Exceptional growth
2005 was a year of quite spectacular growth for FastBooking: its turnover showed a rise of 105%, largely due to an upsurge in the number of nights booked, reaching 915.000 at the end of the year as opposed to 451.000 in 2004. With a business volume of 123 million euros, FastBooking can now compete with the key players in the Internet hotel market.

Although 85% of this stems from the European market, its American and Asian subsidiaries have also shown a respective growth rate of 7% and 8%.

The four keys to success

• A growth market – Tourism is one of the business sectors that has shown the most marked development on the Internet in the last few years. In 2005, the sector even recorded a striking upturn of 51%.
  
  But with a growth of over 100%, FastBooking has far exceeded the market average. “Obviously we’re reaping the benefits of e-business democratization and a natural market increase” explains Thierry Lamblin, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of FastBooking, “but our strength lies above all in our ability to anticipate and to invest in new tools to meet the increasingly stringent demands of hoteliers.”
  
  
• Targeted investments – The market’s natural development is certainly far from the only reason for FastBooking’s success. The technical and marketing investments carried out over the last few months have also been rewarded. The websites managed by FastBooking – which only lists the hotels using FastBooking Engine – have expanded, improving their clients’ presence and renown on the Internet. Not only have new websites appeared, such as www.hotels-direct-chamonix.com, www.hotels-direct-nice.com or www.hotels-direct-iceland.com, but new qualitative criteria have been added (ratings and comments from clients, easy localization with flash maps…). “These new versions of our websites, together with a boost in advertising campaigns on the main search engines, mean that FastBooking’s distribution branch now represents half the company’s turnover” comments Jean-Louis Boss, Marketing Director and Coordinator of all the company’s distribution activities.
  
  The other element in turnover has been achieved directly by the hotels’ websites, which are all equipped with the company’s booking engine – FastBooking’s initial activity – and also by the GDS/IDS, launched in January 2005. The combination of these three major services made it possible for FastBooking to double its own turnover in 2005.
  
  
• A rewarding partnership – Another highlight of the year was the recognition achieved through FastBooking’s partnership agreement with the “Office du Tourisme et des Congrès de Paris”. First launched in early 2004, it has given 450 Parisian hotels, all members of the Office du Tourisme, an opportunity to use the FastBooking tool on its website and in its various agencies. This new booking System registered 50 000 nights during the first year, generating an income of 4.3 million euros for the hotels represented.
  
  
• A strategic development – Last of all, FastBooking owes its success to an increase in its overall task force. The number of staff members has risen from 19 in 2004 to a current 38, each with complementary profiles but all with experience in the hotel business.
  
  With more recruitment forecast for 2006, the company, which has been based in Paris’ 8th arrondissement since it started, plans to move to larger premises before the summer. And earlier this year another address was added to the list when the company opened a representative office in Venice, Italy.
  
  More than ever, FastBooking intends to position itself as a facilitator, a genuine partner with a brief to help hoteliers develop via the Internet.
  
  To this end, a range of new tools and services will be up and running over the next few months, in order to optimize marketing of the hotels on the Internet but also to attract and retain Internet customers