“While we are happy with the initial results of both projects,” said Ashwin Kamlani, President of Regatta Travel Solutions, “there is still a lot more work to be done. Implementation of our booking engine is only the first step. Now we will work hand in hand with Palace Resorts to implement customized and targeted promotions to increase direct bookings even more.”

“Our members had nothing but praise for the new Palace Premier website and booking engine built by Regatta,” said Roberto Chapur, President of Palace Resorts. “The new personalized and easy to use interface was embraced by our members and the results were evident instantly. Implementing Regatta on palaceresorts.com has already shown to be equally if not more beneficial and we are excited about what the future brings.”

Palace Resorts is now using Regatta to market and sell its 8,000 rooms to individual travelers, vacation owners and groups, using one consolidated platform for online bookings from all segments. It will also allow Palace Resorts to easily create unique customized landing pages for groups to book online at their negotiated rates. Regatta is now featured on palaceresorts.com as well as all individual sites such as hardrockhotelpuntacana.com and leblancsparesort.com.

About Palace Resorts
With 12 oceanfront resorts overlooking sparkling turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea or the tranquil Pacific Ocean, Palace Resorts sets the highest standards for five-star all-inclusive vacations in Cancun, Riviera Maya, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres and Riviera Nayarit in Mexico and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. Palace Resorts provides an exceptional experience for travelers, offering luxurious and spacious accommodations accentuated by their signature in-room double Jacuzzi®, nightly entertainment, off-site excursions, the Caribbean’s most extravagant spas and premier Jack Nicklaus signature golf courses. Palace Resorts’ unparalleled level of service and comfort found at each property makes them a leader in providing world-class resort vacations.

About Regatta Travel Solutions Inc.
Founded by Ashwin Kamlani, Regatta Travel Solutions is a division of Hotel Internet Help Inc and provides the latest in online booking technology and marketing tactics to Destination Marketing Organizations and hotel chains. DMOs that use Regatta to book travel on their sites can increase demand for their destination, lower the cost paid by suppliers per booking, and increase membership and participation for their organizations. The Company also offers high quality hotel website design, search engine optimization and online marketing. Visit www.hotelinternethelp.com for more details.

Jamaica’s Director of Tourism, John Lynch, has called the initiative “a significant achievement with enormous benefits for Jamaica’s tourism industry”. He congratulated Myrtle Dwyer, Glamour DMC’s Director of Sales, Marketing & Customer Relationship Management, on the new partnership and pledged the Jamaica Tourist Board’s “full support”.

Evelyn Smith, President of the Jamaica Hotel & Tourist Association (JHTA) was also very upbeat about the launch of BookJamaicaNow.com which she said, “represents a significant marketing boost for JHTA members”.

Pointing to Regatta’s successes in other parts of the Caribbean, Ms. Dwyer said that the project is “ideally suited to Jamaica”. She noted that traditional OTAs typically demand a 25-30% commission from industry partners, while Regatta offers free registration to Jamaican companies and a much lower commission.

Ashwin Kamlani, President of Regatta Travel Solutions, a division of Hotel Internet Help, said that all suppliers in Jamaica will benefit from Regatta OTA Software.
“We are proud to bring Regatta to Jamaica; the country has so much to offer but so many suppliers in the destination have yet to find their full potential via the internet. Traditional OTAs and Tour Operators have dominated many destinations in the Caribbean for years and for the first time, Regatta provides these destinations with a voice of their own”, Mr. Kamlani declared.

About Glamour Destination Management Company
Glamour is the Caribbean’s foremost destination Management Company, with over two decades of experience and a proven record of satisfying clients from all over the world. Services include ground transportation, handling meeting and incentive groups, event management, concierge, receptive services, tour operators, travel agents, cruise excursions, tours, private jets, travel consortia, airline charters and yachts and special services. Glamour has been in operation since 1987 and boasts its own fleet of luxury vehicles, experienced and well- trained staff and programmes fit for individuals, meeting and incentive groups or special interest groups.For more information on Glamour DMC, please visit www.glamourdmc.com.

About Regatta Travel Solutions Inc
Founded by Ashwin Kamlani, Regatta Travel Solutions provides specialized online booking technology and marketing tactics for DMOs (Destination Marketing Organizations). DMOs that use Regatta to book travel on their sites can increase demand for their destination, lower the cost paid by suppliers per booking, and increase membership and participation for their organizations. Visit www.hotelinternethelp.com for more details.

“This is just another example of how a Destination Marketing Organization can significantly increase the amount that they produce for their destination by using Regatta OTA Software on its website,” said Ashwin Kamlani, President of Regatta Travel Solutions. “As more hotels in Puerto Rico join the effort we will certainly see further improvement in performance as we are seeing in other destinations.”

“Our members are thrilled,” said Clarisa Jimenez, President of PRHTA. “Regatta has been great to work with and we have already surpassed the number of bookings with Regatta that we used to do in an entire year. Even the larger chain hotels are getting involved now.”

About The Puerto Rico Hotel & Tourism Association
The Puerto Rico Hotel & Tourism Association was established in 1950 in San Juan as a not-for-profit organization. It is made up of more than 570 corporate members such as hotels, restaurants, airlines, tour and car rental companies, cruise lines and suppliers of goods and services to the tourism industry. The Puerto Rico Hotel & Tourism Association (PRHTA) represents, protects, promotes, informs and educates its members to enable them to achieve their business objectives.

About Regatta Travel Solutions Inc.
Founded by Ashwin Kamlani, Regatta Travel Solutions provides specialized online booking technology and marketing tactics for DMOs (Destination Marketing Organizations). DMOs that use Regatta to book travel on their sites can increase demand for their destination, lower the cost paid by suppliers per booking, and increase membership and participation for their organizations. Visit www.hotelinternethelp.com for more details.

“It just makes perfect sense,” said David Rice, President & CEO of the Barbados Tourism Authority. “It is a huge added convenience to our visitors, the hotels and attractions love it since they retain more of the net earnings from bookings, and it helps the economy of Barbados. It’s a win-win all around.”

“We are excited that the BTA is collaborating with us on this important project,” said Sue Springer, Executive Vice President of BHTA. “The hotels are very enthusiastic, visitbarbados.org has a high amount of targeted traffic, and Regatta has been wonderful to work with. It’s the perfect recipe for success.”

Since launching on May 31st, Regatta has released a new layout of the booking engine that includes their innovative Concierge tool which allows customers to find their perfect hotel by selecting their desired criteria. In July, they will launch Activities allowing customers to search and book a variety of tours and attractions.

About the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA)
The BTA’s mission is to provide leadership in the sustainable development of Barbados’ tourism industry through the formulation of policy, the provision of timely and quality research; the development and maintenance of industry-wide standards and the facilitation of appropriate product development whilst ensuring maximum economic benefits to Barbadians.

About the Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association (BHTA)
The Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association was established in 1952. Their mission is “Bringing people, research knowledge and technology together to resolve challenges of business and to stage a world class experience and performance.”

About Regatta Travel Solutions Inc.
Founded by Ashwin Kamlani, Regatta Travel Solutions provides specialized online booking technology and marketing tactics for DMOs (Destination Marketing Organizations). DMOs that use Regatta on their sites can increase demand for their destination, lower the cost paid by suppliers per booking, and increase membership for their organizations. Visit www.hotelinternethelp.com.

The best part about this story is that Expedia and Hotels.com doesn’t even have this hotel in their inventory! According to my client, while they did work with Expedia at one point, they have not had a contract with them for over 2 months. In my November article about the new Google local listings, I had stated that these new listings were great for hotels because it finally gave individual hotels a better chance of showing up on the first page of Google. Companies like Expedia and Hotels.com that had traditionally dominated page one of Google because of their wealth of content and strong optimization techniques would not be able to participate in the Google Places listings. Well, I was wrong.

It appears that Expedia and Hotels.com have also recognized that the new Google Places listings are a great way for individual hotels to get exposure, so they have decided to hijack them and take advantage of hotels that have not yet learned how to claim their own listings to drive people to their own call centers. I thought that maybe this was an isolated incident… giving Expedia & Hotels.com the benefit of the doubt, and went on to claim the listing for my client. Unfortunately, when I entered the Hotels.com phone number into Google Places in order to pull up the listing, more than one appeared.

What to do?

If you Google your hotel and find that Expedia, Hotels.com, or perhaps someone else has stolen the Google Places listing which rightfully belongs to you, simply log into Google Places using a Gmail address. Google will first ask you for the Country and Phone Number of your hotel. If they already have a listing for your location, it will show on your screen. Click “Edit” and then make the appropriate changes. Once finished, Google will most likely send a post card to your hotel with a pin code. When it arrives, just log back into your Google Places account and claim the listing.

At this point, you will either be able to control the listing, or you might find that a duplicate listing has been created. In the case of a duplicate listing, simply click on the one that is NOT controlled by you and click the link at the bottom of the screen that says “Report a problem” and indicate that it is a duplicate listing. Eventually Google will merge the two listings and you will be in control again. It is recommended that you advise your staff never to give out the Google pin number to anyone else.

Note: Google Places also does business verification over the phone where they call the business and provide the pin number with an automated system, but this is usually for a first time set up and not when you are trying to claim a listing that already exists. In the event that you are going to use the telephone verification method, it is important that you temporarily deactivate any answering machines or voice menus. You will need to answer the phone when it rings in order to get your pin.

MIAMI (June 14th, 2011) – Based on the impressive results seen by other clients, Fiesta Americana Vacation Club has signed an agreement with Regatta Travel Solutions to build a new website complete with their unique Vacation Club Booking Engine. The deal includes a website that will be used to grow the Fiesta Americana Vacation Club business, as well as online marketing strategy and execution from Regatta Travel Solutions.

“We are confident that we can help Fiesta Americana Vacation Club achieve its goals,” said Ashwin Kamlani, President of Regatta Travel Solutions. “Our technology is unsurpassed and when combined with the marketing knowledge and experience that we bring to the table we have the ability to achieve the results that our clients are hoping for. We are proud to have Fiesta Americana Vacation Club as a client and further expand our growth into Mexico.”

“There were proposals on the table from several companies,” said Santiago Creus, Director of Business Development for the US market at Fiesta Americana Vacation Club, “but none of them bring the experience and knowledge of the vacation ownership space to the table that Regatta does. It is a complex business and technology alone will not suffice. We were impressed with the flexibility of Regatta as a company and the extent to which the system fit our needs.”

About Fiesta Americana Vacation Club
With more than 10 years of experience, Fiesta Americana Vacation Club offers a long term flexible membership with hundreds of vacation options. Members are able to enjoy unforgettable family vacations every year in luxurious Resorts in Mexico and the rest of the world, through its alliances with Hilton Grand Vacations Club and RCI.

About Regatta Travel Solutions Inc.
Founded by Ashwin Kamlani, Regatta Travel Solutions provides specialized online booking technology and marketing tactics for DMOs (Destination Marketing Organizations), hotel chains, and vacation clubs. Organizations that use Regatta to book travel on their sites can increase demand, lower their cost per booking, and increase membership and participation for their organizations. Visit www.hotelinternethelp.com for more details.

“It is so exciting to a high profile destination like Barbados embrace Regatta,” said Ashwin Kamlani, President of Regatta Travel Solutions.  “This is going to change everything about the power that DMOs have to impact the tourism and local economies within their destination.”

“We evaluated several companies for this project,” said Sue Springer, Executive Vice President of BHTA.  “But Regatta is the only system that is specifically designed to handle everything we were looking for.  The combination of the advanced technology and the marketing knowledge that they bring to the table is very attractive to us.”

The initial phase of BookBarbadosNow.com is live and has already generated bookings for the destination.

About the Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association

The Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association was established in 1952.  Their mission is “Bringing people, research knowledge and technology together to resolve challenges of business and to stage a world class experience and performance.”  Visit www.bhta.org for more details.

About Regatta Travel Solutions Inc.

Founded by Ashwin Kamlani, Regatta Travel Solutions provides specialized online booking technology and marketing tactics for DMOs (Destination Marketing Organizations).  DMOs that use Regatta to book travel on their sites can increase demand for their destination, lower the cost paid by suppliers per booking, and increase membership and participation for their organizations.

“We congratulate Puerto Rico for being the first to take this bold step,” said Ashwin Kamlani, President of Regatta Travel Solutions.  “The PRHTA is about to become an example of how a hotel association can truly become an important source of revenue for their members.”

“Regatta is going to solve many of the challenges that we have faced for years,” said Clarisa Jimenez, President of PRHTA.  “Now for the first time, hotels and activity providers will know that they are getting business from us and we will be in full control of how we market ourselves and attract more business for our members.”

Regatta will allow the PRHTA to be listed in TripAdvisor alongside the OTAs as an option for booking the hotels in Puerto Rico.  It will also give the hotel association the flexibility to work with all suppliers in their destination to create destination-wide promotions and attract more business at lower commission levels.

About The Puerto Rico Hotel & Tourism Association

The Puerto Rico Hotel & Tourism Association was established in 1950 in San Juan as a not-for-profit organization.   It is made up of more than 570 corporate members such as hotels, restaurants, airlines, tour and car rental companies, cruise lines and suppliers of goods and services to the tourism industry.  The Puerto Rico Hotel & Tourism Association (PRHTA) represents, protects, promotes, informs and educates its members to enable them to achieve their business objectives.

About Regatta Travel Solutions Inc.

Founded by Ashwin Kamlani, Regatta Travel Solutions is striving to make Destination Marketing Organizations the best place to book travel online by providing them with the latest in online booking technology and marketing tactics.  The Company, a member of AH&LA, also offers high quality hotel website design, search engine optimization and online marketing.  Contact www.hotelinternethelp.com for more details.

“We are thrilled that such a prestigious hotel group has entrusted us to win over their most valuable customers,” said Ashwin Kamlani, President of Regatta Travel Solutions. “Many hotel groups do not do a good job of giving their most loyal clients the best online experience. Together with Palace Resorts, we are going to make history and show these members a level of personalization and communication that no other company can provide. Our Regatta booking engine will entice members to stay beyond their allotment of weeks, upgrade their memberships and refer their friends to the program.”

“Regatta was the clear choice for this project,” said Roberto Chapur, President of Palace Resorts. “They brought new ideas, simple but advanced technology and a willingness to meet our needs. Our members deserve the very best treatment, and this new site will provide them with the best online experience possible.”

About Palace Resorts
With 12 oceanfront resorts overlooking sparkling turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea or the tranquil Pacific Ocean, Palace Resorts sets the highest standards for five-star all-inclusive vacations in Cancun, Riviera Maya, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres and Riviera Nayarit in Mexico and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. Palace Resorts provides an exceptional experience for travelers, offering luxurious and spacious accommodations accentuated by their signature in-room double Jacuzzi®, nightly entertainment, off-site excursions, the Caribbean’s most extravagant spas and premier Jack Nicklaus signature golf courses. Palace Resorts’ unparalleled level of service and comfort found at each property makes them a leader in providing world-class resort vacations.

About Regatta Travel Solutions Inc.
Founded by Ashwin Kamlani, Regatta Travel Solutions provides specialized online booking technology and marketing tactics for DMOs (Destination Marketing Organizations) and hotel chains. Organizations that use Regatta to book travel on their sites can increase demand, lower their cost per booking, and increase membership and participation for their organizations. Visit www.hotelinternethelp.com for more details.

“There is a lot of pent up demand for Regatta and over the next few weeks we will be announcing several deals.” said Ashwin Kamlani, President of Regatta Travel Solutions. “CVBs, Tourism Boards and Hotel Associations should be the strongest OTAs for their own destinations but they want to avoid the cost and hassle of building the technology from scratch. Many have partnered with existing Online Travel Agencies on their websites in order to provide reservations services because until now there was no other option. Once they have the booking engine on their site they lack the knowledge and resources to drive traffic and revenue. Regatta provides all of the back end and front end technology and marketing tactics needed to be an important source of revenue for suppliers in the destination. Our goal is to start educating consumers that the best place to book travel is with the local hotel association, CVB or tourism board.”

Regatta’s extranet is compatible with EZYield.com, RateTiger and Channel Plus channel management systems. It allows hotels and activity providers to easily review, modify and cancel reservations, and update rates, inventory and restrictions. Hotels and activity providers control photos and content, and manage promotional tools such as discount codes and strike-through pricing. On the front end Regatta’s booking engine allows consumers to specify a variety of search criteria to personalize results and has very strong tools for selling additional products and services to generate ancillary revenue. It even allows hotels to separate rate and room blocks for groups to book on customized landing pages. On the marketing front, Regatta is compatible with TripAdvisor’s “Check Rates” button so that an organization using Regatta can be listed as a booking option next to the major OTAs.

About Regatta Travel Solutions Inc.
Founded by Ashwin Kamlani, Regatta Travel Solutions is striving to make Destination Marketing Organizations the best place to book travel online by providing them with the latest in online booking technology and marketing tactics. The Company, a member of AH&LA, also offers high quality hotel website design, search engine optimization and online marketing.