St Austell Brewery sing Welcome Anywhere's praises in The Publican

"Public demand to stay in inns is growing. Get it right and you’re onto a winner," writes Claire Dodd in a February edition of The Publican. According to Laterooms, bookings have increased by 40 per cent year on year for inns that use the site. And approximately 200 to 250 new pubs joined the site in 2010.

That’s fantastic news and counters the grim reports our media focus on, such as the unsavoury thought of two pubs shutting up shop every week in Britain. But Laterooms is only one side of the story. They introduce new business and are very good at doing so, but what about maximising the profitability of an inn’s room stock?

The article turns to St Austell Brewery’s accommodation revenue executive, Candace Jury, who explains her role in developing the Cornish brewer’s letting room offering which has increased by 10 per cent since she joined the company in April 2010.

“You also need to give people the ability to book direct with you. I don’t want to keep paying commission, so the hope is people will then come direct to our website,” says Candace. “The smaller managed houses in our estate use the Welcome Anywhere bookings system, which can be purchased from as little as £35 per month. It may save you losing a booking if potential customers can’t get through on the phone. It has a customer database which you can then use to send offers to your customers directly.”

Welcome Anywhere continues to grow in popularity since its introduction in 2007. As a web-based system, it offers many advantages over the competition, not least the fact that it is truly ‘portable’; open up a web browser on any web-connected computer in the world and you can access your booking chart. No hassle, no limit on the number of computers you run it on and no worry about backups.

All that and online booking for just £35 per month? No, we haven’t gone mad!

If you want to know more about Welcome Anywhere and how it can benefit inns, B&Bs and guesthouses, take a look at the online demonstration of the booking system in action.

Read the Publican article

Prices quoted above exclude VAT