Following a brief meeting at Confex 2009, Velvet's Tim Clark was delighted to hear from Siân Smith, Visitor Services Manager, at Shakespeare Country to say that they were ready to proceed with their purchase of ConferenceBookings - Velvet's on-line accommodation booking system for conferences and events.
Siân felt that being able to provide delegates with a dedicated accommodation booking site with secured allocations could only enhance the service that they are already offering and secure more business for the destination. With delegate accommodation ranging from traditional Tudor buildings to modern business hotels, Shakespeare Country can meet the requirements of the business tourism and events industry while offering is unique character & charm.
Siân already has one major event confirmed for 2009 for which she will be using the system. Siân hopes to build the number of events for which they not only source venues but also manage accommodation bookings. Training was arrange for the end of June and Velvet's Chris Gibbs travelled up through the Cotwolds in the midst of the heatwave to Shakespeare Country and was relieved to find Siân waiting in an air conditioned room!
Chris spent the first day with Siân setting up the system. Siân added hotel descriptions, transport details and images to help delegates make the right selection when booking. Chris then took Siân through the customisable system text and emails and they spent some time make minor updates to make them consistent with their other literature. “I really like the fact that I can customise the emails”, said Siân, “I'll be looking at various ways that I can use this correspondence to subtly up-sell our services.”
“We hit the ground running on the second day”, explained Chris, “having completed all the set-up and reviewed the system text and emails on the first day, we had an entire day to focus on the events.”. When Chris left Siân at the end of the second day, they had set up their first major event with all allocations and also set up a demonstration event to promote the system to new clients system.
“The training was great”, said Siân, “it was so easy to pick up and I can't wait to make ConferenceBookings work for our destination.”
We would like to wish Siân and her team every success with their delegate accommodation booking service.
