BookDirect is a technology platform from a Santa Fe, NM company called JackRabbit, that allows visitors to destination websites to quickly and efficiently search for available accommodations using a convenient search widget. After the listing of relevant lodgings is displayed, the visitor can further refine their search using the amenities list and the map and sort functions. When they have decided on the lodging that best suits their needs, the visitor clicks the “Book Now” button to be linked to the lodging’s own reservation system to complete a direct booking. JackRabbit is the only online booking solution working with DMOs that is 100% dedicated to facilitating direct bookings on lodging reservation systems.
The platform is becoming increasingly popular with Destination Marketing/Managing Organizations (DMOs) in North America. Currently, JackRabbit is hosted on the tourism websites of 260 cities, states and provinces in the US and Canada. JackRabbit President and CEO Andrew Van Luchene said: “We have about 10 percent of the market now. We estimate about 1 million people use the service each month.”
Jackrabbit is doing all of the work as a real-time automatic aggregator of lodging vacancies and pricing data in local markets. All bookings that are made by users connect them directly with the lodgings’ own reservation systems. Unlike bookings that originate through Online Travel Agency sites like Travelocity and Expedia or through third party booking engines hosted on DMOs’ sites, bookings facilitated by JackRabbit incur no commissions or fees to the lodgings. The only cost of the JackRabbit service is a modest lease fee to the host DMO.
Last fall, JackRabbit launched a mobile application, allowing travellers to make an accommodation booking from their smartphone devices. That is what Andrew Van Luchene envisioned: “Travellers can drive down the highway and search for the closest lodging at the best price on their smart phones or tablets. Content is updated in real time, so consumers know the closest properties to them. They just click to call the front desk to book a room, and click again to get directions from wherever they are.” Van Luchene expects the mobile app to have a great success and the first partners are already established. In February 2012, Florida became the first US based user of the JackRabbit mobile app. All existing customers of JackRabbit have an opportunity to upgrade their packages to use the mobile app, so the company expects all 260 partners to upgrade soon.
Their expectations are supported by Jill Stewart, Marketing Operations Manager for the state-financed Visit Florida tourism promotion agency. She noted that the mobile app helps meet the needs of modern travellers. “More and more people are using mobile devices to search for lodgings,” Stewart said. “This gives them real-time information on rates and availability.”
Meanwhile, JackRabbit is signing up bigger contracts in more places, Van Luchene said. Most customers are still city-level tourism destinations, but New Brunswick, Florida, Louisiana and Colorado are providing state (province) wide service so that visitors to any destination site within the state or province, enjoy the same fast and efficient search-book functionality provided by the JackRabbit Lodging Search Engine. In addition, JackRabbit signed its first international contract in January with the government of Aruba, and is in final negotiations with two more Caribbean islands.
If you would like to learn more about JackRabbit Systems, please contact Alex Kinninmont at
alex.kinninmont@publicitas.com or by phone: 1(416)363-1388 ext. 226
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