Barceló has been working with ABC Connection in the UK for over 3 years, improving the online marketing of their hotel and venue information to key agency, corporate and leisure markets via ABC Connection’s rapidly growing channel partner network.

ABC’s online data warehouse allows Barceló to store and distribute detailed information and imagery for all of their hotels superb facilities including bedroom details, meetings & conference facilities, wedding services, restaurants, bars, leisure facilities and special offers.

By using ABC Connection’s added value XML data service, Barceló staff can also update their own website  www.barcelo-hotels.co.uk  at the same time as updating ABC’s external network of channel partners. ABC Connection provides Barceló with a single content management system to hold all of their detailed information and a large quantity of images, allowing both internal and external systems to be updated quickly and easily.

MeetBarceló

Barceló has recently launched its latest website at Confex  www.meetbarcelo.co.uk 

This new site is aimed at meetings and conference planners, providing them with all the information they need to be able to plan and book their events. The detailed hotel and venue information and images displayed in the MeetBarceló site are maintained in the ABC Connection system and fed by XML to the new website, in exactly the same way as the main Barceló website in the UK.

This has allowed the new website to be developed rapidly as the hotel information did not have to be re-keyed. The site is maintained automatically by Barceló staff who can quickly and easily update any information and images held in ABC Connection at anytime.

Sally Osborne, E-Commerce Marketing Director for Barceló Hotels UK commented:

“I am delighted with the new MeetBarceló website. Our developers have done an excellent job with its look and feel, ease of use and innovative online meeting tools.  I am yet again very impressed with ABC Connection’s online data warehouse and XML data feeds which have helped us develop this new site in record time.

We can now update our main Barceló website in the UK and the new MeetBarceló website at the same time as updating ABC’s external channel partners. This gives us complete control over the consistency of message and brand, not to mention the reduction in overhead and cost by maintaining data and images in one place.”

www.abc.venue-guides.net

www.abc.hotel-guides.net

Best Western Hotels GB is part of Best Western International, the world's largest hotel chain with over 290 member hotels in the UK, and over 4,000 hotels in 80 countries worldwide. Each one is independently owned and managed, while being committed to common standards of quality, service and value.

Best Western started to work with ABC Connection in 2004 to improve the online marketing of their hotels and conference facilities to key target markets including booking agents, corporate and leisure travellers.

Best Western commissioned ABC Connection at the end of 2005 to develop their RFP Online system to manage all agency and corporate RFP’s. The previous manual process was very time consuming, costly and inefficient. The response rate from hotels was often too slow and business opportunities were missed.

Best Western's key objectives for RFP Online were:

> All agency and corporate RFP’s to be managed electronically, whether for one hotel or 300+ hotels

> Web based system with no software to be installed at the hotels

> Automate time consuming and costly manual processes

> Improve speed and quality of RFP responses

> Increase the chance of winning agency and corporate RFP business

> Complete tracking & auditing, with full reporting suite

ABC Connection worked closely with the RFP team at Best Western to understand their specific requirements and customise the RFP processes to meet their needs. The Best Western RFP Online system was implemented in early 2006 and immediately delivered wide ranging business benefits to Best Western.

Over 2000 corporate and agency RFP’s have been managed quickly and easily via the RFP Online system and the results have been acknowledged across the organisation. The RFP team now have a fast and efficient system to gather rates and responses from all of their hotels. They can quickly create their RFP’s and automatically advise the hotels that a new RFP has been issued. RFP Online communicates with each hotel and allows them to complete their RFP response in minutes through a simple online process.

RFP Online chases any hotels that have not responded by the required deadline, saving the Best Western RFP team many hours of work. The RFP Team and Best Western management can monitor at any time the status of each RFP and analyse the overall performance of their hotels across all RFP’s.

The business benefits for Best Western in using RFP Online have been significant and have been recognised across the organisation, including:

> Simplified and lower cost RFP management process

> Improved response rates to RFP requests

> Faster responses from hotels

> Greater opportunity to win agency and corporate RFP business

> Cost savings in time and money for Best Western GB and their hotels

> Management information to monitor and improve performance

Susan Bradley, National Accounts Development Manager at Best Western Hotels GB commented:

"ABC Connection has worked with Best Western for over 4 years now, understanding our business requirements and providing us with a number of online sales and marketing solutions. The RFP project has been a great success and the results are impressive. RFP Online is fast, efficient and low-cost which is everything we had hoped for at the outset. RFP season is always a busy time for Best Western and our hotels, but using RFP Online has made life much easier for everyone involved. It has allowed our Account Managers to focus more time on the client and winning the business, while providing the RFP team and the hotels with an efficient and easy way to gather rates and responses for the client."

www.abc.venue-guides.net

www.abc.hotel-guides.net

Ramada Jarvis is one of the UK's leading hotel companies. With a portfolio of 50 hotels throughout Great Britain with some 6,800 bedrooms, over 500 conference and meeting rooms, 100 restaurants and bars and over 30 health & leisure clubs, the Ramada Jarvis portfolio ranges from quiet country houses to busy city centre properties. They chose to work with The ABC Connection in 2004 to create an online data warehouse and to improve the marketing of their hotels and conference facilities.

The ABC system provides Ramada Jarvis with a central database of all property related information. Extracts are taken from the ABC system to update their information in other websites and internal systems.

The Distribution team at Ramada Jarvis maintain all data and images centrally in one system and ABC automatically distributes their hotel and conference details directly to the agency, corporate and leisure markets.

Ramada Jarvis has experienced many benefits in working with ABC, including:

Single source for all property information.

Significantly increased online property views.

Increased accommodation and meetings bookings.

Significant improvements to their overall ‘property view ranking' compared to other hotel groups.

Greater online brand promotion.

Tens of thousands of online property views per month from agency, corporate and leisure customers.

Calum Russell, Marketing Director for Ramada Jarvis said "The team at ABC have worked closely with us to help us create our online data warehouse. We are now reaping the rewards in terms of increased sales and reduced costs. We look forward to developing further online marketing campaigns, using the ABC system as an integral part of our sales and distribution processes." 

www.abc.venue-guides.net

www.abc.hotel-guides.net

Macdonald Hotels & Resorts operate over 60 properties across the UK, from elegant manor house retreats set in extensive grounds, to modern and contemporary hotels in city centre locations. They chose to work with The ABC Connection in 2004 to improve the online marketing of their hotels and conference facilities.

The marketing team at Macdonald worked closely with ABC to ensure that their property data and images were loaded into the ABC system to get maximum impact with the corporate, agency and leisure markets.

The own brand Venue Guides for each property have proved to be so successful that Macdonald has incorporated them into their own website, to provide their clients with comprehensive conference and meeting room information across all of their properties, at the touch of a button.

Macdonald has experienced many benefits in working with ABC, for example:

Considerably increased property views across the group

Increased accommodation booking requests

Increased meetings bookings

Significant improvements to their overall ‘property view ranking' compared to other hotel groups

Greater online brand promotion

After enhancing their property information and images within the ABC system their results have

Improved dramatically. They are now achieving tens of thousands of property views per month from agency, corporate and leisure customers.

Justine Ford, Head of Marketing for Macdonald Hotels & Resorts said "We have been really impressed with the ABC system, the results and the level of support we have received during our first year. We are working closely with the team at ABC to continually improve our on-line sales & marketing capabilities, and aim to achieve even greater results this year across all of our target markets."

www.abc.venue-guides.net

www.abc.hotel-guides.net

Four Pillars Hotels operate three and four star luxury hotels in Oxford, the Cotswolds, Thames Valley and Bristol. They subscribed to ABC Connection in mid-2005, to improve the online marketing of their hotels and conference facilities to their key target markets.

After loading their property data, marketing text and images into the ABC system they immediately began to experience the benefits:

Significantly increased property views from corporate, agency and leisure markets

Significantly increased business levels with key target markets such as the HBAA and ITM

Significant improvements to their overall ‘property view ranking’ compared to other hotel groups in their local areas

Greater online brand control and distribution

Prior to signing with ABC, the basic entries for their hotels were generating just a few hundred property views per month. After enhancing their property information and images within the ABC system their results improved dramatically, and they are now achieving thousands of property views per month from agency, corporate and leisure customers.

Nikki Farr, Director of Meetings & Events for Four Pillars Hotels said “We are very pleased with the results we are already experiencing in working with ABC. For example, our business levels with the HBAA has increased in parallel with the greater exposure to this valuable market via ABC. We are now looking at further opportunities to improve our online marketing, such as the HBAA Promotion Generator, Local Marketing Tool and 360° Virtual Tours.”

www.abc.venue-guides.net

www.abc.hotel-guides.net

Accor UK has signed all of its UK Sofitel, Novotel and Mercure hotels plus the Ibis London Earl’s Court hotel with the on-line publishing company, The ABC Connection.

Frederic Fontaine, Head of Global and National Sales - Accor UK Hotels, commenting on the agreement said:

“ABC is providing a great tool to develop our online sales and marketing activity to key target markets. The ABC Connection has impressed us with their simple and efficient online distribution of hotel and venue content to booking agents, corporations and leisure sites.”

“The team at ABC have worked closely with us to load our hotel and meeting room information. ABC Connection now has a comprehensive source of online information for the UK Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure and Ibis London Earls Court hotels.  The relevant Accor brands in the UK have been launched across ABC’s online network.”
 
“The ABC Connection will be able to access all of UK Accor Hotels marketing data and images, publishing this to a wide range of booking agents, corporate sites and leisure markets”, said Fontaine.

Martin Coleman, ABC Connection’s Chairman and Publisher commented “Accor are now seeing the benefits for their leisure business as well as the accommodation and meetings products across each Brand.

www.abc.venue-guides.net

www.abc.hotel-guides.net

"ABC Connection has worked with Best Western for over 4 years now, understanding our business requirements and providing us with a number of online sales and marketing solutions. The RFP project has been a great success and the results are impressive. RFP Online is fast, efficient and low-cost which is everything we had hoped for at the outset. RFP season is always a busy time for Best Western and our hotels, but using RFP Online has made life much easier for everyone involved. It has allowed our Account Managers to focus more time on the client and winning the business, while providing the RFP team and the hotels with an efficient and easy way to gather rates and responses for the client."

Susan Bradley, National Accounts Development Manager at Best Western Hotels GB

www.abc.venue-guides.net

www.abc.hotel-guides.net

“ABC Connection has listened to our business needs and delivered a sophisticated suite on online sales and marketing tools to Barceló Hotels. We have been impressed with their products and services, the dedication of their team to meet our specific requirements and timeframes, and the results we are already achieving within the first six months of working together. The launch of our award winning new website using ABC’s XML data feeds has been achieved within record breaking time and we look forward to exploring further opportunities to use ABC Connection to improve both the Barceló Hotels website and our agency, corporate and leisure distribution."

"We can now update our main Barceló website in the UK and the new MeetBarceló website at the same time as updating ABC’s external channel partners. This gives us complete control over the consistency of message and brand, not to mention the reduction in overhead and cost by maintaining data and images in one place.”

Sally Osborne, E-Commerce Marketing Director at Barceló Hotels

"The team at ABC have worked closely with us to help us create our online data warehouse. We are now reaping the rewards in terms of increased sales and reduced costs. We look forward to developing further online marketing campaigns, using the ABC system as an integral part of our sales and distribution processes." 

Calum Russell, Marketing Director for Ramada Jarvis

www.abc.venue-guides.net

www.abc.hotel-guides.net

“We are very pleased with the results we are already experiencing in working with ABC. For example, our business levels with the HBAA has increased in parallel with the greater exposure to this valuable market via ABC. We are now looking at further opportunities to improve our online marketing, such as the HBAA Promotion Generator, Local Marketing Tool and 360° Virtual Tours.”

Nikki Farr, Director of Meetings & Events for Four Pillars Hotels

“ABC is providing a great tool to develop our online sales and marketing activity to key target markets. The ABC Connection has impressed us with their simple and efficient online distribution of hotel and venue content to booking agents, corporations and leisure sites.”

“The team at ABC have worked closely with us to load our hotel and meeting room information. ABC Connection now has a comprehensive source of online information for the UK Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure and Ibis London Earls Court hotels.  The relevant Accor brands in the UK have been launched across ABC’s online network. ABC Connection will be able to access all of UK Accor Hotels marketing data and images, publishing this to a wide range of booking agents, corporate sites and leisure markets”

Frederic Fontaine, Head of Global and National Sales - Accor UK Hotels

 “ABC is providing Thistle Hotels, the operator of both the Thistle and Guoman hotel brands, with a powerful online marketing tool to help us develop our sales and marketing activity to key target markets. We have been impressed with the level of functionality and ABC’s very effective online distribution of hotel and venue information to booking agents, corporations and leisure clients. This will provide us with a unique opportunity to consolidate a broad range of data and images into the ABC system. The team at ABC are working closely with us to load our accommodation and meeting room details and thereby provide ABC’s online network with a comprehensive source of information for all of our hotels.”

Ian Leat, Head of Business Sales - Thistle & Guoman Hotels

"ABC Connection is a leading provider of online information and images, so it is essential to ensure that Forestdale Hotels are fully represented in their systems.”

Annie Jones, Sales Director - Forestdale Hotels: