The end of year awards season is firmly upon us and we’ve had a busy couple of weeks at Roomex. Matt, our Director of Contracting attended the Eircom Spiders awards in the Convention Centre Dublin and the very next night Michael, Sales Director was in the same venue for the Irish Export Awards. The Eircom Spiders brings together the great and good of the Irish web design world and Matt was invited to attend by our partners Travelport. A total of 24 awards were presented, a true test of endurance for the host, Irish TV personality Jennifer Maguire. The evening offered the perfct opportunity for intensive networking in a relaxed environment. The Export Awards ceremony, in its 14th year was attended by over 500 delegates and was hosted by Newstalk presenter and former Minister for Agriculture, Ivan Yates. The high profile nature of the event is reflected in the fact that ambassadors and dignitaries from 24 Embassies in Ireland were represented as was the Irish government in the form of Minister Alex White TD who gave the keynote address. Overall winner and Irish Exporter of the Year was Aerogen, based in Dangan, Co Galway, the company makes nebulisers which allows medical staff to deliver drugs to the patient using an inhaler which direct the medicine to where it will be most effective. The company also carried off the Life Sciences Exporters of the Year. Congratulations to all the winners both exporters and those involved in technology, two of the key industries in which Roomex is involved. It was great to see so many of our clients at the events and we look forward to working with you again next year!

Roomex.com, the Dublin based online hotel booking agency, has, this week, secured a new 12 month contract with Musgrave Group. Roomex has been working primarily in the Irish market for 7 years now, with over 550,000 hotels on their portfolio. In 2012, due to demand from large corporate clients to create private hotel booking portals with access to corporate rates, Roomex moved its focus entirely to it’s Roomex for Business platform. Musgrave Group, one of Ireland’s biggest Retail Partners and Wholesalers, currently employs over 5,000 staff in 25 European locations. Travel plays a big part in their everyday business and their hotel spend is significant. As well as needing complete visibility and control over this expenditure, Musgrave’s also wants to ensure that they are giving business to preferred hotels. The new Roomex / Musgrave Hotel booking portal first went live just over a year ago. Hotels were informed of the new booking flow and an amended travel policy was sent out to all staff by HR management expenses would no longer be refunded on hotel spend unless they were made through the new portal ! Jack Donaghy, CEO of Roomex.com We’re extremely grateful to have Musgrave’s as a client, they raised the bar in terms of expectations and the Roomex for Business platform has evolved dramatically as a result. The data they have at their fingertips now is incredible they have booked 452 different hotels, in 135 cities in 9 different countries in the last 12 months! They can analyse this by division, hotel, individual or even account code if needs be, all within seconds. And, since we price compare every booking, we know they’ve saved a lot – 19% compared to standard rates to be exact. Ingrid de Doncker, Musgrave Group eAuction Executive, is delighted: From an operational point of view, Roomex for Business is a seamless online booking tool, personalised for our business, staff and preferences. Roomex go a long way to ensure that we are getting the best rates and by rate-comparing every single booking, they are not only measuring the savings we make, but also ensuring that we never pay over the odds. As experts in their field, they have allowed Musgrave to bring our accommodation spend under control and proactively manage it more effectively and efficiently. On top of this, their customer service is simply exceptional. And, as a result of this, Roomex are now starting their second year with Musgrave’s, with the ringing endorsement of Michael Kelleher, Musgrave Group Financial Controller: I am satisfied that Roomex are delivering savings to the business and strongly recommend the continued use of Roomex as a group requirement in order to achieve lowest cost. Roomex saves us money and time, gives us live reporting, manages our contracting and provides top level support and there’s no cost!