By K. NANCOO-RUSSELL

Freeport News Reporter

krystal@nasguard.com

Since dropping the Best Western franchise last December, the Castaways Resort and Suites located on the Mall Drive has employed a new reservations management system which executives say has been serving it in good stead.

Vice President R. Andrew Barnett explained that the property had been a Best Western franchise holder since September 2001 but the decision was made to end that relationship because it was not cost effective.

"For us it was not working in that the amount of funds that was required to maintain the brand versus the amount of activity generated in terms of reservations at the property through Best Western's system, was not enough to offset the cost of the brand itself," he said.

"I don't want to fly a flag anymore. People really don't care – and I don't care what anybody says – they really don't care whether the flag out there says Radisson, Holiday Inn or whatever. They want good quality product at a price that they can consider they're getting value for money."

The resort now has a relationship with an international reservation service called Magnuson Hotels.

"We pay commissions bas-

ed on reservations generated through their reservation service only. This is working very well for us. As a matter of fact we've generated as much or even more reservations through the worldwide Magnuson reservation services as we did with Best Western," he shared.

"What they do and they do a very good job of it, is maintain a relationship with all the major booking agencies, whether it's expedia, hotels. com, hotwire, and they have their own reservation service. They manage all the services for you in terms of making sure you have the best rates out there and you're competitive."

He explained that even though a customer is making a reservation with an online agent such as expedia, for instance, that company goes through a clearing house.

"Most hotels don't have a direct relationship with every travel agency. They would go through expedia, hotwire and even at that point there'd be another player involved," he said.

The Magnuson Hotels is made up of predominantly Best Western hotels that drop-ped the brand, he explained.

"They have experts who constantly monitor the market, prices, etc. They have revenue managers. All that is a part of the service," he said.

"So while you may not have the time as you are running your hotel every day and dealing with issues locally you may not be aware of the deals being offered in Cancun for instance. They have people who constantly monitor those things and they will say, 'Maybe we need to run a special this particular week because here's what they're doing in this area and you're no longer competitive for that particular period,'" he said.

Magnuson also does promotion work for its customers, another benefit to Castaways since it can be costly to market a hotel on an international scale.

"They're doing a promotion in Europe and we just did a photo shoot, and they're going to be promoting this property and to other properties in Europe. It's a full service operation with marketing people and sales people,"

The Freeport property, which has 118 rooms, a business centre, gym, pool and on-site restaurant, focuses mostly on a corporate clientele, and does not target spring breakers.

However, Barnett said, a significant amount of business is generated from the local industrial companies that bring in foreign workers, although even that market varies depending on the workload at those sites.

As the hotel embraces the new initiative he said he has a bright outlook for the future of the property.