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iknow-uk Ltd, is celebrating the significant milestone of receiving over 6 million visitors to their UK accommodation listing websites.
Customer numbers continue to increase and iknow has rewarded them with over £60million pounds worth of booking enquiries in 2007.
Managing Director, Marcus Simmons, comments “We're thrilled the visitor numbers continue to increase. Our bookings provide a lifeline for many of our customers who are independent accommodation owners. They sometimes find it difficult to compete with the larger chains, but through the internet they can punch well above their weight.”
Marcus continues “If people are travelling to an area they're unfamiliar with, they may be tempted to stay in a chain hotel, so they know what they're going to get. But we know many people would like a home from home, which is more personal and allows them to enjoy local culture and fantastic home-cooked breakfasts.”
So what does this booming local business have planned for 2008? Marcus tells us “We launched two new sites in 2007 and we have four new areas planned for 2008, starting with iknow-somerset. The upgrade of the site structure including adding photo galleries, review pages and improved searching facilities will take us a big step forward again, as we strive to be the UK’s leading tourism accommodation listing site.”
Leading UK accommodation listing provider, www.iknow-uk.com is echoing police and Government warnings about drink driving this Christmas period; suggesting we stopover and make a night of it instead.
During the 2006 Christmas period, accommodation listed on iknow-uk received over 27,000 booking enquiries; over 3000 of which were for the Inns on the site, which prove increasingly popular at this time of year. These figures suggest many drivers are heeding the police warnings and staying the night instead of risking the drive home.
And Government figures for the same period show a 12% drop in the number of people testing positive during police drink-drive tests last year.*
Managing Director of iknow-uk, Marcus Simmons, comments “It appears people don't want to give up either their Christmas parties, or their driving licence. With the current police recommendations of drink OR drive, people have found another way to enjoy the celebrations without having to drive home.”
“The Inns on iknow all recorded a significant increase in bookings over the winter period; making this type of accommodation the most popular choice for partygoers.”
“In recent years, people have become even more careful about drinking and driving, in light of the increased media attention. Because of the UK's reliance on cars for our jobs, many people couldn't work if they received a ban; making stopping over a more sensible option.”
To list your Inn and take advantage of the Christmas bookings, visit www.iknow-uk.com/free-trial/ or call 0871 871 0851.
* Source: news.bbc.co.uk
Surf, Sea and Sand feature on the holiday ‘shopping list’ for most British holidaymakers and the UK's leading internet accommodation site; www.iknow-uk.com has seen an increasing trend in enquiries for breaks to the British Seaside this year.
Whether it's donkey rides, seagulls and piers, or jellied eels and Punch and Judy, us Brits have always been drawn to the seaside. Ever since the fifties and sixties, when the great rush to the coast created the golden age of the holiday camp, we've enjoyed bucket-and-spade family holidays by the sea.
But with cheap flights and guaranteed sunshine, many of us turned our backs on popular British seaside resorts; favouring trips abroad. Coastal towns slowly declined, investment levels fell and architectural relics from the grand Victorian hotels to Art Deco pavilions were left in a state of disrepair.
But, it seems the tide is turning. Warmer summers, better beaches and a growing reluctance to fly are leading to a resurgence of the British seaside resorts. People who remember their childhood holidays at the beach are taking their own children and now 28% of all domestic holiday trips are spent at the great British seaside; a total of 25 million trips a year, according to the latest figures*.
Managing Director of the UK's leading accommodation listing website www.iknow-uk.com, Marcus Simmons, comments “Seaside holidays have been really popular this year; building on the trend we have seen in recent years. They peaked in July and August, despite the rather grey summer we had and, taking Yorkshire as an example, in August we had over 100,000 people looking for accommodation on the Yorkshire coast. Over 50% of the site visitors that month were searching for seaside or coastal holidays.”
Another company showing their confidence in this increasing trend is Park Resorts; the UK's leading operator of medium-sized holiday parks. The company owns thirty-five holiday parks in key British coastal locations, and they have just invested in another two; Landguard Holiday Park; their fourth park on the Isle of Wight and Skipsea Sands, their fourth location in East Yorkshire.
Marketing manager Geoff Barnes comments “Britain has a lot to offer as a holiday destination and increasing security measures, coupled with added costs such as parking, can make trips abroad an expensive hobby. In addition, carbon footprints are of growing concern to British holidaymakers.”
“People seem to be realising they still have much of Britain left to explore and holiday parks make a great base to visit a region. They can enjoy plenty of facilities on park such as heated indoor swimming pools and a full programme of evening entertainment, all included in the price.”
* Source: www.staruk.org.uk
A NEW website which has generated an estimated £150 million in value to the UK tourism industry is launching in Scotland this month.
www.iknow-scotland.co.uk is the latest regional accommodation to be launched by the award-winning iknow-uk Ltd, which has established successful sites in Devon, Cornwall, Yorkshire, the Lake District, Wales and the North West. These sites have received 10 million visitors and generated one million booking enquiries, worth an estimated £150 million to iknow customers in just four years.
“Scotland has a huge amount to offer holiday-makers with the Highlands and Islands, castles and cities, amazing coastline and, of course, events such as the Edinburgh Festival and the Highland Games”, said Mr Simmons.
Ben Moor, who owns Torguish House; a family-run bed and breakfast near Inverness, is one of the first customers to take advantage of the new iknow-scotland site.
The Moor family bought Torguish House; childhood home of Scottish writer, Alistair MacLean, in October 2006. They spent eight months renovating this Jacobean Manse House and reopened in July; keen to fill their rooms.
Ben explains “One of our close friends owns a bed and breakfast in the Lake District and he told us he gets 90% of his business through iknow-uk. When he heard they were launching a Scottish site, he told us to get on it - so we did.”
We offer a free trial and a money back guarantee if being on our site does not pay for itself within 6 months.
With four years experience in internet accommodation bookings; generating an estimated £150 million in value to the UK tourism industry, iknow-uk understand the secrets of online success.
iknow-uk is celebrating its fourth birthday this month. Their first website, www.iknow-yorkshire.co.uk was launched in 2003 by Managing Director, Marcus Simmons. Fast forward only four years and the company has won five business awards, gained over 1200 customers and now employs fourteen staff.
Over that four year span, iknow-uk websites have received 10 million visitors and generated 1 million booking enquiries worth an estimated £150 million to listed properties. Their customers are so happy with the results; the company enjoys a 90% retention rate.
iknow understand what works for their customers and their advice to hoteliers when deciding how to get more online exposure is don't be distracted by bells and whistles; too many sites offer features which may look good but do nothing to attract visitors or generate bookings.
Marcus comments, "Accommodation providers face a bewildering range of sites to advertise on; most of which want money up front. The essential advice is not to spend any money until you know something is going to work. Insist on a free trial to prove the listing will generate business before spending your hard earned cash."
It is also important not to sit back and wait for websites to send you bookings. You need to pro-actively keep your web presence up-to-date with great photos, accurate prices, availability and descriptions. Nothing turns potential customers off more than seeing a special offer that expired two months ago.
Going forward, the company has learnt a great deal from listening to what their customers want from accommodation websites and also what their potential guests want. By combining these requirements with the latest technologies, iknow is working on some brand new features which will generate even more bookings for customers. These include…
iknow-uk is growing at a rapid pace and aims to involve the whole of the UK. At present the areas covered include the Lake District, North West, Yorkshire, Devon, Cornwall, Wales and shortly Scotland. Somerset, Dorset, the Cotswolds and London are all scheduled for a 2008 launch.
Despite the floods, July saw over 200,000 visitors to yorkshire; generating more than 20,000 booking enquiries worth an estimated £3.5m
This was a record-breaking month for one of Yorkshire's prime accommodation listing sites; with the highest number of visitors in four years. It is sure to be welcome relief to many accommodation providers in the midst of the clean-up operation.
Owner of iknow-uk, Marcus Simmons, comments "The results peaked towards the end of the month, after the main flood crisis had receded from the area. It was as if there was an overwhelming show of support, which I'm sure will be welcomed.
"The record breaking end to the month has continued strongly into August which looks set to break all records again, as the visitors come flooding back."
With another outbreak of Foot and Mouth looming over rural areas, the county is likely to be even more reliant on tourism this year and is keen to let visitors know they are open for business.
To book your break in Yorkshire and experience stunning countryside and coastlines, alongside award-winning gardens, national parks and heritage attractions, visit www.iknow-yorkshire.co.uk
Since Matthew and Clare Bounds took over Home from Home in November and listed their properties on www.iknow-wales.co.uk their business has grown from strength to strength.
Home from Home offer a wide range of holiday-let accommodation around Swansea Bay, Mumbles and Gower. The business had been operating successfully for twenty five years when Matthew and Clare took over in November 2006.
When analysing their business, the new owners discovered that 60% of bookings were generated via the internet, but the businesses' marketing spend had historically been allocated to offline marketing, such as newspapers and magazines.
Matthew and Clare knew they had to achieve a balance with their marketing; splitting it between offline and online, and it was then that they discovered iknow-uk and their online accommodation listings.
Matthew comments "It's still very early days in our relationship with iknow, but the site has already generated good booking enquiries to make it worthwhile. I think this will only improve as the site becomes increasingly well-known and is visited by more people wanting to travel to Wales."
"We're very lucky to live in a hidden corner of Wales, with lovely beaches and beautiful scenery. Gower Peninsula was the UK's first national park and we enjoy sharing its treasures with our guests. We tend to find that when people do discover the area, they keep coming back, so we're banking on iknow to help us spread the word."
Holiday accommodation websites which are not accessible to disabled people are proving a turn-off to their audience and sabotaging potential business.
That's the warning from one of the UK's biggest accommodation websites, iknow-uk Ltd, which increases bookings for hoteliers, B&B and holiday cottage owners in some of the UK's most popular destinations.
Latest figures show that around 10 per cent of the online population has a disability, but many accommodation websites have not been brought into line with web accessibility guidelines.
Failing to provide an accessible website puts companies at risk of damaging their reputation and losing out on business opportunities.
iknow-UK's award-winning website already complies with Disability Accessibility guidelines and are in the process of upgrading the sites.
With sites covering Wales, Yorkshire, the Lake District, the North West, Devon and Cornwall, the website received over three million visitors and generated over £50 million in booking enquiries in 2006 alone.
Mr Simmons believes most accommodation providers are unaware of website accessibility guidelines.
"Most of our customers have their own website, but a lot of them were not made aware of the disability access issue when they had them designed.
"The deadline for businesses to make sure their sites had the minimum requirement for disabled users was over five years ago, (May 2002) but there are still some sites that are in breach of the law by failing to reach even Level 1 compliance and need to be brought up to date.
"The regulations include things like the clarity of text for partially-sighted users. Dark text on a dark grey background, which is not very clear for users is a classic example. In my book, that is a poor design issue.
"We would urge hotel, B&B and guest house owners to look into this and have their own website evaluated to make sure it reaches the correct standard. But be warned many web designers view the disability act as a money making opportunity to bring a site up to scratch which they designed poorly in the first place."
Leading accommodation finding website; www.iknow-uk.com has done it again; winning their second Big Chip Award in three years.
iknow-uk is celebrating once again this week, after winning yet another prestigious Award. Now in their ninth year; the Big Chips are the top awards for ICT and new media outside London; attracting entries from the region's best digital companies.
Judged by a distinguished panel of experts from organisations such as New Media Age, the BBC, Trevor Beattie's new agency and The Chase, the awards are presented to companies excelling in the use of IT and digital technology.
iknow-uk were voted the Best of Lancashire and were presented with their Award at a glittering ceremony in Manchester's New Century Hall last Thursday 24th. They were recognised for their regional directories which allow small, independent holiday accommodation providers to promote themselves online.
The key to the success of www.iknow-uk.com and their series of regional websites is search engine optimisation. Each directory site appears on the first page of Google's natural search rankings for over 100,000 different, relevant search terms.
The sites now serve almost 1,000 customers and attract 100,000 visitors per week. They received over 3 million visitors and created more than £50 million in booking enquiries for iknow's clients in 2006 alone.
The judges were impressed with the way the sites' business model took advantage of the new marketing environment and voted them Best of Lancashire 2007.
An increase in people booking holidays online led to the West Country's biggest cottage letting agency turning to holiday accommodation website iknow-uk.com
Farm & Cottage Holidays Limited boasts 900 cottages, luxury log cabins, barn conversions, apartments and farm houses throughout Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset.
The company has always promoted its business through traditional forms of advertising, such as newspapers and the media, direct mailing and marketing.
But with more and more people booking holidays online the company, established in 1979, is keen to promote itself on tourism websites - with positive results.
One of the main sites chosen by Farm & Cottage Holidays is iknow-uk Ltd; the UKs fastest-growing accommodation website, aimed at increasing bookings for hoteliers, B&B and holiday cottage owners.
iknow-uk Ltd's growing reputation attracted Farm & Cottage Holidays Ltd to become one of the first customers on their Cornish site.
Farm & Cottage Holidays marketing manager; Sarah Thomas, said "We have always used traditional forms of advertising, but it has now become a necessity to find online ways to promote our business, because that's what our customers demand now."
"There is a big increase in people of all ages booking holidays online and the internet is an immediate resource for information."
"While we're still confident about generating interest from other areas of the media, the internet has become an additional part of our marketing and we get a lot of bookings over the web."
"There are so many websites to choose from, it was a case of finding one that works. We choose the iknow-cornwall site because we wanted to achieve extra bookings - simple as that."
Hotel and B&B owners are being urged to fight back after Blackpool's tourism economy suffered a major blow by missing out on winning the licence for the UK's first Las Vegas-style resort casino by capitalising on another market in which it excels - its flourishing gay scene.
Six years in the planning, the super-casino was seen as the catalyst for regeneration and reversing the town's declining fortunes, but now tourism leaders are focusing on the forthcoming Blackpool Pride festival, which will be held over the weekend of May 19 and 20.
Hotels and guest houses are already reporting high numbers of enquiries, especially through internet accommodation sites, which promote gay-friendly businesses.
Marcus Simmons owns iknow-uk Ltd, the UK's fastest-growing accommodation websites which were set up in 2003 have been applauded in the national press for including gay-friendly accommodation listings on its sites which include the North West.
Its listing of gay-friendly accommodation providers generated more than 2,000 booking enquiries in February 2007 - even though it is out of season.
Mr Simmons said: "It is well known that there is a lot of doom and gloom in Blackpool because it missed out on getting the casino, but we have not seen a downward trend in the number of visitors to our website, in 2006 alone we received over 3million visitors generating over £50 million in booking enquiries.
"The nightlife and gay scene is thriving and businesses who subscribe to our sites are also thriving. There are a lot of visitors to our gay-friendly listings, and our advice to businesses would be to be part of this section.
"People wanting to book gay friendly accommodation can book through iknow and know they will not encounter any prejudice and receive a friendly welcome.
Jane Seddon, director of tourism at Blackpool Tourism, which from April will be known as Visit Blackpool, said: "The gay economy is an extremely important part of Blackpool's tourism industry.
"The town has gained an excellent reputation for gay-friendly hotels, entertainment and attractions. Following on from the success of last year's Gay Pride event, we will be extending this event for 2007 and beyond."
Stuart Campbell, who owns the gay-friendly Edwards Hotel, said: "There is a strong market for the gay scene. If it hadn't been for Basil Newby, who owns so many businesses and bars and has done so much to promote the gay scene, the whole of the North Shore would have disappeared a long time ago.
"I know I made a wise investment with iknow-northwest as the free one-month trial paid the whole year's cost and made me some money too. The enquiries were constant even in the winter months."
www.iknow-wales.co.uk is the latest regional accommodation website to be launched by iknow-uk.
Where iknow-uk differs from most accommodation sites is that it actually works and signing up will enable businesses to gain a head start on their rivals in a fiercely competitive Welsh market.
"Wales has a huge amount to offer holiday-makers with Snowdonia National Park, the Brecon Beacons, Pembrokeshire and great beaches. It is an established tourism destination but is also very active in promoting tourism, so accommodation owners face strong competition for bookings. People are increasingly booking holidays by the web so it is important businesses are not left behind and make the most of technology which is available to them.
Our sites are aimed at independent owners of hotels, B&B's and cottages who are small, yet very important players in the market.
Everybody needs an effective outlet on the web but what sets us apart from other sites is that we deliver bookings for our clients. Our customers have on average one booking enquiry every day of the year.
We offer a free trial and a money back guarantee if being on our site doesn't pay for itself within 6 months, but in four years we have never had to deliver on that."
National accommodation web search company; www.iknow-uk.com has seen a dramatic rise in requests for pet friendly places to stay over the past 12 months. Over 10,000 searches were made across their 5 regional sites in January alone.
Despite the increasing number of people taking their pets on holiday, historically it has been difficult to find a place that will welcome your much-loved pooch. But iknow-uk says companies offering pet friendly accommodation do now seem to be on the increase.
One such provider who has benefited is Cumbrian Cottages; the largest independent self catering agency in the North of England, who offer over 200 cottages which accept pets across Cumbria.
Owner, Peter Durbin, comments "In just 12 months, our page on www.iknow-lakedistrict.co.uk has become the fifth most viewed page on the whole site, and we've received hundreds of booking enquiries; proving that plenty of holiday makers do want to take their pets away with them."
"Many of the guests who use our cottages want to spend their holidays with their beloved cat or dog. Quite often, their pet is the reason they holiday in the UK, rather than travelling abroad."
If you're wanting to spend a few days relaxing in the country, visit www.iknow-uk.com to find pet friendly accommodation for your family.
iknow-uk Ltd, which runs an award-winning website where holiday-makers can find and book accommodation on-line, has joined forces with tour operators iknow-holidays.
The iknow-holidays team are experts in the travel industry and have combined their knowledge with iknow-uk's online marketing expertise to offer unbeatable prices on holidays to the Canaries, Majorca and other top destinations.
They are able to obtain the prices normally given to tour operators, but by cutting out the middle man and reducing the huge ongoing marketing costs that most online operators have, they can offer some of the most competitive prices found on the web.
iknow-uk Ltd and iknow holidays, which are both based in Leyland, Lancashire, will continue to be run as separate companies, with the latter operating under licence.
iknow-holidays, which was set up in March 2006, launched its first site, focused on Majorca and the Balearics in July, followed by the Canary Islands site in November. Further sites aimed at other top European destinations will be launched in 2007 and worldwide by 2008.
To find out more visit www.iknow-majorca.co.uk and www.iknow-canaryislands.co.uk.
One of the North West's fastest-growing internet businesses is set to expand thanks to a £100,000 investment.
Leyland-based iknow-uk Ltd, which runs an award-winning website where holiday-makers can find and book accommodation online, will double its holiday websites from five to ten in 2007. New sites will include Wales, Scotland and other major UK holiday destinations covering the whole of the UK by 2008.
Established in 2003 by managing director Marcus Simmons, iknow-uk Ltd is the UK's fastest-growing accommodation website, which has attracted more than 3 million visitors and last year 2006 generated over £12 million in booking enquiries.
Mr Simmons said: "We have established a very successful and proven website business. This has given us the confidence to invest and expand and we want to increase the pace of development and growth of the business this year.
Over the last three years we've had customer retention in excess of 85% and we have market penetration which is unrivalled.
Our existing customers will benefit most from the expansion plans. New sites will raise the profile of all the websites and generate more visitors for everyone. In addition, some of the investment will be spent on improving customer service for our listed accommodation providers."