Heading into 2022, we asked our CCO, Michael De Jongh, to reflect on the year just passed at Avvio. Read on to see what he had to say…
“2021 was, like its predecessor, a year unlike any other; it started with lockdown, we emerged in the Spring. But despite this uncertain start, it was also the year we witnessed the powerful impact of people’s desire to travel and come together. We saw a bumper summer for Self-Catering and Resort Businesses and although we did see a smaller lift in City Centre trade, the demand for domestic holidays across the UK and IRL meant a strong summer for the sector, despite ongoing staffing issues.
Avvio is all about hospitality; we win, when the hotelier wins and you can see this in the 31% average annual uplift (YOY) in direct bookings we delivered in 2021 for our allora.ai customers, along with the release of our Booking Retention Engine, four product releases and new technology for portals. We plan to do more of the same in 2022, with a number of planned updates and advances to come.
In a competitive market where flexibility is increasingly becoming an expectation of the hotel guest and especially in response to the global Pandemic we continue to navigate, the ability to drive bookings via your brand website and to convert those bookings into customers who check in, is key.
Avvio focused on delivering sustainable growth for hotel businesses and continued to build and develop our talent pool. We are now back to pre-Pandemic staffing levels and recently welcomed a new Vice President of Avvio Inc in the US, John Owens, who will be leading our ambitious plans for the American market.
We were also certified as a Great Place to Work for the third consecutive year and our Performance Marketing Team was recognised by Google for harnessing automation to deliver efficient and intelligent execution.
I am delighted to announce that we have started 2022 with further recognition, as Avvio is announced as a top 3 provider in this year’s annual Hotel Tech Report Awards, with our Booking Engine, Website Design and Digital Marketing Services recognised.
We also rank in the top 10 Best Places to Work and Overall Hotelier’s Choice, testament to our people focused culture and our customer-driven service.
So, as we begin 2022 very much co-existing with Covid-19, it’s worth remembering the power of the innate human need for connection and new experiences; it brought life back to our customers from the moment the gates were opened after 2021’s lockdown and will no doubt play a part in our collective future success. There will be some great opportunities to come this year, and we can afford to be optimistic.
The whole team at Avvio would like to wish our customers (past, present, and future!) a happy, prosperous and successful 2022
Oh, and if you fall into the ‘future’ category, you can find out all about allora.ai and how it could transform your business, here.”
