Online Booking and Reservation System

Tourism Kingston is working with Meridian Reservations Systems to provide Kingston tourism businesses and partners with an on-line booking and reservation system for use by visitors who are making travel plans to visit Kingston. This project will enable tourism operators to immediately convert website visitors to sales.

The system will be beneficial for any tourism business, large or small, year-round or seasonal, that wishes to have an online presence in order to capitalize on e-marketing and e-commerce, including: Accommodations - Attractions - Spas - Golf Courses - Dining - Shopping - Transportation - Arts and Heritage - Festivals and Events - Sports Organizations - Tour Companies.

Once fully operational the reservation system will enable seamless cross-sector partnering and packaging of accommodations with other tourism products and services.

Background Information

The need for an online reservation system in today's highly competitive destination marketplace is essential for making travel easy to buy for consumers.  Not only does the online reservation system provide convenience to our online visitors but also serves as a tracking mechanism in the leisure market which traditionally has been hard to measure.  Tourism Kingston will work with industry partners to populate the system with hotel availability as well as a packaging feature that will offer multiple products including hotel, attraction tickets, dining options and other Kingston product offerings.

Objective

The implementation of an online reservation system will:

1.  Enable smaller or seasonal operators (Bed & Breakfasts, Cottage Resorts etc.) to present their product in a standardized format and compete on a level playing field with bigger branded or franchised operators who may have previously utilized an online booking or reservation system.

2.  Improve market competitiveness of Kingston's tourism businesses versus other competing regions, by providing a state of the art on-line market place for potential visitors that previously did not exist.

3.  Enable cross-sector partnering and packaging of accommodations with other tourism products and services.

4.  Easily present and offer potential visitors more reasons come to Kingston and to stay longer once they are here and allow online tourism bookings that will convert a casual website visitor to an actual visitor and immediate sale.

5.  Present Kingston's tourism offerings in a standard format and centralized online marketplace which can help to brand Kingston.

6.  Fulfill Tourism Kingston's mandate to increase visitor spending in Kingston.

Reservation System Selection

A number of on-line Reservation Systems and suppliers were investigated including JackRabbit Reservation Systems Ltd. (jackrabbitsystems.com), Local Hospitality (localhospitality.com) and Meridian Reservation Systems (reservationsystems.com).

Meridian Reservation Systems Inc. was identified and selected as the system supplier for a number of reasons including:

1. Meridian's system has unique capabilities that will enable accommodations businesses to partner and offer packages or incentive offers with other businesses (restaurants, golf courses, theatres, tour companies, retail establishments etc.) that will provide value added experiences and offerings for visitors when booking their accommodations.

2. Meridian's system has a post-visit survey mechanism and includes the ability to capture Statistical and Analytical Tracking Information such as non-personal demographic and geographic data about visitors booking reservations in Kingston. This data can be utilized to help Tourism Kingston research and identify further tourism gaps and opportunities.

3. It is a Canadian company founded in 1999 and based in Niagara Falls. Meridian has successfully implemented online reservation systems for a number of major Canadian Tourism Destination Marketing Organizations (DMO's) including Ottawa Tourism, Toronto Tourism, Stratford Festival, Tourism Niagara and London Tourism. Meridian is currently implementing reservations systems with Muskoka and Northumberland, among others.

4. Meridian provides extensive user training which allows users regardless of size or scope the opportunity to utilize technology to their advantage.

5. Three business models are offered: Wholesale model, Retail model and Hybrid model. The Wholesale model was chosen as the most appropriate for implementation in Kingston as it will enable Tourism Kingston to offer and sell centralized packages online for its partners.

Costs to participate

Tourism Kingston is underwriting the costs for Meridian to provide the necessary software, support and training for industry participants. Participating businesses will only be charged a commission fee of 10% to partially offset this investment made by Tourism Kingston.

The booking and selling of centralized packages will be handled electronically through www.kingstoncanada.com. Tourism Kingston will collect credit card payments electronically via the website from customers purchasing packages. Disbursements to businesses participating in the centralized packaged offerings will be paid monthly by Tourism Kingston's Finance department, less a 10% service charge per transaction (capped at $5.00 per transaction, charged to the consumer) to cover processing costs.