COSMOS’ somewhere 2 stay.com SITE GOES LIVE

Cosmos, the UK’s largest independent tour operator, has launched a new web-based ‘Accommodation Only’ programme. The site, somewhere2stay.com is powered by RWA’s “Sell-It Package” online booking solution.

Says Stuart Jackson, Cosmos Commercial Director, “Following six months of intensive research and negotiation to find the best software provider to work with, we believe that RWA matches the necessary criteria that we at Cosmos have set for the project. RWA not only meets the technological requirement but also the functional and commercial aspects of our business and since working with them they have not let us down.
Jackson added, “The technological integration of Sell-It Package to our own software has been seamless and will provide a first class service for our on-line clients.”

Cosmos Group IT Director, Alister Beveridge says: “RWA has developed a system that gives us the flexibility and ability to cope with increased demand as traffic is driven to the site. Their aptitude in delivering real time systems based on XML that are highly scalable and integrate well within our own infrastructure has been clearly demonstrated.”

Mark Bradbury, Director RWA commented: “somewhere2stay.com is an excellent example of the power and reliability of our Sell-It Package solution. This new web site demonstrates what can be achieved when you combine a good product with a good online booking solution – a compelling and easy-to-use solution.”

About somewhere2stay.com

Cosmos‘ somewhere2stay.com offers no frills holiday accommodation at guaranteed lowest prices to the most popular leisure destinations in Europe – making it the only mainstream UK tour operator to date to do so.
Initially offering approximately 400 hotels and apartments in the 3-5 star category in 30 destinations including several popular long haul resorts, the new ‘Accommodation Only’ website which has been designed to be exceptionally travel agent user-friendly, will feature a whole range of flexible durations to meet the consumer demand for more frequent but shorter breaks.

Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, Cosmos is the UK’s largest independent and fifth largest tour operator, offering holidays to 24 destinations in 19 countries. Part of a large international travel group which consists of more than 30 tourism and aviation businesses worldwide, Cosmosair carries over 500,000 passengers annually to destinations including the Spanish Costas, the Canaries, Balearics, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, Italy, the Algarve, Africa, Indian Ocean, Mexico, the Caribbean and the Far East.

Cosmos’ wealth of relationships with overseas hoteliers and global infrastructure in terms of both manpower and systems will support the programme and will allow the company to expand the range of hotels and apartments bookable on-line to virtually anywhere in the world.

About Sell-It Package

RWA’s Sell-It Package provides Tour Operators with a comprehensive, competitively priced solution for selling package holiday products online. Sell-It package is an evolution of RWA’s proven package Internet Booking Engine, currently deployed in over 650 web sites throughout Europe.

Sell-It Package Key Features

• A fully featured package booking engine for selling a wide variety of package holidays including accommodation only, flight only and city breaks.
• A sophisticated user interface supporting both browsing and very flexible search capabilities.
• A simple 4 step booking process, which has been designed, based on RWA’s extensive on-line booking experience working with Tour Operators.
• Only available offers are displayed – Sell It is “offers driven”. In other words, everything is driven off the offers currently in the product database.
• Extensive configurable branding capabilities enabling multiple Tour Operator trading names and brands, Agency selling and ‘white labelling’ to be supported from the one solutions environment.
• A flexible and modular architecture that provides a good framework to carry out integration with a tour operator’s existing reservation system.
• Based on web services and XML providing an open, extensible and flexible infrastructure.
• Uses low-cost, open technology enabling deployment on a range of operating systems and application servers.

About RWA Ltd.

RWA Ltd. is a software consultancy and solutions company specialising in the travel industry with experience spanning from Tour Operators to Travel Agents, and airlines through to ticket agencies. RWA has over twelve years of experience in both the modular and charter travel businesses and has expertise in Global Distribution Systems (GDSs), Negotiated Fares solutions, Tour Operator reservation systems, Travel Agency systems and online travel booking solutions. For further information see:www.rwa-net.co.uk

For more information please contact:

Mark Bradbury
Director, RWA Limited
Tel. 029 2081 5050
E-mail: [email protected]

Barbara Kurau
Media Relations Manager, Cosmos
Tel: 020 8466 8199
E-mail: [email protected]