GuestLink, originally the brainchild of Ben Tagg, MD of New Media, is a simple to use business management tool that allows accommodation providers to easily take advantage of technology and the internet. It allows establishments to make reservations and bookings, communicate with their customers, conduct targeted CRM and run reports and statistics. But the real USP is that the software seamlessly and automatically communicates with the technology infrastructure used by the public sector, to update the destination management systems with real time availability and prices. GuestLink will be released in mid-March.

GuestLink is fully integrated with New Media’s DMS. Not only does this mean that the local destination system is always up to date with the latest availability and prices, which can be published in real time to all distribution channels and TICs, but it also means that providers can hook into online availability and booking at their own websites. And furthermore, by integrating with the EnglandNet distribution platform run by VisitBritain, that information is also distributed to any of the channels available such as the VisitBritain website, Wanadoo, AOL and Last Minute.com. Bookings made at any of the local, regional, national or international channels are seamlessly and immediately delivered to the GuestLink program on the providers own PC, ready for the provider to view, amend or communicate with the customer.

Ben Tagg says, "We've already had overwhelming interest from providers, from our DMO clients, from the regional and national boards and from a provider in Australia. We’ve worked incredibly hard to make the system extremely easy to use and our test users have made a huge impact on our development. We are extremely excited about taking the product to market."

New Media developed GuestLink with the help of the DTI’s SMART financial award for technology innovation. GuestLink consists of two parts: a client application and number of XML web services. The Client has been designed to run under Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows 98/ME and has been written in VB.NET. The XML web services have been written using Microsoft ASP.NET, and run on Microsoft Server 2003 using IIS6 and SQL server 2000.