UNDER THE RADAR/Emmett Traynor bmw-hotels.com:As the majority of Irish people now use online booking engines for holiday and business purposes, Cavan man Emmett Traynor is ensuring that hoteliers and guesthouse owners from rural Ireland do not miss out on a potentially large consumer base who book through the internet.
In January 2006, IT entrepreneur Traynor developed bmw-hotels.com, the first online booking engine for accommodation providers in small towns in rural Ireland, who needed a platform to promote their businesses.
Bmw-hotels.com facilitates hotel and guesthouse owners specifically in the Border, midland and western regions.
The rising number of guesthouses and hotels in the midlands that had struggled to advertise and subsequently had to cease trading for lack of business prompted him to establish the facility.
While hotels and guesthouses in cities throughout the State tend either to have their own websites or a significant online presence through city-based tourism agencies, Traynor believes most rural hotels and guesthouses were not offering potential guests the opportunity to reserve accommodation through the internet - effectively due to time, budget and staffing constraints.
"Although the idea for an online booking engine was not unique at the time, those in existence - such as Gulliver.ie - tended to be aimed at larger Irish hotels," Traynor explains.
"None were targeted at smaller hotels outside of larger cities. It took some time to determine if the concept would be feasible for the Irish online sector."
He felt that smaller accommodation providers, including those in his native Cavan, Monaghan and its surrounding counties, were losing out on lucrative earnings in the absence of an online presence.
"The development of large hotel groups such as Jury's and Holiday Inn, offering low-cost rooms at €70 a night, was having a huge effect on tourism to the midlands and guesthouses and hotels found it hard to compete," Traynor says.
In identifying the need for the online promotion of accommodation providers in the midlands, he provided hoteliers and guesthouse owners with an opportunity to compete and attract business on a global scale, while maintaining the objective of developing sustainable tourism in the region.
"By 2010, Tourism Ireland believes that 75 per cent of holidays to Ireland will be booked online so online services are becoming increasingly important to the Irish tourism industry," he says.
With eight years' experience in information technology and software localisation, combined with an extensive knowledge of the hospitality market, Traynor established other online projects through his online accommodation business, Breffni Technologies.
Its projects, including bmw-hotels.com, have been funded through the National Development Plan, with additional grants from Cavan County Enterprise fund.
Bmw-hotels.com says it provides secure and instant online bookings. Hotels have complete control of information contained on the system by managing their own rates and availability and are charged a small commission rate. For accommodation owners, there is no cost for website registration.
The site also enables guests to book rooms directly through a user-friendly system, eliminating the need for travel agencies and offering a local distribution system. It also promotes small businesses based in the tourism sector through advertising attractions and activities in the midwest and eastern regions.
For every booking received, a percentage is donated to the Marie Keating Cancer Foundation.
Almost 200 small hotels and guesthouses are now registered on the booking facility. According to Traynor, they have benefited hugely. "The tourism industry never really stops; it operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Effectively, owners are making profit on a constant basis through the operation of the website, whereas before they would have missed out on out-of- hours guest bookings."
About 45,000 people have used the system since its launch, with the majority of those coming from United States, Britain and China. This has proved how effective the site has been in attracting foreign visitors to rural Ireland.
The online facility was somewhat of a pilot project for Traynor, who plans to diversify the company's operations to other European countries in 2008, based on the same principle of promoting smaller hotels in rural regions.
ON THE RECORD:
Name:Emmett Traynor
Age: 28
Background:A native of Killinkere near Virginia in Co Cavan, he studied at Sligo Institute of Technology. First started to design websites for local clubs and businesses.
Hobbies/interests:Played Gaelic football for Killinkere club and for Cavan at U-16, U-18 and U-21 level and in the Sigerson Cup with Sligo IT.
Inspired by:Cavan businessman Brendan Murtagh of Kingspan and Brody Sweeney, who founded O'Briens sandwich bars.
Most admires:Séan Quinn for the vision he demonstrates in being able to identify business opportunities where others would not.
Favourite book: Making Bread by Brody Sweeney and Penny Apples by Bill Cullen of Renault Ireland.
Favourite movie:Shawshank Redemption and the Da Vinci Code
Favourite music: David Gray, Mundy, Bell X 1, the Frames.
Most likes to Travel now the opportunity to see the world has become available.
