing data and images.
  10. Create your own local agent network

BookingCenter Software Improvements - and new Online Forum

BookingCenter Pro- Desktop Property Management Software
BookingCenter Pro is now at version 5.09. Go to http://forums.bookingcenter.com/ to read the release notes. Customers with an active support contract can get the latest version, by logging in to your Support Area http://support.bookingcenter.com/ and downloading the newest updater.

BookingCenter MyPMS - Web based Property Management Software
The MyPMS development team has expanded to improve reporting features and over all speed of performance.

BookingCenter Management Tool
The Management Tool has been updated to add new fields, remove the 'plug-in' and make entering seasons and rates much easier. The customer feed back has been very positive.

BookingCenter partners with GenaRes to expand Global Distribution

In January 2006, BookingCenter completed an interface with GenaRes Worldwide Reservation Services to provide "Next Generation" seamless integration between Booking Center's management systems and the GenaRes global network of consumer travel websites and all Global Distribution Systems (GDS).

BookingCenter's Desktop Pro, MyPMS, and Management Tool automatically synchronize rates and availability, and content with GenaRes, enabling you to receive bookings at the most popular Internet travel sites including Expedia, Hotels.com, Orbitz, Travelocity, and more.

The results have been impressive in increasing bookings and occupancy, and hence rates. If your property is not yet selling through the Global Booking Network, contact us today to lean how. It's easy with BookingCenter.

Welcome New BookingCenter Customers, Partners, & Team Members

New BookingCenter Customers
BookingCenter welcomes these new independent properties to the ever growing family ofmore than 2,100 properties around the world.

Hotel Fusion, San Francisco, CA (96 rooms) MyPMS, CRS, GDS, POS
La Casa Inn, Hazel Park, MI (169 rooms) MyPMS, CRS, GDS, POS
The Martine Inn, Pacific Grove, CA (24 rooms) Desktop PMS, CRS, GDS, POS
Kona Islander Inn Hotel Kona, Hawaii (100 rooms) Management Tool, GDS
Ledges by the Bay, Glen Cove, ME (24 rooms) Desktop PMS, CRS, GDS, POS

New BookingCenter Partners
We are proud to announce Local Distribution System partners in Italy and Australia, who use Central Reservation Services powered by BookingCenter. These websites offer a local focus to increase online bookings for their properties using BookingCenter's tools to synchronize rates and availability.

Australian Holiday Guide - Book independent hotels in all areas of Australia. www.australianholidayguide.com
Italy's HotelGoGo - Book independent hotels in Italy, Greece, and India, and more. www.hotelgogo.com

To learn more about the Local Distribution System, contact us at info@BookingCenter.com to request a free white paper explaining how to get a BookingCenter Local Distribution System to power your local market or association’s website.

New BookingCenter Team Members
The BookingCenter team continues to grow by adding two team members to assist in Customer Support and Software Development.

Dave Martin, New Accounts Manager
Dave comes to BookingCenter with more than twelve years of experience as an industrial designer, in making things easier and more intuitive, for clients including the Tech Museum of Innovation, Mead Office Products, and Bell Sports. While managing the set-up and installation of new accounts, Dave is also our lead customer support and training manager. Dave helps customers with patience and attention to detail to solve their challenges. He lives with his wife and three children in Bend, Oregon where the mountain biking is superb and he can snowboard on a volcano. Dave loves being in nature and when he is not helping customers and his family, he is likely on the mountain.

Mike Ryan, Software Developer
Mike is a seasoned programmer who brings BookingCenter more than eighteen years of experience as a database and software developer for clients including Nortel Networks, Qualcomm, Natural Resources Canada and Bombardier Transportation. As a systems expert, Mike is helping to improve BookingCenter's Central Reservations Service and is responsible for enhancing the Management Tool and web based services. He lives with his wife in Fitzroy Harbour, Canada on the Ontario side of the Ottawa River and is a Riverwatcher for the Ottawa RiverKeeper (www.ottawariverkeeper.ca/). An avid organic gardener, when he's not contemplating compost or sifting through code Mike is talking to Mr. House (http://misterhouse.net).