[09-05-2008] The IBIT Foundation transfers the AvantHotel system of reservation to the Mallorca, Minorca and Ibiza-Formentera hotel federations

The platform, which more than 900 hotels in the Balearics use, with more than 16,000 reservations, predicts an increase of 50% this year

The Minister of Economy, Treasury and Innovation, Carles Manera, has presided over the signing of the agreement between the IBIT Foundation, theFederació Empresarial Hotelera de Mallorca, theAssociació Hotelera de Menorca and the Federació Hotelera d’Eivissa i Formentera, for the transfer of the booking system AvantHotel, developed by the IBIT Foundation with the collaboration of the hotel federations of the Islands.

For Carles Manera, projects such as AvantHotel are those which distinguish our destination from other destinations that compete with sun and sand. He has pointed out that the booking system, chosen by the ‘Innovating Regions in Europe’ prizes , is a demonstration of the synergies created by the collaboration between private and public initiative in matters concerning technological innovation and development”.

The President of the Federació Hotelera de Mallorca, Antoni Horrach, has shown his satisfaction for the fact that the public sector and the hotel association of the Islands have come to an agreement regarding the use of one platform. “Anything that is a new way of bringing clients to our islands is welcome, especially if it is via such advanced platforms”.

Horrach also spoke in representation of the President of the Menorca Hotel Association, Joan Melis and of the President of the Association of Hoteliers in Ibiza and Formentera, Roberto Hortensius.

As well as representatives of the bodies who signed the agreement, at the act were also present and representing the Ministry of Tourism, the Director of IQT, Lourdes Garau; the Director of the CITTIB, Lluïsa Tortella; the President of the technologies cluster applied to tourism TURISTEC, Mariano Sacristán; the President of the group of companies GsBit, Javier Pérez; and representatives of the sponsors of the IBIT Foundation: Emilio López and Ina Martínez, of Sa Nostra; Fermín Calvo, of Telefónica, and Víctor Cerdà, of the UIB.

A channel for online reservations and immediate receipt of payment.

One of the main advantages of the AvantHotel system is the immediate receipt of payment by the hotel establishment that does not cause any obstruction in the places. Pere Oliver, Director General of Research, Technological Development and Innovation, states that the traditional system and AvantHotel, in which more than 900 hotels from the Islands participate, “coexist and stimulate each other mutually”.

According to his forecasts, the platform will grow this year by 50%, increasing from the 16,000 reservations made during 2007 to 25,000 ; and from 9 to 15 million euros in turnover.

AvantHotel, as a system of publication and online reservation for tourist accommodation places, was created to boost direct sales on the Internet between establishments and tourists without the intervention of intermediaries (tour operators).

Searching by geographical area and establishments.

The tourist accommodation establishments can, using a web page with restricted access (back office), enter places and rates, which are automatically published into the system.

Clients can, via a webpage with public access, make searches for the availability of places by geographical area and specific establishments, and carry out the reservation online.

The process of reservation incorporates the payment of a deposit, which is a percentage of the total amount of the reservation, paid via a payment gateway (virtual POS) and safe server, and is paid directly and immediately into the bank account of the establishment, without the intervention of intermediaries. On arriving at the establishment, the client pays the outstanding amount of the reservation. Confirmation of the reservation is carried out instantaneously from the AvantHotel platform to the tourists and accommodation by email.

New version financed by the hotel federations.

AvantHotel was developed by the IBIT Foundation between 2002 and 2005 under the programme of innovative activities of Innobal XXI. Avanthotel was co-financed 50% between the European Union via FEDER funds and the Govern dels Illes Balears (Balearic Government). As of 2006, the IBIT Foundation developed a new enhanced and improved version of the AvantHotel booking system, financed by the actual hotel federations of the Islands.

Improvements for new requirements.

The success of the programme is, according to Antoni Roig, Director of the IBIT Foundation, “that the project of innovation has been taken on by the actual productive sector”. After several years of joint development and innovation between the IBIT Foundation and the hotel federations, the system has acquired sufficient maturity to be able to be transferred to the hotel sector.

The IBIT Foundation is transferring the copyright for the AvantHotel platform software in its current version to the hotel federations so that these may continue developing functional improvements on the system and satisfy new market demands.

Release of the basic software version.

The AvantHotel version developed with public funds up to 2005 will be released by the IBIT foundation under the terms of the Affero GPL licence with open code, so that it may be used by technological companies in other tourist destinations. For this reason, Antoni Roig believes that with this agreement “both the hotel sector and the software sector win”.

La consulta no es correcta