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Letteran Lodges, which is based at the foot of the Slieve Gallion Mountains, had previously been managing its booking system manually and had found itself “overwhelmed”.
Having turned to Tourism NI for support, the body introduced the business to Tourism Exchange Great Britain (TXGB), an online platform which aims to give businesses better access to online sales channels.
The newly-formed partnership between Tourism NI and TXGB aims to move more visitors from `look’ to `book’ on destination websites such as discovernorthernireland.com, to drive sales and be part of marketing activity for Northern Ireland.
The Discover NI website is connected to TXGB as a distributor and charges zero commission meaning, if a business is listed on the website, it can make its product bookable by joining TXGB.
Ryan Donnelly, who owns Letteran Lodges, said the business “simply couldn’t operate without” TXGB now.
“Prior to using the TXGB system we managed all our booking manually,” he said.
“We would get up to 100 messages per day and it was totally overwhelming, so we knew we had to change and find an online platform that could solve all these issues for us. Tourism Northern Ireland then introduced us to the TXGB team”.
“The TXGB team were extremely helpful and it only took a matter of hours to set up the system for Letteran Lodges. So it was worth minimal effort and stress, they were there every step of the way to help us”.
The business owner said the system is very “user friendly”.
“Customers want to view real time availability and the TXGB system allows for that,” he said.
“It’s user friendly for me as well, so I am fit to operate it as a user and as a business owner who’s never used a booking system before.
“One of the major benefits for us was the amount of hours it reduced in administration, so I no longer had to worry about managing bookings day to day. That is totally automated by using the TXGB system. It allowed me to focus on the business, customer service and business development”.
He added: “I would 100% recommend the TXGB system to other businesses. 100% of our bookings has been via the TXGB system over the last 10 months and we simply couldn’t operate without it”.
James Berzins, CEO of TXGB, said Letteran Lodges is a “great example of ambitious businesses, with fantastic products, that have not yet taken the step into online bookings.
“I'm really pleased TXGB was able to support them on this journey, help them grow their business and become more productive,” he said.
“Whether you're new to the industry, struggling to understand all the various options or simply don't feel like you have enough time to make the first step, then this is a great example of how Tourism NI and TXGB can help.
“Our simple solution and partnership with Tourism NI, is helping to activate all parts of the visitor economy online across multiple sales channels”.
Paul Coleman, Social and Digital Manager at Tourism NI, said: “We are delighted that Letteran Lodges are successfully using TXGB to grow their business.
“Online bookability is essential,” he said.
“Visitors need to be able to look and book and Tourism Northern Ireland's innovative partnership with TXGB is enabling our industry to become bookable online for the first time or broaden their distribution through domestic, national and international channels”.