It claims that RevDirect delivers potential travellers to the hotel’s website at no upfront cost, only charging the hotel if the traveller books direct and actually completes a stay.

The “pay-on-the-stay” model eliminates upfront advertising costs and creates a cash-flow friendly payment process. Hotels also gain access to state-of-the-art multichannel optimisation technology, including a self-managed platform with audience, market and property insights to help them better understand their customers.

The newly opened office is led by Angela Canny, regional sales director for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Canny has over two decades of experience in the hotel and hospitality sector having worked with local, regional and global brands including Marriott, Le Meridien, BDL Ireland, Guinness and Rezidor.

“With a history of hosting some of the world’s tech giants such as Google and Facebook and an impressive local talent pool, Dublin is the perfect location to serve the European market,” Canny said. “Hotels want more direct bookings, but they are challenged to find the consistent marketing budget and digital expertise needed to make direct demand generation work in a complex online world - and Sojern recognises that.”

The Irish tourism industry in 2016 was worth €8 billion annually - a new record, according to the Irish Hotels Federation.

Travel brands are targeting higher value and higher spending markets such as the US, Australia and China, it adds, to offset a potential downturn in the British market due to Brexit and the sterling differential.