Houseoftravel.co.nz takes out Supreme Award

Houseoftravel.co.nz takes out Supreme Award

Houseoftravel.co.nz was awarded the supreme award at the Computerworld Excellence Awards in Auckland last night (Friday 29 July).

The IBM Overall Excellence in IT Award judging criteria involved recognising an organisation that had used IT not for IT's sake but to better enhance its business, integrating it with its existing business operation.

House of Travel's founder and managing director Chris Paulsen said the award was public recognition that they were on the right track with their Kiwi built world first software.

"Being first to market with a fully integrated online booking tool for customers that complimented our already successful 90 outlets throughout New Zealand was no easy task - I guess that's why it was a world first.

Being a New Zealand owned company we are very proud of what we have done and this award just tops it off for our people."

Paulsen said the online booking website now accounted for 15% of the Groups bookings and that sales had doubled in the past two months, a trend likely to continue.

"There are lots of positive aspects coming through, including that the majority of our online customers were not previously booking their travel through House of Travel. It's about individual preference and providing our customers with whatever channel they most prefer to deal with."

Paulsen remarked that around 50% of current online bookings occur outside of business hours when people are at home and are able to discuss options with family.

The House of Travel website is unique in providing all the available airfares to customers through its in-house technology which scrapes the individual airline websites for deals only accessible online.

"Any of the special deals offered by airlines such as Emirates, Freedom and Pacific Blue are available at the same time on our website, it's that effective. We are also now offering domestic fares at the same prices offered by Qantas and Air New Zealand. There's a very good chance you'll get a great deal as we provide you with the costs and times of travelling on both airlines. So you may end up flying one way on Qantas and the other on Air New Zealand."

House of Travel was planning to enhance its offering online as customers become more comfortable with booking travel over the internet.

Houseoftravel.co.nz was also one of three finalists in the Computerland Excellence in the Use of IT for Customer Service Award.

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