JacTravel, the UK-based wholesaler best known for its extensive range of online hotels in Europe, USA, Canada and Asia has launched a newly designed hotel booking site for the travel trade, offering over 7,000 hotels in more than 550 cities worldwide.  The site, www.jachotels.co.uk, has improved navigation and searches, easy booking amendments, the option to manage the mark-up to bookings and increased user security. In the first two weeks since it went live, the value of business increased by 127% over the same period last year and the number of bookings increased 78%. Its launch represents the final stage in an upgrading and re-branding process that began in 2010.

Mario Bodini, JacTravel\u2019s Chief Executive, says: “Our new site has definitely improved the user experience, making the search and management of bookings faster, easier and more informative and that has had a clear impact. However, what agents seem to like best about the new site is the product.  Owing to our strategy of focusing on a number of hand-picked properties, each strong in its niche, rather than a blanket listing of every hotel in a destination, we can provide trade buyers with great rates and guaranteed availability.”

Users have the option to view hotel search results on a map or as a listing organised by property name or price.  Further filtering can be done by star rating, room amenities and hotel facilities.  There is also an option to view a condensed listing with name and price alone.  New administration features make it easier for travel agents to apply an additional mark-up to bookings and to manage permissions for their staff, improving the site\u2019s security.

The new site is compatible with all browsers; notably Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari.