Asia-Pacific’s prominent luxury hotel group’s bookings increase 30 percent following switch to Guest Connect booking engine
SOUTHLAKE, Texas, Feb. 19 – Meritus Hotels & Resorts has seen an increase in online bookings of over 30 percent since switching to SynXis and its Guest Connect as its online merchandising partner. The Singapore-based group, comprising of six distinctive luxury properties across Asia Pacific, is using SynXis’ Guest Connect booking engine to power its website (www.meritus-hotels.com) and increase conversion rates from online shoppers.
Meritus needed a booking engine that could help it increase its online business. Kelvin Seah, vice president of sales and marketing for Meritus Hotels & Resorts commented, “We are very focused on driving visitors to our website so we had to be sure that our booking engine could convert shoppers to guests. Guest Connect had a proven track record of high conversions and the local support that SynXis provides in Asia Pacific has given us a real advantage. We are very pleased with the early success we have seen since switching and very encouraged by the increase in bookings.”
The Guest Connect booking engine, launched last year, includes many easy-to-use features that enable direct to the consumer merchandising including: promotional pricing, dynamic packaging, an image gallery, flexible shopping paths, filtered searches and multiple language and currency functionality. Guest Connect is available in 25 languages including Japanese, Chinese and Korean.
“Guest Connect enables us to deploy our ’Best Rate’ revenue strategy quickly and effectively,” said William Chua, vice president, revenue management and distribution for Meritus Hotels & Resorts. “We now have the ability to easily upsell guests to different room types or to a package rate; both add incremental revenue per booking. It’s also important for us to cross-promote our properties and Guest Connect gives us the tools to do that.”
Asia Pacific continues to be the fastest growing region for SynXis – increasing its business there by over 500 percent from 2007 to 2008. To accommodate this growth SynXis has expanded its presence in the area by increasing its sales, account management and support teams and has opened offices in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. In 2009, SynXis plans to establish a direct presence in Australia and India.
“As we continue to gain momentum in the region we are thrilled to have been selected by such a prestigious group as Meritus Hotels & Resorts,” said Patrick Andrés, managing director of SynXis Asia Pacific. “SynXis recognizes that Asia Pacific is an extremely diverse region with unique marketplace needs, and we remain committed to meeting those needs with both our technology and our human resources.”
About SynXis®
SynXis, a Sabre Holdings company, provides distribution and Internet marketing services and technology for hotels around the world. SynXis connects hotels with their guests through increased exposure via all channels including GDS, third party travel sites and the hotel’s own website. SynXis operates full-service global call centers offering private label reservation services. SynXis is the technology source for thousands of hotels, bed and breakfasts, resorts, and destinations, including: Harrah’s, Interstate Hotels & Resorts, Millennium Copthorne, Destination Hotels & Resorts, and Jumeirah Hotels.
SynXis’ corporate headquarters is in Southlake, Texas, with offices in Denver, Boston, Amsterdam, Singapore and Montevideo. For more information on SynXis and its products, please call +1-682-606-4000, e-mail info@synxis.com, or visit our Web site 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.
About Meritus Hotels & Resorts
Home of Asian grace, warmth and care
Meritus is a luxury Asian brand that prides itself in offering the finest hospitality for both business and leisure travellers.
Trading under a Latin name that denotes ’deserving of merit’ fused into an Asian mark that depicts quality of excellence and worth, portraying a true representation of our eastern roots with respect towards western sophistication.
We are a Singapore based hotel management company, owned by Overseas Union Enterprise Ltd, with a focus on delivering our signature Asian grace, warmth and care experience. We currently have a diversified portfolio of owned and managed hotels and resorts throughout Asia
For more information, visit us at www.meritus-hotels.com