Moneymore accommodation business tells of TXGB success thanks to Tourism NI partnership

By Stanley Campbell
Published 5th May 2023, 15:10 BST
Updated 5th May 2023, 15:10 BST
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A luxury lodge business based near Moneymore has told of how a new online platform aimed at driving more direct bookings, introduced to them by Tourism NI, has become indispensable to its operation.

Letteran Lodges, which is based at the foot of the Slieve Gallion Mountains, had previously been managing its booking system manually and had found itself “overwhelmed”.

Having turned to Tourism NI for support, the body introduced the business to Tourism Exchange Great Britain (TXGB), an online platform which aims to give businesses better access to online sales channels.

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The newly-formed partnership between Tourism NI and TXGB aims to move more visitors from `look’ to `book’ on destination websites such as discovernorthernireland.com, to drive sales and be part of marketing activity for

Ryan Donnelly, founder of Letteran Lodges in Moneymore, Co Derry. Photo by Rob Durston ( www.durstonphoto.com )Ryan Donnelly, founder of Letteran Lodges in Moneymore, Co Derry. Photo by Rob Durston ( www.durstonphoto.com )
Ryan Donnelly, founder of Letteran Lodges in Moneymore, Co Derry. Photo by Rob Durston ( www.durstonphoto.com )

Northern Ireland.

The Discover NI website is connected to TXGB as a distributor and charges zero commission meaning, if a business is listed on the website, it can make its product bookable by joining TXGB.

Ryan Donnelly, who owns Letteran Lodges, said the business “simply couldn’t operate without” TXGB now.

“Prior to using the TXGB system we managed all our booking manually,” he said. “We would get up to 100 messages per day and it was totally overwhelming, so we knew we had to change and find an online platform that could solve all these issues for us. Tourism Northern Ireland then introduced us to the TXGB team.

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Letteran Lodges offer visitors a luxurious base from which to the stunning surroundingsLetteran Lodges offer visitors a luxurious base from which to the stunning surroundings
Letteran Lodges offer visitors a luxurious base from which to the stunning surroundings

“The TXGB team were extremely helpful and it only took a matter of hours to set up the system for Letteran Lodges. So it was worth minimal effort and stress, they were there every step of the way to help us”.

The business owner said the system is very “user friendly”.

“Customers want to view real time availability and the TXGB system allows for that,” he said. “It’s user friendly for me as well, so I am fit to operate it as a user and as a business owner who’s never used a booking system before.

“One of the major benefits for us was the amount of hours it reduced in administration, so I no longer had to worry about managing bookings day to day. That is totally automated by using the TXGB system. It allowed me to focus on the business, customer service and business development.”