iPad and MAC compatible Property Management Software for Australian Motels and Hotels

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Mark

Many Australian Motels and Hotels are switching to MAC computers and they need Mac compatible property management software to run their accommodation. Many are also finding the convenience of Apple’s iPad and hotel management software a winning combination. Booking Center provides affordable well designed products that are perfect for the Australian business running on Apple Computers.

Booking Centre has been providing truly MAC compatible software for over 15 years. Our MAC software is completely ready to manage Australian accommodation with Aussie date formats, GST, terms, etc. Web Reservation Systems is the local agent for Booking Centre providing Australian business owners with local help that is based on providing 100’s of motels, B&B’s, backpackers and other Australia.

Use an iPad to Manage Hotel Reservations

Hotel Reservations on an iPadFor managers that want to use an iPad to manage hotel reservations, we have a new service called MyPMS which is a cloud based property management software that can be used safely and securely on your iPad either through your wifi network or a high speed mobile 3G network like Telstra NextG. That means you can be mobile while you are also fully connected to your front office software. When you are at the office, you can log in with your desktop computer. In fact, you can have multiple users working at the same time.

The advantage of a cloud-based software system is that your data is always safe from computer crashes and virus and you can access it securely from any location with fast Internet. For a business with multiple offices, or the need to manage bookings while you’re on the road – MyPMS is the perfect product.

Try the MyPMS front office software on your iPad or desktop computer now. With this free trial, you can use the software from any computer – PC or MAC as well as your iPad. You could use MyPMS on an iPhone as well, but you will find the screens are a bit small to comfortably do much.

Online Bookings For Your Accommodation

All Booking Centre products have the ability to manage Online Bookings through many sales channels. You can add booking links on your website that show real time availability. When a guest books, you set your on terms and conditions and take secure advance payments directly from the guest. Online Booking is a great way to increase your occupancy while you save time and give guests a more convenient way to book.

To learn more about how our systems can make it easier for your guests to make bookings and how our Australian business can provide you with great local support and service – please contact Web Reservation Systems at (02) 66848101.

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Survey Shows How Gen Y Uses Technology in Daily Life

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Mark

Well, it’s no surprise to hear that Generation Y (13 to 24 year olds) are big users of technology and social media. They use FaceBook, mobile apps for check in, text each other constantly and so forth.

For marketers this is big because survey results show how Gen Y uses FaceBook likes to get special offers, check in apps to see where there friends go and then follow, and how they research and buy new products. If you’re selling to Gen Y and ignoring these trends then you’re probably not selling as much as you could and your customers may find other businesses are more interesting for future sales.

You can read the full article here at NextWeb.com > http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2012/01/21/number-crunching-the-top-51-stats-for-generation-y-marketers/

 

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Installing WordPress for a Pre-existing Website and the not being able to Log In

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Mark

I’ve just set up a new hosting account and installed WordPress using Fantastico in CPanel. All that is great, but the website needs to be built first and then when it is ready I’ll re-delegate the domain from the old host to the new host.

That is pretty normal, but when you install WordPress Fantastico likes to input the domain name for the website – not the temporary domain name. So, the first time you try to log in to manage the site through the WordPress dashboard, you get log in errors because it keeps loading the wrong url.

If you’re like me, you are breaking things and then finding solutions to how you fix them all the time. And, if your like me every time you find the solution and fix the problem, 3 months later you break it again for another job and can’t remember how you fixed it before. Is this an early sign of Alzheimers or just standard???

So, here is a pretty good description of how to fix the problem. This one describes how to fix a WordPress Installation through Cpanel using phpMyAdmin. I know I’ve also fixed it by using an FTP program like Filezilla and grabbing a file and editing the details in notepad, but so far this seems to be easier. Not sure who wrote this description, but it is really well done and I found it on the BlueHost user forum. Thanks guys!

And then of course, I’ll probably have to fix it again when I delegate the domain. Perhaps another post?

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What is Waze and will their Car Navigation systems work in Australia?

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Mark

There are a handful of new Internet businesses that are experiencing exponential growth. They are shaping new ways to use phones and communicate. Car navigation systems for your Smart PhoneI learned about Waze.com today from a presentation on growing businesses. Waze started in Israel and quickly grew to an installed base of over 14 million users. They specialize in Car Navigation systems, but then this is an app for your Smart Phone.

The video below does a good job of explaining the Waze service. It is basically a user knowledge base that is constantly updated from people’s phones. It happens both passively and actively. The methods of update look simple and they take into account requirements to not allow users to do unsafe things while in motion – so they have really simplified commands.

Today, the points of interest are improving the basic maps to include new roads and get the names of roads right, and then provide a dynamic picture of what is happening now with traffic congestion, parking and speed traps and cameras.

Tomorrow… well this kind of user generated network could provide the same kinds of data like Foursquare, Gowalla and other check in apps. I would guess that if the business continues its meteoric rise, it will need to partner or combine with parallel business ideas.

Australia’s phone networks can be woefully slow and painfully expensive. I can see the appeal of using this kind of service where you have unlimited high speed data plans. I wonder if that will be a factor here? There are a lot of new services that will rely upon lots of data and speed – so I guess Australian mobile networks will have to change.

I thought it was interesting that their presentation seems to be focused on the Android user and seemed to leave out iPhone users. More about Waze > http://world.waze.com/

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Using Video to Sell Accommodation – Great Website Design Tool

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Mark

I’m always impressed by a good video and the fact that you can load them on YouTube and link them to your website for free is amazing. Video gives your website a good presentation. It speaks to the visitor and can communicate in ways that words and pictures can not.

YouTube is brilliant. If you tried to do the same thing hosting videos on your own web-server it wouldn’t be nearly as good because you’d have issues with download speeds, bandwidth and load balancing should you have the good fortune to have many people want to watch your video at the same instance.

Making a good video is an art form. Certainly, you can make simple videos with your phone or camera. If you’re lucky you can make it in one shot without needing to do any editing, but perhaps the sound or quality will be lacking. You can also use programs like Picasa to make a slide show with still photos. Picasa is program from Google and it links easily to YouTube. Slideshows are a poor mans solution, but certainly better than nothing if you’re on a budget.

Here’s an example of a well made video for a local B&B in Byron Bay called Burns at Byron. I didn’t make it and I don’t know how much it cost, but it sure seems to do the job of selling this B&B effectively.

You don’t have to use YouTube. There are other video services like Vimeo and DailyMotion. Vimeo only allows non-commercial content; so a video like the one for Burns at Byron in Byron Bay would not be allowed. DailyMotion allows commercial content, but they might play an advertisement, which is not a great look for a video embedded on your own website. Here’s a video hosted on Daily Motion called Crazy Dubbo Horses that I posted after a holiday.


Crazy Dubbo Horses by webres

Embedded Video Helps with Search Engine Optimization

For me, YouTube is still the best. It is easy, free and it can bring traffic from search. You can also GEO tag your video which could cause it to display in Google Earth and other websites based on location.

I wish I could give you better advice on how to make great videos. That is an art form and it involves having the right equipment. Obviously, a bad video is probably worse than no video, but the simple solution of using Picasa can be something anyone can do. Here’s an example of one done for Port Fairy Accommodation provider Central Motel.

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