The Double-C

The first time that the credit crunch (I call it the Double-C) really hit home was in London last November. I was attending the World Travel Market in London with Caroline and the whole mood combined with the slowdown in travel bookings got me thinking. Whilst I believe that the uncertainty element and the extreme media negative exposure does not help this recession will be tough yet not insurmountable. Travel is nowadays a necessity and not a luxury. We all need to escape and get out of our environment and we will still do so, yet with more attention. Some destinations and travel operators will hurt and these are the ones either targeting high yield customers or operators with high costs and exposure. For others it will be an opportunity to embrace this period and become more efficient. For online companies like ours we must now take the opportunity to promote the wide variety of better deals whilst giving better value to the consumer. It’s not easy but it’s not impossible! Within the next 4 months we will all learn how to live with this situation. We cannot control most external factors yet we must learn how to contain them. Basically, learn to live with and around it!

Another move...another office!

We have again taken over new offices at Msida to house our growing operation. The ChooseToTravel.com portfolio and team is growing at the rate of one new memb er of staff a month across the operation which now manages various travel sites including ChooseItaly.com, ChooseDubai.com and ChooseSouthAfrica.com.

The new 463 square metre office space gives us room to grow the business whilst also providing a more inspiring working environment for our dynamic team. We have 3 open pl an floors with operations and IT having one each. The third floor penthouse is a super comfy, Google style canteen with table soccer, Nintendo Wii, large shower/ wet room and a state of the art kitchen. We spend a large chunk of our life at work and a great e nvironment for a ll is crucial! Hopefully we will not move for a couple of years!

ChooseMalta.com Triathlon

The 2008 ChooseMalta.com Triathlon Championsip was held yesterday Sunday 5th October in Salina Bay. Being event title sponsors for the second year running I had the honour to present the trophies to the winning athletes. Below is a summarised race report as written by Georgie Rutherford for Tri247.com.

The race, which is organised by the Malta Triathlon Association in partnership with ChooseMalta.com was based on the North coast of the island in Salina Bay and after a few stormy days leading up to the event, competitors woke on race morning to see the usual Malta sunshine had returned. At the 8am start, air temperature was already reaching 20C – bliss for the British competitors who had accepted the invite to take part but cooler for the Maltese who are used to daily temperatures of 40°C during the summer months.

The swim was in the crystal clear Mediterranean Sea and with water temperatures of 24C there certainly was no need for wetsuits. Sprint competitors did a 750m one-lap swim, standard athletes competing for the title of 2008 ChooseMalta.com Triathlon Champion, did a two-lap swim.

The title race for the males was a fierce battle from start to finish between brothers Dermot Galea, chasing his 8th consecutive title, and his younger sibling, Keith Galea (U23). The two lead out the swim, with Luke Bonnici hot on their heels through T1. Bonnici dug deep to try and close the gap on the bike, posting the fastest bike split of the day (1.03.57), and making it an exciting T2 with the three heading out on to the run. The race for the title was not going to be an easy victory with all three pushing the pace over the two lap, 10km run. Bonnici, suffering after his efforts on the bike dropped off the pace leaving the two brothers to fight it out for first and second. Neither Galea brother was going to give up and over the last 500m, with the finish line in site, Dermot gave one last kick to sprint away from his younger brother and retain his title for the 8th consecutive year.

The race for third was still on as Brian Magri stormed his way out of T2 to try and claim the final medal position, catching Bonnici after 6kms.

The women's race saw Danica Spiteri returning to try and also reclaim her title as Malta National Champion.

Hello Nakita...

Nakita was born to sell,  sell and sell! When we set-up the company I was the one in charge of sales and I humbly believe that I did well. Yet, over these years, administration and business development and unfortunately the dreaded financials took a lot of my focus and time.  I was on the look-out for the ideal sales person for quite a while.... until Nakita came along! Online marketing and advertising is the future which we are already living in the present! Our websites get huge international traffic and advertising on our sites provides suppliers and companies with excellent value and rate of return. Nakita’s main role is not just to sell but to also ensure that both our suppliers and consumers get what they require. Nakita is focussed and has unlimited energy and drive. Qualities, which are crucial for any successful sales person! Happy selling Nakita!

Infrastructure upgrade, and Special offers!

It was bound to happen - Our traffic has been growing at a steady rate and sooner or later we were going to have to move our websites to a bigger, more powerful Infrastructure.

This upgrade happened last night and we used it as an opportunity to also launch two exciting new features: Special Offers and Allocation. We have worked on them for quite a while and we're all very happy to finally see them on the live website.

As always, feel free to use our feedback form if you have any suggestions.

Thank you,
Marc

ChooseIbiza.com & ChooseCroatia.com Live!

ChooseToTravel.com group adds ChooseIbiza.com and ChooseCroatia.com to it's portfolio!  This morning at around 04.00am both sites were successfully launched on the web.

Still in beta and still signing up hotels but at least we've started.  Watch this space...

The re/launch...

This morning at around 04.00am ChooseDubai.com, ChooseSouthAfrica.com, ChooseMorocco.com, ChooseTunisia.com, ChooseCorsica.com and ChooseTurkey.com went live/got a face lift.

Over the course of the last six months we (mainly IT but extends to others) have been working extremely hard on this new release and I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone involved.

I believe this is a huge step forward for the ChooseToTravel.com group and I’m excited about the future. Anyone thinking of visiting the above countries...I challenge you to find better prices for our hotels!

Coffee or Tea?

Coffee or Tea? Well actually both! I’m very fussy about both my coffee and tea. Morning is time for espressos and by noon I would easily have drunk around four.  I always heat the espresso cup before as this means that the heat from the coffee is not instantly conducted by the cup. My last coffee for the day is usually a large instant Nescafe with milk. Just to keep the caffeine going. Then for tea I’m even fussier. Just for reference, I’m a builder’s tea kind of guy. Anytime from 2pm till 6pm I’m ready for any cups of tea. I like it without sugar and just the right amount of milk, not too much and not too little. 

Well done team!

It's finally complete! This morning at 4AM we launched a brand new system we have been working on for the past 6 months. Ironically, most users will not notice any changes on the front end of the website (for now), but I can assure you that both the ChooseToTravel.com staff as well as our suppliers shall benefit from this new system for years to come. After analysing our code around six months ago, I decided a full redesign of our system was needed.

When a website starts out, you cannot think too far ahead. But there's a certain time when the company suddenly expands and you are faced with limitations and processes which no longer work or need updating.

Six months later, after days and nights of coding and bug testing, we now have a system which will make life easier for us, for the reservations team, and most importantly, for our suppliers! Additionally, new releases will take much less time to be implemented so our IT team can really focus on adding neat new features!

Well done team!

Inspire Ltd appoints business development director

Caroline Borg has been appointed director for business development of Inspire Ltd, operator of the ChooseMalta.com booking portal, "to lead the company into launching its international growth and travel network".

Borg will be responsible for driving forward the company's growth strategy of launching Choose*******.com domain names, including the recently launched www.ChooseItaly.com.

Key to the delivery of these travel sites will be the signing of agreements with various hotel chains and travel suppliers.
Borg has worked in advertising, fashion and the hospitality industry, and - before joining Inspire - was just corporate sales manager at the Hilton Malta.

"I am delighted to welcome Caroline to this key role. We are now a team of 12 and we have a long list of over 60 destination travel sites to launch", says Jonathan Shaw, Inspire managing director.

RateTiger added to list of Integrators

Great news for hotels and great news for us -- we are now officially supported by RateTiger.  Thanks to everyone involved in this project.

About RateTiger

RateTiger, by eRevMax, is a leader in Online Distribution Management tools, pioneering new technologies for the hospitality industry.

The sophisticated product portfolio empowers hoteliers, enabling them to compare rates with competitors on a real-time basis and update a wide variety of distribution channels and travel portals simply and efficiently.

Read more about RateTiger

ChooseItaly.com live!

A new addition to the ChooseToTravel.com network is born!  Last night at around 10.00pm ChooseItaly.com went live on the web.

Still in beta and still signing up hotels but at least we've started.  We have BIG plans for this domain!

Re-Launch successful

Over the last five months the whole of Inspire has been gearing up to a new release of our websites.

As we have grown we have come to understand our customer more and are better armed to provide you with what you need (not what we thought you needed).  We hope this release emcompases these findings.  Included in this release is...

1. A new Look and Feel;
2. Advanced searching functionality;
3. More hotels; and
4. Generally putting the information where you want it

I hope you enjoy and welcome feedback at anytime.  Just fill in our feedback form.

Thanks again,
Chris

Employment Marc von Brockdorff

Marc von Brockdorff has joined our technical department as Technical lead. Marc is 21 years old and has already contributed on the first release as he was employed with a company we outsourced some of our programming to. I look forward to his skills being implemented in our development! Marc is also a drummer with a local band!

Ciao Fabio

Fabio Franchi has been recently appointed as our sales representative in Milan, Italy. Fabio has vast experience in the travel and tourism sector in Itay and he will be our ground representative in Italy for www.chooseitaly.com. Fabio’s main role will be that of communicating and liasing with hotels in Italy and also develop the company’s product development and alliances in Italy! Buon lavoro Fabio!

Employment Kirsty Dimech

Today Kirsty Dimech joined our team and she will be in charge of reservations. Kirsty is 22 years old and has excellent customer and communication skills. More importantly, Kirsty has a positive approach which blends in well with our overall team spirit! Welcome aboard!

IT gets two new recruits

Lincoln Grixti and Mark Camilleri have joined the ChooseToTravel.com IT team. I myself am super excited -- finally I get some help! 

Both Mark (aka Delf) and Linc (aka Linky) will start immediatley re-developing the whole of the ChooseToTravel.com application.

We have lots of plans for the ChooseToTravel.com group and their skills will only enhance the outcome (I hope anyway).

Welcome aboard guys, dont forget when the going gets tough the tough get going!

MHRA official booking engine

The MHRA has appointed ChooseMalta.com as official booking engine for its members. 
 
MHRA has recognised that now more than ever, establishments should seek a strong online internet presence in order for them to attract potential business.   Today there is a radical change in the way people travel and travellers are becoming more accustomed of surfing the web and making their own travelling and accommodation arrangements.

MHRA felt the need to find a partner for its members, who can deliver the necessary level of exposure and facilitate potential visitors who are looking for accommodation in Malta and Gozo, to book online.   In this respect ChooseMalta.com was approached and agreement was reached, to offer MHRA members exposure on this ever-increasing popular site.   ChooseMalta.com is an Associate Member of MHRA.

www.ChooseMalta.com was launched in December 2004 and is establishing itself as a leading Malta travel site. Search engine rankings are constantly improving and ChooseMalta.com ranked in the top 10 for most keywords.    Member hoteliers already on ChooseMalta.com and those that manage their online pricing effectively are reaping the rewards by achieving a higher number of internet bookings.  ChooseMalta.com have also recently launched www.ChooseToTravel.com which also caters for all Maltese wanting to book their travel arrangements overseas with facilities to book from over 70,000 hotels worldwide.

MHRA

About MHRA

The MHRA has been established since 1958 and today represents 70% of all hotels in Malta and 35% of all restaurants, collectively representing an investment of over Lm 500 million and employing in excess of 20,000 people. For the past 46 years the MHRA has represented the interest of hoteliers and restaurateurs on the Island acting as a lobby group to ensure that the policy decisions taken on the Island are in line with what the tourism industry needs to flourish. For more information about the MHRA visit www.mhra.org.mt or call (356) 21 318133. 

Move to Larger Offices

More work, more people and more space required! Larger offices have been found and moved into. It’s not even a year since we moved to the previous office but it resulted in being too small. We now have a better view and around 150 square metres of space. Ironically, its the same yacht marina that we are facing yet from a 4th floor office on the other side of the bay. The team is happy with more space and a better environment. We are now further away from our ‘coffee shop’ yet we have invested in a great coffee machine and also have a kitchen to dine in! 

ChooseDubai.com live!

On the back of our successfull launch of ChooseMalta.com, last night at around 10.00pm ChooseDubai.com went live on the web.

This was a great milestone for us as our efforts and success with ChooseMalta.com have paid off and enabled us to launch ChooseDubai.com.

Over the next couple of months we intend to launch more of the ChooseToTravel.com network so watch this space!