ChooseIbiza.com & ChooseCroatia.com Live!

ChooseToTravel.com group adds ChooseIbiza.com and ChooseCroatia.com to it's portfolio!  This morning at around 04.00am both sites were successfully launched on the web.

Still in beta and still signing up hotels but at least we've started.  Watch this space...

The re/launch...

This morning at around 04.00am ChooseDubai.com, ChooseSouthAfrica.com, ChooseMorocco.com, ChooseTunisia.com, ChooseCorsica.com and ChooseTurkey.com went live/got a face lift.

Over the course of the last six months we (mainly IT but extends to others) have been working extremely hard on this new release and I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone involved.

I believe this is a huge step forward for the ChooseToTravel.com group and I’m excited about the future. Anyone thinking of visiting the above countries...I challenge you to find better prices for our hotels!

Coffee or Tea?

Coffee or Tea? Well actually both! I’m very fussy about both my coffee and tea. Morning is time for espressos and by noon I would easily have drunk around four.  I always heat the espresso cup before as this means that the heat from the coffee is not instantly conducted by the cup. My last coffee for the day is usually a large instant Nescafe with milk. Just to keep the caffeine going. Then for tea I’m even fussier. Just for reference, I’m a builder’s tea kind of guy. Anytime from 2pm till 6pm I’m ready for any cups of tea. I like it without sugar and just the right amount of milk, not too much and not too little. 

Well done team!

It's finally complete! This morning at 4AM we launched a brand new system we have been working on for the past 6 months. Ironically, most users will not notice any changes on the front end of the website (for now), but I can assure you that both the ChooseToTravel.com staff as well as our suppliers shall benefit from this new system for years to come. After analysing our code around six months ago, I decided a full redesign of our system was needed.

When a website starts out, you cannot think too far ahead. But there's a certain time when the company suddenly expands and you are faced with limitations and processes which no longer work or need updating.

Six months later, after days and nights of coding and bug testing, we now have a system which will make life easier for us, for the reservations team, and most importantly, for our suppliers! Additionally, new releases will take much less time to be implemented so our IT team can really focus on adding neat new features!

Well done team!

Inspire Ltd appoints business development director

Caroline Borg has been appointed director for business development of Inspire Ltd, operator of the ChooseMalta.com booking portal, "to lead the company into launching its international growth and travel network".

Borg will be responsible for driving forward the company's growth strategy of launching Choose*******.com domain names, including the recently launched www.ChooseItaly.com.

Key to the delivery of these travel sites will be the signing of agreements with various hotel chains and travel suppliers.
Borg has worked in advertising, fashion and the hospitality industry, and - before joining Inspire - was just corporate sales manager at the Hilton Malta.

"I am delighted to welcome Caroline to this key role. We are now a team of 12 and we have a long list of over 60 destination travel sites to launch", says Jonathan Shaw, Inspire managing director.

RateTiger added to list of Integrators

Great news for hotels and great news for us -- we are now officially supported by RateTiger.  Thanks to everyone involved in this project.

About RateTiger

RateTiger, by eRevMax, is a leader in Online Distribution Management tools, pioneering new technologies for the hospitality industry.

The sophisticated product portfolio empowers hoteliers, enabling them to compare rates with competitors on a real-time basis and update a wide variety of distribution channels and travel portals simply and efficiently.

Read more about RateTiger

ChooseItaly.com live!

A new addition to the ChooseToTravel.com network is born!  Last night at around 10.00pm ChooseItaly.com went live on the web.

Still in beta and still signing up hotels but at least we've started.  We have BIG plans for this domain!

Re-Launch successful

Over the last five months the whole of Inspire has been gearing up to a new release of our websites.

As we have grown we have come to understand our customer more and are better armed to provide you with what you need (not what we thought you needed).  We hope this release emcompases these findings.  Included in this release is...

1. A new Look and Feel;
2. Advanced searching functionality;
3. More hotels; and
4. Generally putting the information where you want it

I hope you enjoy and welcome feedback at anytime.  Just fill in our feedback form.

Thanks again,
Chris

Employment Marc von Brockdorff

Marc von Brockdorff has joined our technical department as Technical lead. Marc is 21 years old and has already contributed on the first release as he was employed with a company we outsourced some of our programming to. I look forward to his skills being implemented in our development! Marc is also a drummer with a local band!

Ciao Fabio

Fabio Franchi has been recently appointed as our sales representative in Milan, Italy. Fabio has vast experience in the travel and tourism sector in Itay and he will be our ground representative in Italy for www.chooseitaly.com. Fabio’s main role will be that of communicating and liasing with hotels in Italy and also develop the company’s product development and alliances in Italy! Buon lavoro Fabio!

Employment Kirsty Dimech

Today Kirsty Dimech joined our team and she will be in charge of reservations. Kirsty is 22 years old and has excellent customer and communication skills. More importantly, Kirsty has a positive approach which blends in well with our overall team spirit! Welcome aboard!

IT gets two new recruits

Lincoln Grixti and Mark Camilleri have joined the ChooseToTravel.com IT team. I myself am super excited -- finally I get some help! 

Both Mark (aka Delf) and Linc (aka Linky) will start immediatley re-developing the whole of the ChooseToTravel.com application.

We have lots of plans for the ChooseToTravel.com group and their skills will only enhance the outcome (I hope anyway).

Welcome aboard guys, dont forget when the going gets tough the tough get going!

Move to Larger Offices

More work, more people and more space required! Larger offices have been found and moved into. It’s not even a year since we moved to the previous office but it resulted in being too small. We now have a better view and around 150 square metres of space. Ironically, its the same yacht marina that we are facing yet from a 4th floor office on the other side of the bay. The team is happy with more space and a better environment. We are now further away from our ‘coffee shop’ yet we have invested in a great coffee machine and also have a kitchen to dine in! 

ChooseDubai.com live!

On the back of our successfull launch of ChooseMalta.com, last night at around 10.00pm ChooseDubai.com went live on the web.

This was a great milestone for us as our efforts and success with ChooseMalta.com have paid off and enabled us to launch ChooseDubai.com.

Over the next couple of months we intend to launch more of the ChooseToTravel.com network so watch this space!

Destination Specific Websites

The ChooseToTravel.com group of websites offer destination specific information which compliment the booking engine facilities and hence distinguish themselves from generic and other leading travel sites that sell and promote multiple destinations.

The company also serves corporate clients with cost-effective online advertising and also has access and agreements with other third-party affiliate programmes.

What do we do:
We have fast, secure and easy to use websites. Our core product is hotel room nights, however we also sell tours, car hire and airport transfers online. In addition to the booking element our sites have detailed destination travel guides which assist the user with his/her research.

How do we do it:
We have real-time booking engine that is managed by our reservations office and the suppliers themselves. Availability, confirmations and acknowledgements of receipts are processed instantaneously online.

More than just travel services:
Our websites are known for their wide reach of visitors and hence we have created various other sectors under the ‘Specialised Travel’ category that cater for specific niche markets. These include Healthcare, Property, Sports & Leisure, Business, Conference & Incentive, Weddings. These sectors might vary according to destination.

Ta' Xbiex Marina office

We just moved to a new office in Ta’Xbiex. It’s just three rooms but it has a great location by the yacht marina. As important is a great coffee shop just 4 doors up. Great coffee and good food to keep the whole team rightly fuelled up for the right work!

The birth of ChooseMalta.com

It was mid-January 2004 and I was living & working in New York. At that time I had already been travelling and living overseas for around 4 years. Throughout this time, I obviously met alot of people, both on a work level and socially, and many did not know much about the Maltese Islands. Concurrently, every day I was being facinated by the market penetration of internet companies and their business model.

At that point in time, Malta lacked an excellent travel website and the idea to create one was born. Finding an appropriate domain name was another challenge. I recall spending the majority of a 6 hour evening flight from New York to LA writing down a long list of potential domain names.

ChooseMalta.com was one of them, yet it was only a few days later when I shortlisted a few and checked availability that I managed to register and purchase the domain name. It was one of those cold, heavily snowed in nights and I was working from my loft in Soho. I was satisfied with the domain name.

ChooseMalta.com appealed to the user and had brilliant branding possibilities. I had already drafted a site-map and it was all there on paper. Later on that same evening I kept on browsing the net and ended up registering another batch of Choose domain names. If it could work for Malta, why not for other destinations... and the ChooseToTravel.com network was born!