H&RT met with Sharon Cowley, Group Sales Director at Net Affinity to talk about the next chapter for the hotel technology company
Through its new partnership with Smarthotel, hotel technology company Net Affinity has packaged a booking engine, channel manager, payments, and much more, into a one-stop-shop ecosystem
Origins: Make Life Simpler for Hoteliers
When Net Affinity, Ireland’s specialised technology and digital marketing company, emerged in 2000, its vision was simple: make life simpler for hoteliers.
The company’s fast and mobile-optimised booking engine converted visitors to hotel websites into direct bookings. Its custom and template-based website design helped hotels stand tall above competitors, and its specialised marketing services improved online visibility and drove traffic into the arms of its hotel clients. Net Affinity’s historically high levels of customer satisfaction – and its reputation for solving problems effectively and fast – spoke for itself.
But there came a point when Net Affinity’s business in Ireland hit a ceiling. “We wanted to solidify our position in the market against our competitors,” Sharon Cowley, Group Sales Director for Net Affinity, tells Hotel & Restaurant Times.
“A lot of our competitors were introducing payment services and channel management solutions. We didn’t have that.” Net Affinity’s hotel customers, in fact, frequently had to co-ordinate across multiple vendors when dealing with Online Travel Agencies (OTAs).
A Strategic Partnership Changes Everything
This all changed in January 2025 when Net Affinity entered a strategic partnership with Smarthotel, a Netherlands-based company that specialises in distribution, payments, and PMS connectivity (which links a hotel’s Property Management System to external platforms like booking channels, channel managers, and guest-facing technology). Like Net Affinity, Smarthotel had an impressive heritage in hotel technology (dating back to 2007).
Under the banner of the Hotel Tech Group, Net Affinity and Smarthotel were able to create a one-stop-shop,
“combining our skills to provide a holistic solution for hoteliers that looks after front-end bookings and back-end operations,” says Sharon.
Net Affinity’s new package for hotels includes a Smart Channel Manager, which connects with OTAs and GDS (Global Distribution Systems) to manage inventory. They can offer SmartPayments: integrated payment solutions to streamline transactions. Also: gift vouchers, a system for creating and selling hotel gift vouchers that can be redeemed online or offline.
“We have a much bigger and more connected offering,” remarks Sharon. “We have a stronger IT development department and a more cohesive presence in Europe – a bigger market from a booking perspective. The market is finite in Ireland. This partnership has opened up the whole of the European market to us. We have the language capabilities to service it. Smarthotel has nearly 1800 clients and we’ve been able to offer all their clients our booking engine.”
Continuous Product Innovation
Net Affinity is known within the Irish hospitality industry for its booking engine and its strong digital marketing activity, once again this year they have been awarded the Google Premier Certification. Their technology is also always evolving, and this year saw it being enhanced further with new wedding and conference modules, Guests love this tech and it also helps operationally as using these modules prevents queuing at reception because everything can be prepaid so no check-in required. Guests just have to collect their keys. Sharon adds.
“There is no one size fits all solution for hotels, A hotel might take a booking engine today and add on payments at a later date.”
Leadership Rooted in Hospitality Experience
Sharon is acutely aware of the advantages for hoteliers from this partnership. She has spent the last 16 years with Net Affinity but before that she worked in the hotel sector in Ireland and abroad: mostly in four- and five-star resort properties and she was also GM at Stillorgan Park Hotel Park Hotel, so knows and understands the hotel landscape and its nuances.
“I still consider myself a hotelier. I have a great empathy with hotels, which is important when I’m talking to the people who are operating them. I know the challenges. I understand how much automation and technology drives business, but also how important it is to get the tech mix right. I understand how to solve problems, save money, and increase revenues. Staff want an automated system that delivers reporting, intelligence, and uses AI. Rather than a standalone system, they want it all connected. From a guest perspective, this delivers a better user journey and quality of service.”
Delivering a Fully Connected Guest Journey
The fruits of Net Affinity’s partnership with Smarthotel are evident in several new Irish openings where the hotel has partnered with Net Affinity from opening to deliver a guest-centric digital ecosystem – Net Affinity’s booking engine and marketing tools and Smarthotel’s channel manager and PMS integrations – to create a fully connected journey for guests, from pre-arrival to post-stay.
Sharon offers another example of a current client which she worked with this year.
“They added our payments and channel manager solution for one of their hotels. They were cautious at first, but it was successful in terms of their automation and banking – it solved a lot of their financial needs because they had a single platform where they could monitor all their payments along with time saving and one central support from the Net Affinity team– and so they rolled it out to their other two hotels as well.”
Net Affinity’s new Smart Payments suite also helps hotels collect OTA payments or send paylinks for group bookings, which reduces manual administration. Before the partnership deal was signed with Smarthotel, Net Affinity did not have GDS. This distribution tool acts as a middleman, connecting a hotel’s rooms, rates, and other inventory to global travel agents, corporate travel planners, and online booking platforms in real-time. Now they can offer GDS to their client which it is a game changer, believes Sharon.
Newly integrated support across website and OTA channels also means issues can be resolved a lot quicker by a single support team working in unison.
“Hotels can deal with us for channel manager and payment queries, for booking engines and for websites. They have one point of contact for support, rather than dealing with multiple companies.”
Staying Close to Clients
Although Net Affinity’s catalogue of services has been upgraded, there is no significant change within the organisation itself, other than the introduction of a new MD – Lauri Koop, CEO of Hotel Tech Group, who has taken over the leadership.
Net Affinity’s senior leadership team – including Hollie McHugh (Marketing Director), Janice Epstein (Finance Director/HR), and Gemma Hynes (Client Services Director), alongside Sharon – remain the same.
In February 2026, Net Affinity hosted a revenue summit in Dublin, at which Lauri Koop addressed the company’s cadre of hoteliers.
“This was really good for our clients to meet Lauri and to hear his vision for the company from a product and future plan perspective,” says Sharon.
Net Affinity is a remote company, but Sharon is quick to stress that its management are always available to its customers with the bulk of their Net Affinity team based across Ireland and the UK.
“We’re still visible, prominent, personable, and supportive of our markets and the hospitality industry.Culture is hugely important within our internal teams, and we work hard to ensure this is constantly maintained, be that with our in person all hands, charity events, or sports activities – we are now spreading that ethos as we unite with our Smarthotel colleagues.”
Data-Driven Insights for Smarter Decisions
Net Affinity’s partnership with Smarthotel allows it to give hotels data-driven insights and reporting: priceless advice for hoteliers who are too preoccupied with the day to day running of their properties to investigate the bigger picture.
“Macro and micro economic factors influence the decision-making behind hotel bookings: weather dependency, flight availability, internal tourism. You need to watch those trends because that’s where you can maximize profitability around rooms. Our job is to feed the right data to hotels and giving them the best chances of getting business.”
Mobile-First: Where Bookings Really Happen
Everything Net Affinity builds is geared around mobile first: from website designs to its booking engine. “If we’re doing a website design for a client, we’re building back from mobile to the desktop. Over 60% of all booking revenue comes to hotels via mobile. Some hotels are up to as much as 80% or 90%. While there are still people booking on desktop, the bulk of all bookings now happen on mobile.”
AI’s Role With a Human Balance
The use of AI in automating and optimising booking and payment processes are here to stay.
“If AI can automate a process, complete a mundane task, or achieve something that would have taken hours before, then we need to use it.”
But Sharon, with her history in hotels, knows this should not be done at the expense of human interaction.
“We have to remember who we are in hospitality and that is an important part of why people come and stay with us.”
What Comes Next
The collaboration between Net Affinity and Smarthotel is bringing new opportunities to streamline hotel operations and revenue management, offering a seamless integration between booking engines, digital marketing, PMS, and payment solutions. But Net Affinity has no plans to stop there.
“We’re going to continue growing our technology product offerings,” says Sharon, “and continue improving the operational lives of hotels.”
For more information on Net Affinity visit www.netaffinity.com
