Bookassist opens USA office

February 10, 2010 |

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Bookassist, the Dublin-based booking technology and online strategy partner for hotels has announced the launch of operations in the United States with the opening of a US office in Phoenix. The US office is Bookassist's seventh international office.

Speaking about the launch, Bookassist CEO and founder Dr Des O'Mahony commented: "We are very excited about breaking into what is a vast market with vast potential. We have accelerated recently in Europe and see significant opportunity for our unique approach in the US marketplace. We have a great team in place to get this moving, the timing is right for our mature product portfolio, and our market research and planning period has shown significant interest in our products and services. We are already signing hotel groups so we're off to a great start."

The Phoenix-based team has worked on market planning over the last 6 months and has tested opinion on Bookassist's products and services across key local markets. Bookassist's tight integration of its products and services and the high level of customer service to hotels are seen as strong differentiating factors in the US marketplace.

Tony Economou will oversee operations at Bookassist's USA office. He holds advanced degrees from San Diego State University and has over 20 years of hospitality experience. Jim Maxwell is USA's Director of Sales and has 25 years experience in Senior Leadership positions in sales, marketing and customer service relations. USA's account management will be headed by Martin Winfield who comes with over 9 years of experience in account management, market intelligence, brand management and sales in the technical industry. Martin holds degrees from Brigham Young University and an MBA in marketing from Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Despite difficult trading conditions in the tourism industry, Bookassist achieved record revenues in year end 2009 and has significantly grown revenues in ancillary services such as web development and online marketing. Bookassist increased it staff over the past 12 months by almost 30% to its current 50 employees. The company has set aggressive growth targets in its key markets in 2010 and has made significant client acquisitions in recent months such as ARCOTEL hotels in Austria, CPI Hotels in the Czech Republic and Bewleys Hotels in the UK & Ireland, all of whom use Bookassist's advanced Ecommerce integration with Google Analytics tracking to achieve maximum ROI on online advertising.

Bookassist creates and manages successful and proven online strategies for over 2200 hotels and groups worldwide and is the industry-leading hotel booking engine and online marketing provider in Ireland. A Deloitte Fast 50 Technology Company in Ireland and in the Top 100 Deloitte Technology Companies in Europe, Bookassist has received numerous awards in Online Trade, Online Marketing, and Technological Innovation including the Irish Internet Association