Home of ‘The Best Job in the World’, Hamilton Island Switches to Synxis and Sees Immediate Results

SynXis goes ’Down Under’ – enters the Australian market

SOUTHLAKE, Texas, 01 September – In a recent viral campaign to promote tourism to the Great Barrier Reef and Whitsunday Islands, Tourism Queensland awarded one lucky winner the “job” of living on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef for six months, in exchange for him blogging about his experiences and acting as an ambassador for the beautiful region. After the campaign’s huge success, Hamilton Island turned to SynXis for its technology and expertise to manage and streamline the distribution of its hotel inventory. Since its introduction in February this year, website bookings have increased more than 50 percent over the same period as last year and conversion rates have gone up over 85 percent with the new booking engine.

SynXis, a key component of Sabre Hospitality Solutions that provides complete hotel distribution, Internet marketing and channel management solutions worldwide, recently switched Hamilton Island’s collection of vacation properties to the RedX Distribution Management System. The five Hamilton Island properties, ranging from individual bungalows to qualia, the newest luxury resort on the Great Barrier Reef, have switched to RedX for seamless connectivity to all of the Global Distribution Systems (GDS), Online Travel Agents (OTA’s), and bookings coming from their own website (http://www.hamiltonisland.com.au/) using the RedX Guest Connect booking engine.

The successful marketing campaign we ran in May to support the Best Job in the World program drove a huge amount of bookings to our website. With SynXis’ Guest Connect in place as our booking engine we were able to convert a greater number of ’lookers’ to ’bookers,’” said Bernard O’Keefe, group online marketing manager for Hamilton Island. “That increase translates to a more than 40 percent increase in revenues just from the booking engine channel alone. In this economy, that is incredible.”

The Hamilton Island properties needed a single distribution platform with the functionality and tools available for them to showcase the variety in their portfolio and generate more revenue through merchandising opportunities. Hamilton Island also benefits from the RedX Property Connect which provides a two-way interface to Hamilton Island’s Property Management System by Pars Springer-Miller. This interface improves efficiencies and helps the properties achieve their distribution and revenue strategies with automated reservation delivery, as well as inventory, rates, and restriction (stay controls) uploads.

“Hamilton Island is expanding. As such, we needed to upgrade to a distribution partner who would be able to help us grow and has experience with larger groups,” said O’Keefe. “SynXis has the global reach we are looking for and we are pleased that they have opened a local office. We are thrilled with our early results and it is clear the SynXis team’s knowledge is a true asset for its customers.”

SynXis has built an impressive team of industry veterans throughout the Asia-Pacific region since opening the doors of its Singapore office in 2006, followed by Hong Kong and Tokyo. SynXis has officially opened its Australia office in Sydney with the appointment of Nick Jeffery as SynXis country manager for Australia and New Zealand. Jeffery joins SynXis with more than 20 years of industry experience in hotel operations and sales with the Intercontinental Hotel Group and IDeaS Revenue Optimization. His experience with revenue management and distribution in Asia Pacific will benefit the growing number of customers in the region switching to SynXis’ solutions.

“We are pleased to count Hamilton Island as part of our portfolio,” said Jeffrey. “They have taken advantage of the many merchandising features and pricing controls in RedX that benefit the resort segment and their results have been fantastic. Hamilton Island’s choice of SynXis as their distribution partner confirms our strategy to provide extended stay and resort properties with the exposure to the right markets, as well as reinforces our commitment to continued growth in the Asian Pacific region.”

About SynXis®
SynXis, a Sabre Holdings company and key component of Sabre Hospitality Solutions, provides complete distribution and Internet marketing services and technology for hotels around the world. SynXis is the technology source for thousands of hotels, resorts, and destinations, including: Harrah’s, Interstate Hotels & Resorts, The Peninsula Hotels & Resorts, Millennium Copthorne, Destination Hotels & Resorts, Shangri-la Hotels & Resorts and Jumeirah Hotels.

SynXis’ corporate headquarters is in Southlake, Texas, with offices in Bethesda, Maryland, Amsterdam, London, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney and Buenos Aires. More information is available at www.synxis.com.

Sabre Holdings connects people with the world’s greatest travel possibilities by retailing travel products and providing distribution and technology solutions for the travel industry. More information is available at http://www.sabre-holdings.com.