Monarch Travel Group has relauched its website to allow customers to book flights, hotels and holidays on the same site, completing the rebranding of the group’s direct-sell brands. Monarch managing director Liz Savage said that the relaunch of the website last week was the last step in the process of moving all the company’s direct to…
Monarch completes brand overhaul
Monarch Travel Group has relauched its website to allow customers to book flights, hotels and holidays on the same site, completing the rebranding of the group’s direct-sell brands.
Monarch managing director Liz Savage said that the relaunch of the website last week was the last step in the process of moving all the company’s direct to consumer products to the Monarch brand.
Accommodation-only provider Somewhere2Stay has become Monarch Hotels and Cosmos now Monarch Holidays. However, both these brands still exist to the trade.
The re-branding aimed to create more consistency in Monarch’s on and offline activity, from its press advertising to email marketing.
Savage said: “Before, we had three totally separate sites for the three product ranges, which led to duplication of content. The new site is designed for our frequent customers who come to site and know exactly what they want to book, but also for people who are ‘shopping’ with us.”
A number of features have been added, such as a single search box, predictive text and availability calendars.
The site is expected to help Monarch’s promotional activity become more efficient. “All players in the low cost flights sector run promotions, and one benefit of the new system is that the commercial teams can get promotions to market much quicker, because the content is easier to control,” said Savage.
Destination content is also important for SEO purposes. “Our SEO work for flights has been very successful and we’re now in a position to optimise more efficiently across hotels and holidays too.”
Savage said that there was some evidence that traffic to the new site has increased and that conversions were improving.
She added that Monarch was achieving record load factors, with flights during August 91% full. “There is no problem with demand as the load factors show, but like everyone else in the sector we are seeing pressure on yields for winter and next summer.”
