The Celtic Manor Resort is one of Europe’s leading convention, golf and leisure destinations. It boasts a 400 bedroom Five-Star hotel, a 1500-delegate Convention Center with dedicated exhibition hall, three Trent Jones-designed championship golf courses, including the first Academy Course in Europe, two health clubs and spa. This unique property is already the official venue for the 2010 Ryder Cup and home of The Celtic Manor Wales Open, a European Tour event. It is also quickly carving out a reputation as a centre of excellence for elite cycling in the United Kingdom and is diversifying into ‘Adventure Athletics,’ as well as outdoor entertainment events to broaden its market.

Across the Atlantic, the Celtic Manor’s new sister property, Brookstreet Hotel near Ottawa, Canada, boasts its own challenging Robert Trent Jones Sr. course and a Four-Diamond designation for both its hotel and restaurant. Both properties have been designed and developed to provide every facility and service their guests require, whether they are traveling on business or for pleasure. Both hotels also apply their marketing strategies with finely tuned skill and work with Vantis, the travel industry’s top reservation sales partner, to use the most appropriate channel to target each market segment.

Promotions Drive Channel Growth

Where the 400-room Celtic Manor in South Wales is set in 1,400 acres of panoramic parkland just 90 minutes from London Heathrow, trendy Brookstreet Hotel is rooted in the heart of Ottawa’s thriving high-tech community just minutes from downtown. A high percentage of The Celtic Manor’s guests are made up of corporate groups that come to the resort for a mixture of business and pleasure while attending meetings in the property’s extensive Convention Center. Likewise most of Brookstreet Hotel’s guests are corporate travelers who arrive on property for business functions followed by a round of golf. Both properties market themselves with a blend of in-person sales calls to corporate clients and direct mail campaigns, and they turn to the services of Vantis to complement their sales strategies.

The Celtic Manor Resort’s marketing promotions generate widespread interest in the property by emphasizing its broad appeal and superb quality – not by offering bargains. Celtic Manor’s Vice President Strategy and Marketing, Jon Phelps, said, “In the UK, conference business, which is our largest market, comes from booking agents and, increasingly, direct from corporate clients with whom we have developed strong relationships. We are also growing our leisure segment by creating tailored direct channel strategies through the Internet. Since our property is fully independent, all our marketing is done in-house. We intend expanding our leisure business, and are looking forward to seeing what Vantis has to offer the partnership with the implementation of online programs that specifically attract guests who travel for golf and spa experiences.”

TA Promotion Nets Brookstreet Hotel 49% Booking Increase Over Six months; Generates 50 Room-Nights in Two Months

Forty percent of Brookstreet Hotel’s guests say they learned about the property from referrals; to Patrice Basille, Brookstreet Hotel’s general manager, this means people are talking about the hotel, and saying the right things. “Our hotel is only a year old, but we began our sales efforts months before we opened by developing relationships with local companies to attract group business. The best way to sell to conference planners is with personal meetings; for our other segments, Vantis is helping us develop travel agent incentives and GDS programs that drive business to the hotel.” With Vantis’ help Brookstreet Hotel’s travel agent, GDS and Internet reservations increased by 49 percent in the first six months of 2004. Brookstreet’s corporate clientele is a mix of government officials based in Ottawa, Canada’s capital, and technology executives connected with the surrounding business community who use the property’s 16,000 feet of meeting space.

”This past summer Vantis helped us develop an Internet strategy to attract more weekend guests through all the key distribution channels with a ‘Stay and Play’ package,” explained Basille. “They created specific promotions to attract travel agency business, and maximized our online rates by only closing out rate codes, not room types, so we can demand a higher rate while we still show availability. In one recent campaign they promoted our ‘Be The Big Cheese’ campaign that generated about 50 room-nights in April and May.”

Since a large percentage of Brookstreet Hotel guests are from surrounding areas, Vantis drives regional sales by placing Brookstreet in travel agent consortia programs that enhance the property’s profile in Ottawa. The channel marketing partner went on to distribute special promotions to 65,000 travel agents across North America and Europe. Brookstreet Hotel received a Four-Diamond rating from CAA/AAA for both its restaurant and hotel and is the only hotel in Ottawa with this distinction.

Both Phelps and Basille say they recognize the growth potential of guests that book reservations from their properties’ websites. “We are using every appropriate channel to attract the top-segment of resort guests,” said Celtic Manor’s Jon Phelps. “A substantial number of our guests are Web users and make their decisions based on what they see on a property’s website. With the additional services from Vantis and the various promotional support channels they target, we can increase our Internet reservations even further and at the same time give our market the special offers they are looking for.”

Brookstreet Hotel’s Patrice Basille agrees, “Vantis has been helping us develop our online and GDS marketing strategies and providing travel agent exposure. It has been a very valuable relationship.”

About Vantis - Vantis International Corporation is a marketing and revenue management consulting organization for hotels, car rental companies and airlines. Founded in 1979, the privately held Calgary, Alberta-based firm partners with its clients to optimize their profitable revenue. Vantis offers clients a range of products and services in areas such as revenue management, marketing, channel management, website solutions and voice reservations to ensure they consistently use their most profitable business mix. The company helps clients sell the right hotel room, rental car or airplane seat to the right person at the right price for optimum profitability. With more than 5,000 clients worldwide, Vantis is the industry's largest provider of reservation sales services. The organization is a central distribution point to every viable Internet booking site and to all of the major GDS, including Sabre, Galileo, Pegasus, WorldRes, Amadeus and Worldspan. Vantis has U.S. headquarters in Dallas, Texas and significant development office presence in a number of cities around the world, including Denver, London and Hong Kong.

Contacts:

Vantis

Rick Shaum, Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing
(719) 487-0789
[email protected]

Patrice S. Basille

General Manager
Brookstreet Hotel
Ottawa, Ontario
t: 613-271-3399
f: 613.271.3541
[email protected]
Brookstreet is 4 Diamond from CAA and AAA

Jon Phelps

Vice President, Strategy & Marketing
The Celtic Manor Resort
Location: Coldra Woods, Newport, Gwent, NP18 1HQ
Telephone: +44 (0) 1633 413 000
Fax: +44 (0) 1633 410 269
[email protected]

Russ Rickey
Sr. Director, Advertising & PR
403.444.8592