Montafon and feratel make companies fit for the
World Wide Web

Small and medium-sized accommodation operations often lack the means and technology to establish themselves in the world of online bookings. Montafon Tourismus and feratel have jointly taken on this challenge with the hosts in the region in recent years. And they have had great success: in one year, 140 new operations were trained to become digital professionals. With IT solutions from feratel, these business operations now receive 95 percent more online bookings.

The direct and digital booking of vacation experiences and accommodation facilities is standard for many guests and is in ever greater demand. Regional business operations that have not yet been able to take the step towards online booking due to their size and resources run the risk of losing their visibility and attractiveness on digital channels. Many tourism regions are responding to this development with their member business operations and actively relying on landlord coaching, training sessions and the general strengthening of their online presence.

  • Montafon Tourismus

“We started our online booking campaign five years ago. Ridiculed by many at first and felt to be unnecessary, we were convinced that we had to keep the hosts market-prepared in this area as well. As part of their work, our eight host coaches provided relevant clarification in private and commercial operations, and numerous supportive further training opportunities at various levels of difficulty were offered in our free Montafon host academy. In the meantime, 560 of our 1,100 hosts can now be booked online. In addition to interfaces to various booking channels, we have been increasingly relying on direct bookings since last year, as this is where the greatest added value is achieved. For example, we make the feratel search and booking widget available to all of our accommodation operations for their own websites free of charge and have already been able to implement this in 140 operations in one year.“ 

Manuel Bitschnau, Managing Director Montafon Tourismus

With its Europe-wide Deskline® destination management system and its international partner portals, feratel media technologies has been a partner right from the start. With Deskline® and the existing interfaces to international booking platforms and vacation home portals, all digital sales channels are made available to the tourism regions and their member businesses in a cost-effective and professional manner. For an individual business, its own homepage becomes an effective marketing and sales tool. With digital future viability, this also ensures sustainable operational success.

The result of all the effort by Montafon is impressive: in the comparative period of January 2019 and 2022, digital accommodation bookings via the Deskline® regional system increased by 95 percent. The number of bookings via the feratel portal partners accounts for 20 percent of all bookings. Bookings via the feratel search and booking widget on the websites of the individual business operations are on par with this at 20 percent, an increase of 143 percent over the same comparative period. The entire destination also benefits from the businesses: the number of bookings via the region’s website montafon.at, which is one of the best performers in Austria, accounts for 60 percent of all bookings – an increase of 40 percent.

 “If you accept the digital challenges in the accommodation business together with the region and supplement them with clever technical solutions, the path is clear for more direct bookings and ultimately more self-determination."

Jochen Karl, destination coach at feratel

  • feratel Couching

10.02.2022

 

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