Bookassist named World's Leading Booking Technology Provider at World Travel Awards

Dec. 12, 2012 - PRLog -- Bookassist, the online strategy and technology partner for hotels, has won the World's Leading Booking Technology Provider award at the 2012 World Travel Awards. The prestigious prize was presented on December 12th at the 2012 Grand Finale event, which was hosted at The Oberoi, Gurgaon, New Delhi, India. Often referred to as "the Oscars of the travel industry", the awards recognise winners worldwide as setting the benchmark to which all others aspire. It is the third year in a row that Bookassist has been nominated in the category.

Speaking at the ceremony in New Delhi, Bookassist Founder and CEO Dr Des O'Mahony said "We're extremely honoured to have won, it was third time lucky for us. Especially with such distinguished competition in the category such as industry giants like Sabre/SynXis and Amadeus. It's a real stamp of approval from our own industry for what we do."

"To have our client hotels and industry peers vote us into a world-leading position is testament to the hard work and dedication of the Bookassist staff, in all our offices. The award is recognition of the real difference they have made to our clients' business".

Bookassist was founded in Dublin in 1999. Entirely self-financed and privately owned, it has a strong emphasis on research and innovation and has grown to over 70 employees. The company has offices in Madrid, Paris, Italy, Rome, Vienna, Prague and Munich in addition to its headquarters in Dublin.

The company develops advanced booking software that allows hotels to sell directly on their own websites instead of relying solely on online travel agents, who typically charge hotels high commissions. Direct business is a strong growth area for hotels as the industry seeks to improve revenue margins and reduce commission bills.

The company's booking engine software powers thousands of hotel websites and has handled in excess of 120M Euro in direct hotel booking revenue in 2012 for its clients.

Asked why he thought Bookassist won the award, O'Mahony explained: "I believe it's because we deliver for our hotels. We consistently raise their direct business revenue online. We allow them capture more online business at a far lower cost, and therefore higher margin, than any of our competitors. We do this through expert consultancy and best-of-breed technology - and you need both."

“This award also coincides this month with the release of a major upgrade to our hotel website booking software. Even more reason for our hotel clients to be delighted with us”, commented O’Mahony.

March 2013 will be equally exciting with Bookassist’s planned release of version one of its eagerly awaited new distribution management platform to intelligently optimise the way hotels do online business.

The company has previously been ranked in the Deloitte Fast 50 companies in Ireland and in Europe, and O'Mahony has twice been honoured by the Irish Internet Association NetVisionary Awards.

About Bookassist

Bookassist (http://www.bookassist.org) creates and manages consistently successful online strategies for hotels and develops world-class booking and distribution software to ensure hotels drive more direct bookings and increase direct revenue. Bookassist is the industry-leading booking engine and online marketing provider for hotels in Europe with thousands of hotels using Bookassist services. Headquartered in Dublin, the company was founded in 1999 and has offices in Madrid, Paris, Italy, Rome, Vienna, Prague and Munich with partners in USA and the Middle East.

About the World Travel Awards (WTA)

World Travel Awards (http://www.worldtravelawards.com), established in 1993, reward the very best travel organisations worldwide. Nominations are vetted and inspected by a group of industry experts and votes are cast by professionals working within travel and tourism. The voting works on a first-past-the-post system, and votes are submitted online at WTA's website. More than 5000 travel organisations are nominated each year and over three quarters of a million votes are cast. The Grand Finale 2012 event, officially supported by Ministry of Tourism of India, was hosted at The Oberoi, Gurgaon, New Delhi.