Our partners

Toptable

Toptable is the largest restaurant booker in Europe. The service is available to AA recognised establishments who are signed up to toptable.co.uk. Each restaurant will get its own page on theAA.com and on the Toptable website. Millions of visitors to these sites can view top quality content on each restaurant. The AA's partnership with Toptable offers the following benefits for AA establishments:

• Real-time online reservations integrated with your existing booking service
• Currently generating over 23,000 bookings a week
• Seated over 1.5 million diners in 2006, generating £35 million in revenue for the restaurant industry
• AA Rosette Awards will be prominently featured

Tel: 0207 299 2949

Email: info@toptable.co.uk

Beacon Purchasing

Beacon is the largest purchasing consortium for the independent hospitality industry, with over 2,000 members. Our dedicated team make sure our members enjoy competitive prices and improved relationships with the industry's leading suppliers.

Join the increasing number of members who are benefiting from the unrivalled buying power and purchasing support that Beacon can offer AA members. As the largest purchasing consortium for the UK hospitality industry, Beacon combine their purchasing expertise with a real understanding of your business to provide a range of superb discounts from a large number of suppliers, enabling you to be more competitive and more profitable. They will work with you to identify great savings as well as offering AA members:

• Half price Beacon membership for the first year
• National and local suppliers covering food & beverages, liquor & soft drinks, housekeeping & consumables, utilities & services and refurbishment & maintenance
• Easy ordering and centralised billing saves time and reduces costs, whilst helping you stay in control

Tel: 01904 695588

Email: new@beaconpurchasing.co.uk

SK Chase

SK Chase has created an innovative and user-friendly system, enabling hotels to sell gift vouchers through their own websites. By providing a full gift voucher delivery service alongside their software, SK Chase can allow you to take advantage of the sales opportunities in the gift voucher market, without the administrative headache. They also take care of gift voucher dispatch, meaning that you will not get bogged down with the extra admin involved in sending out and tracking large numbers of gift vouchers.

• SK Chase helps you to create a flexible, low-maintenance gift voucher catalogue, available directly to your customers through your website
• They'll print your vouchers onto your own stationery, and send them directly to your customers within 24 hours of purchase, even taking care of any customer queries relating to voucher dispatch
• Their system provides all the tools you need to track your gift voucher sales, enabling you to collect valuable marketing information and help grow your sales even further
• Additionally, you'll be able to promote and sell your own gift voucher catalogue through www.theAA.com

Tel: 0870 609 4513

Email: natasha.lynn@skchase.com

eviivo

eviivo's aim is to help small hotels, B&Bs and guesthouses increase their bookings and maximise their profits by selling their rooms in real-time over the internet. With over 60% of guests now booking their rooms directly online, the internet has changed the way that people book their accommodation nowadays. But thanks to eviivo and their unique frontdesk product, you can now take advantage of the online revolution. Over 2,000 small, independent tourism businesses have joined the community of frontdesk users and have seen their bookings and income rise.

• Instant online booking capabilities to increase your bookings and profits
• The affordable way to a global audience. Sell your rooms on the world's leading travel websites at the lowest cost on the market
• No annual fees and commissions for online bookings start at only 6%. And you only pay for guaranteed bookings. No sale, no fee!
• An easy-to-use electronic diary. Simple computer screen, total control of your bookings, product descriptions, rates and customers, bookings notifications by SMS and email and more; frontdesk includes all the features you'd find in a large hotel property management system
• Take bookings 24/7. frontdesk works as your own 24-hour receptionist and reservations office so that you are able to spend more time looking after your guests or doing the other things you enjoy
• No need to tie up your rooms. Unlike other online booking systems, eviivo doesn't ask for room allocations. With frontdesk, you'll never lose bookings because you have rooms allocated elsewhere
• Working together to transform your business. With frontdesk, you not only get the tools to trade online, but also eviivo's continuous support to help make it work. eviivo is committed to helping frontdesk users to develop their businesses and stay ahead of the competition by offering them ongoing training and expert advice

Tel: 0800 422 0088

Email: enquiries@eviivo.com

Best Practice Forum

The Best Practice Forum was launched in September 2001 to improve the competitiveness of the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism industry and seeks to improve quality, productivity and business performance. The Best Practice Forum has teamed up with the AA to give proprietors with AA-accreditation some fantastic opportunities to improve business performance:

Free Audit

This innovative, straightforward, confidential audit, designed for hospitality employers, can help boost your profits, no matter how small or large your business. A benchmarking report, comparing your performance with the best and worst for properties of a similar style, size and location, will enable you to see the real strengths, weaknesses and performance gaps in your business. We can also give you help in drawing up an improvement plan.

Excellence through People

Receive your free Best Practice Forum "Excellence Through People" starter pack, including a comprehensive guide, benchmarking report to compare your recruitment and employment practices with "best in class", and a 60 minute DVD of Best Practice case studies, worth £45 + VAT and sharpen your competitive edge by:

• Increasing staff retention
• Improving customer satisfaction
• Driving up profitability

Funded Business Support

For a sign up fee of just £99 (+ VAT), AA members in the North West, North East and East of England can receive an extensive programme of business development worth over £3,000 as part of the Best Practice Forum's initiative to increase quality, profitability and competitiveness in the hospitality industry. This includes one-to-one on site support from a business coach.

Tel: 020 8977 4419

Email: rb@halm.co.uk