ResOnline News

With the addition of AAAT (Australian Automobile Association Tourism), Expedia and Venere you can now get access to some of the major players in the online tourism space in Australia. These added distribution channels also give you access to some of the major international markets. In particular, Expedia has a very distribution network in the Northern Hemisphere, and this combined with their current domestic promotions will ensure added benefit.

We now have a new feature available for you, Booking Extras. Booking extras is a great feature that will allow you to sell extra products or services to your guests when they are making a booking. You could offer services such as airport transfers, daily breakfast or tours etc. The extras feature has been designed to allow you great flexibility in how you wish to sell your products.

The options include...

• Per Booking Extra - ie: Bottle of wine on arrival
• Per Night Extra - ie: Fold up bed
• Per Person Extra - ie: Breakfast daily

You now have access to another FREE channel Book It Now. Not only is this channel FREE, setup is very easy with the ability to import you current ResOnline rates and availability.

With the release of the new ResOnline booking button, accommodation providers now have a choice in booking functionality for their website. They can either fully integrate the booking widget into their website, as seen at http://www.thebankandtellers.com.au/page/book_now.html or link off to a separate page https://cm.resonline.com.au/make-booking?ap=107744. Either way is very easy to integrate and provides all the flexibility and booking functionality that ResOnline has to offer.

ResOnline has added another Free channel. RatesToGo, which was one of Australia's 1st online travel agents, can now be updated or Free via the ResOnline channel manager.

Today we released a new feature which allows you to update the availability, rates, inclusions and stop sell for Multiple Rate Plans / Room types at the same time. This should save you lots of time if you manage multiple properties. Check it out in the Yearly Deals Screen and then click the Bulk update Tab.

We are very pleased to anounce that we have just released the Specials area. Here you can create Specials or Deals which are based on your existing Rate Plans. For Eg, Pay Stay Deals, Last minute discounts etc... Click on the Pig to access this area.

The Ability for you to Edit your Rooms and Rates is now available. Click on the Rooms & Rates icon on the Home page to access the Rooms & Rates Editor.

GOLD Coast tourism entrepreneur Bryan Frawley has bought back the internet business he sold into Roamfree in 2007. Mr Frawley this month took charge of Resonline, which manages last-minute online bookings for hotel and holiday apartment operators. He plans to move the Surfers Paradise business to Southport.

Resonline has been sold by Tourism Holdings, the Gold Coast business operated by David Oliver who bought out Roamfree from administrators late last year in a deal that included the Resonline operations. Mr Oliver said the disposal of Resonline would allow Tourism Holdings to concentrate on its flagship Bookeasy business and travel website Roamfree.com. Financial details of the Resonline transaction were not disclosed.

Mr Frawley established Resonline in 2004 and yesterday forecast the business could double its revenue in the next 12 months as it extended its business platform. Resonline offers a central platform that links with a host of last-minute booking sites for holiday operators to sell discounted rooms. "It's like pulling on an old pair of boots. It's what I know," said Mr Frawley.

He said Resonline was a 'lean' operation, with just three support staff and two software developers. But he planned to boost Resonline's service offering and had held talks with two overseas tourism operators looking to hook into the management system. "It's an area that unless you are moving with the market or ahead of the market, you can get left behind very quickly."

He was confident the company's strategy of no lock-in contracts and low entry price for services would deliver the anticipated growth. Mr Frawley said that Resonline would particularly benefit small-scale apartment operators on the Gold Coast. He said the 'smaller end of town', including holiday houses and buildings of up to 20 apartments, had been neglected by many websites.

"It's all about providing the tools for hotels to simplify their online distribution and ensure they receive the highest revenue per available room," said Mr Frawley. He said hotel operators could upload their room offers in about five minutes, compared with a minimum 48-hour turnaround by most channel managers. Resonline will continue to feed into the Roamfree business.

Featured in goldcoast.com.au

Yearly Deals now has Seasons, and Monthly deals is now editable!