Hope and Anchor Weighs Up Desti.ne Frontdesk
Alnmouth Hoteliers put Desti.ne Frontdesk through its paces.
Barbara and John Davison took over the Hope and Anchor Hotel, one of the oldest buildings in Alnmouth, in March this year after running guesthouses in North East England for many years.
The hotel, on Alnmouth's seafront, complements the couple's 'Waterside House' self-catering holiday cottage accommodation in nearby Denwick. The hotel and holiday cottages provide an ideal base for exploring Northumberland's coastline.
One NorthEast Tourism interviewed Barbara Davison about how they have found the Desti.ne Frontdesk service since going online this summer:
Q. How have you found Desti.ne Frontdesk?
A. It's been brilliant, it works no bother. A lot of people buy things on the Internet nowadays and more and more people do their shopping online, so why not book a holiday online too?
Q. What are the advantages to you of online booking?
A. It's good for business. More people are booking online so that's where we're picking up more customers. My message to people is get online as fast as possible. We've just
started our business and it really helped us get off the ground.
Q. Has the system been complicated to use?
A. I was very nervous about it as I was a computer 'illiterate' when we started using Desti.ne Frontdesk. The only thing I used to do on a computer was play solitaire! Since it was set up it has been plain sailing. I now know my way round the system so well that I have no problem training staff on it, and if I can do it anyone can. The eviivo support team has been good when we've needed them, but we haven't really had any problems.
Q. What percentage of bookings have you taken online?
A. We still get a lot of telephone bookings, but about 35% of them are now taken online -
an increase from when we first started using the system. Our regular customers still ring
us up, but what we're finding is that the online bookings we are taking are in addition to our regular customers.
Q. Have your online customers come from further afield?
A. We haven't had anyone from abroad yet, but we are taking online bookings from across the UK. The important thing is that they are new customers.
Q. Has the number of no shows decreased as a result of online booking?
A. The number of no shows has improved quite a lot. We're always looking to improve the Hope and Anchor and we've been so busy, my biggest problem at the moment is finding some spare time to get some work done.
Website: www.hopeandanchorholidays.co.uk
email: info@hopeandanchorholidays.co.uk
