"How info-communication technologies change hotel room reservation services"

Info-communications technologies explained

ICT (information and communications technologies) is an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application, encompassing: radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on, as well as the various services and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing and distance learning. ICTs are often spoken of in a particular context, for this discussion, hotel room reservation. How ICTs has brought the hospitality and tourism trade to a new era.

Hotel room reservations – how it WAS done

Before the introduction of ICTs, consumers would have to rely on Travel Agents recommendations, consumer faces the risk of opportunistic Travel Agents, which might not offer the best in terms of consumer interest. Otherwise, they can go direct to the hotels for room reservations.

This two ways of reservations have much demerits. Hotels reservations and Travel Agents do not operate 24/7, it is subjected to usual office opening hours. Booking through an Travel Agent are subjected to a service fee or mark up by the Travel Agent, hence consumers pay more. The lead time could take up to a week during peak season as the Travel Agent would send the booking to the Hotel reservation department and the Hotel side would then reply to the Travel Agent which then inform the consumer of the availability. Booking direct with hotels has some issues such as time zone differences, for example, a consumer residing in Singapore has to call Four Seasons Hotel New York in wee hours to be able to get through the line. Hotel rooms reservation procedure at that era was inefficient and tedious.

The new era of Hotel room reservations

With the implementation of ICTs, room reservation has never been easier and more efficient than before. We will be looking into the parties involved in this Hotel room reservation process, namely, Consumers, Transaction brokers: www.zuji.com and www.asiarooms.com, Travel Agents, as well as the Hotels themselves.

Consumers

With the introduction of internet, consumers are able to see for themselves the information, photos, location, and reviews of their preferred hotels. For example, customers can rely on complaints board, tripadvisor and thwarte.com to get trusted advice from real travellers to plan the perfect trip that they want.

1) Complaints Board
Through complaints board, customers can easily obtain helpful information regarding allegedly unethical companies, bad business practices of various hotels, restaurants and many more. This allows them to make better decisions on the places to go so as not to get disappointed when their expectations are not met. Customers can do a quick search on the various hotels that they are planning to stay during their holiday and check if there are any complaints made on room reservation processes.

2) TripAdvisor.com

TripAdvisor.com is a free travel guide and research website that assists customers in gathering travel information, posting opinions of travel related issues and engaging in interactive travel forums. Unlike complaints board which only allow consumers to input complaints, tripadvisor allow consumers to express their concerns and share with one another the good and the bad of the various places of interest. Reviews are posted by customers all over the world and consumers can get travellers’ honest advice on where to stay, eat, and play.

3) Thwarte.com
Thwarte.com is an internet security that can be placed on companies’ websites to prevent breach of security, such as leakage personal information as well as abuse of credit card information. With SSL certificates and secure encryption, consumers can surf the websites and input personal information at ease.

As ICTs brings increased competition among hotels, transaction brokers and travel agents, consumers are able to make hotel reservations 24/7, anytime, anywhere, find the best deals, and reduce risk of uncertainty. Consumers can now book hotels with instant confirmation.

Transaction brokers

It is a firm which acts as an intermediary between a hotel and consumer (both a B2B and and B2C business model), the hotel would in turn reward the brokers monetary benefits once a transaction is completed. Many consumers are having concerns that booking online has no personal touch, to overcome this, Zuji and Asia rooms have local offices in Singapore to handle consumers’ doubts and queries, this gives the brokers a local presence.

1) Zuji.com

ZUJI is an online travel agent that provides a variety of travel choices to consumers in Asia Pacific. A research was carried out and found that Zuji's rates are one of the lowest among the transaction brokers. At Zuji website, consumers are opened up to more than 400 airlines, 60,000 hotels, and thousands of car hire, activities, attractions as well as travel insurance to consumers. Zuji has a global network of local teams and sites that give consumers the ability to make close relationships with suppliers all over the world, and that result in value added travel deals for consumers. Many of their offers are exclusive to ZUJI, thus this gives a competitive edge over her competitors.

2) Asiarooms.com

AsiaRooms.com has been operating online since 1994. AsiaRooms.com is a member of the TUI Travel PLC Group of Companies, the leading international leisure travel group. The TUI Travel Group is headquartered in the UK and is publicly listed on the London Stock Exchange. It operates in approximately 180 countries, serving more than 30 million customers in over 20 source markets, and employs approximately 48,000 people worldwide. AsiaRooms.com offer a “unique vehicle” through which hotels can sell their rooms. They are responsible for uploading their rates, availability and information. Asiarooms' call center is open 24 hours a day for consumers to call at their convenience.

Travel Agents

With the influx of online transaction brokers and ICTs, travel agents have changed their way of operations and marketing strategies capture market share. Simliar to Zuji.com and Asiarooms.com, travel agents have wholesalers to provide them online room reservations, Gullivers Travel Associates http://rbs.gta-travel.com/ and Bedsonline http://www.bedsonline.com/index.htm are Travel Agent's hotel room suppliers that provides rates that only for travel agent's sale.

Hotels

Apart from maintaining the Hotel reservation department, ICTs has provided Hotels avenues to maximize their occupancy rates. Large hotel chains typically have direct connections to the airline national distribution systems (GDS) (Sabre, Galileo, Amadeus and Worldspan). These in turn provide hotel information directly to travel agents, transaction brokers that align themselves with one of these systems.
Hotels also go direct to consumers, they have a full array of information on their website and a reservation system that allows consumers to book directly and obtain instant confirmation without going through a third party.

Conclusion

ICTs has no doubt made hotel room reservations more convenient, “everything is just a click away” - says online gurus. It has minimized time and cost in several ways. Even though there are sites providing secured transactions, consumers are vary of breach of security, such as leakage personal information as well as abuse of credit card information. Hence, it is important for firms to frequently maintain their sites to keep it free of bugs, viruses, spam and to prevent serious and huge losses to both the businesses and consumers interest.