[Martin]

Hi Michael,

Ibex itself doesn't 'generate' business for us, at least not in the same way as Laterooms and Expedia etc. Ibex don't have a public 'Hotel Booking' website for the general public to use.

It does however make the upkeep of the various channels much less painful and time-consuming, and indeed within the last 30 minutes I have emailed off the forms for it to take over the handling of our Venere/Expedia account.

It has also recently been upgraded to offer 'virtual rooms', which is where you tell it that a twin and double room can also be sold as a single. This needs careful management when you get down to your last couple of rooms, otherwise you may overbook, but otherwise it does allow you to offer a better range of bedstock than you can with most other systems.

Happy to help.

Cheers,

Martin.

[Martin]

For those that have been following this thread and are interested, Ibex have created an online video demonstrating how their system works.

It's at the link below:-

http://www.1-up.co.uk/iBex-Accommoda...ideo-Demo.html

Cheers,

Martin.

[Der Alte Fritz]

I just thought I would update people with my IBEX experiences to date.
We are very pleased indeed. It has allowed us to control where we sell, off site, on our own website, on channels and it allows us to control the price on a daily basis for all our various sales methods. It allows us to sell extras such as dinners, afternoon teas, run special promotions, special offers, daily rate changes and has a great range of gizmos to stick on your site to show availability in different ways. The PMS system is ok and links into our newsletter sender with guests emails and it manages peoples bills while they stay with us.
So overall we have had no problems and are very very pleased with it. I would anyone who wants a booking system with channel management to look seriously at this as it is a good price and give you control of where you sell your rooms.

[Martin]

We're also very pleased with the Ibex system.

We're expecting Hotel.info to be added to the list of channels that it synchronises with over the next few days, with Laterooms following in the next few weeks.

We will then truly be almost fully automated in terms of inventory management.

Only the other day I commented to my other half that we hadn't had to do ironing in the evenings for ages, and she reckons that it's because I now spend a lot less time at the computer keeping the availability up to date.

And more time ironing. :-(

Cheers,

Martin.

[Martin]

Ibex have just completed the automated connection with Hotel.de/Hotel.info. That's another 30 minutes per week released from the computer. Just Laterooms and HRS to go now.

As posted in another thread, Hotel.de may be an inexpensive route into the GDS system for us.

Cheers,

Martin.

[enquiries@catton-hall.co.uk]

Q-book by Queensborough Group is a no-commission booking system which is currently live to update Visit Britain/England and is due to go live for laterooms, booking.com, expedia and hotels.com. It's also PCI compliant and offers you the compile a database in order to do free email marketing. It cost us £235 for the year not for the booking system but for placing adverts on their 7 websites (www.hotels.uk.com - www.hotelandguesthouse.com - www.pandarooms.com - www.accommodation.uk.net - www.hotelsguesthouses.co.uk - www.gbstay.com - www.where2stay.uk.net) and the booking system is thrown in for free.

[pilgrim_pete]

Hello,

We are looking for a new PMS with commission free online booking for our 50 room hotel.

We currently use Hotel Perfect which was already in place when we purchased the hotel. Whilst the PMS itself is great, we are looking to make the change because of their online booking module. We find it very expensive (£4k pa), plus, in our opinion, it is inflexible with regard rate changes and group bookings. We all love the feel of Hotel Perfect and would otherwise not look to change. We just believe that we are missing out considerably with not having a (viable) online facility.

We have looked at Ibex from Seekom and it does appear a very good product. We're just hoping for some other recommendations before we take the plunge! Your thoughts for/against Ibex would also be much appreciated.

We have looked on the internet for other products, but there is just so much choice! We have been recommended Avon Data and CaterBook (who are very helpful), although we have no first hand experience with either.

I have detailed some information re our requirements below….

We are a predominately groups hotel, so the new system must offer a comprehensive groups function. A drag and drop and cut/copy and paste function in the calendar would be preferable in this respect. The booking calendar in Hotel Perfect is fantastic and will be sadly missed! Different colour blocks to distinguish bookings would be an advantage (one disadvantage for us with Ibex).

All our bookings are pre-paid in full and we operate a cash bar and restaurant. In-house billing, invoicing, and F&B functions are therefore not important to us. We just require a booking confirmation function to email to the guest (at the deposit stage and again when the balance is paid). Emailing direct from the system would be preferred over sending an attached Word doc as we do currently.

Our experience within hotels has always been on PC/server-based systems (if that is the correct term!). What are the pros and cons with a web based PMS like Ibex? We would feel happier with server-based software, but I guess that is just a case of being used to something. We need to run the software from 3 different PCs, so licenses are a factor with regard the total cost.

Other requirements:
Instant/automated booking confirmations
A field for all member names within a group booking which show on the in-house report. An online field would be even better so to cut down on manual entry.
An in-house vehicle registration report
A fully editable booking confirmation and arrival/reg form
Realistically priced support!

Many thanks,

Peter & team

[Martin]

Have you considered asking Seekom whether they will integrate with the PMS element of the HotelPerfect system? They have automated interfaces with a few PMS's.

That sounds like the ideal scenario to me. You keep the user interface that you're happy with, you get a great online booking engine, plus channel management if you want it.

Obviously this takes no consideration of costs...

Cheers,

Martin.

[pilgrim_pete]

Hi Martin,

Thank you for your post.

I have previously enquired about such a solution, however, Hotel Perfect will not offer any API hooks into their system- it appears an all or nothing scenario with regard online booking with Hotel Perfect. I will certainly pose the question to Seekom though.

Hotel Perfect support alone for us is £335 + VAT per quarter, so with the complete Ibex package with PMS, online booking, channel management, and support at £140 + VAT per month, Ibex only works out £340 per year more.

Cheers

[Martin]

Sounds like Hotel Perfect are shooting themselves in the foot big time by not listening to their customers.

If Ibex can handle your group requirements, then it sounds like a no brainer to me.

Cheers,

Martin.