How info-communication technologies change hotel room reservation services.

Introduction

In the past, the only form of information communications technology was through the postal service. In order to make a hotel reservation, interested customers had to draft up letters to hotels and ensure that they were correct before mailing the reservation out. They had to buy envelopes and stamps, insert the reservation request into the envelope and place a stamp on it. Furthermore, they had to write the address of the hotel of the hotel before posting it into the mail box. The letter would be routed to a central mail centre and to the overseas or domestic mail centre closest to the hotel. The mail finally arrives at the hotel front desk waiting to be processed. This whole process repeats itself if there are no vacancies available at the hotel, except the diffference lies in the fact that now the hotel has to contact the customer via mail. The cycle would be repeated again should the customer wish to choose another date or room type. This chain of events beginning with writing, sending, receiving and writing and sending is the very same process that happens in a new and improved way with the use of computers.

Now, information communication technology has shortened the time to make a reservation from a few weeks by mail to mere seconds. There is no longer a need to call the hotel to make a reservation and mail the cheque to the hotel. What customers have to do is to switch on their computer or laptop, log on to the internet, and go to the hotel's website. All the information required is on the website, from the weather in the country to the festivals being held there. Some hotels even provide detailed maps (Google maps), locations and even online 3D room tours, panoramic views and a short video clips for viewers. In addition, other features of the hotel website would be the ability to translate the language used into other languages, with the added function of currency conversion as well. These help customers to have a better understanding of the hotel rooms, facilities and the room rates. The hassle of writing and receiving is minimised to just a few clicks of the mouse. Customers around the world can receive a relatively similar experience of efficient front-desk services despite the fact that they are sitting at home in front of a computer.

Information systems in the form of the internet has brought about an unprecedented amount of promotion and marketing to the hotel industry. With so much information at the customer's fingertips, the result would be hotels facing a price war. Customers can now check for various hotels within minutes and make a decision for the cheapest one. Hotels no longer compete within their local communities.

Business Process

As mentioned in the beginning, the process of hotel reservation in the past has to take a relatively longer amount of time, because the flow of information has to go through the physical means of passing the written message along. The creation of the message also takes a longer period of time as compared to modern times.

You start by writing a letter of request to reserve a room and posting it out. The mail takes around four weeks to receive and then another week for the mail to be from the bottom of the pile to the top of the pile in order to be processed by the hotel front desk staff. The hotel front desk staff will check the room(s) required and send a reply back to you. Then you would have to send a confirmation back to the hotel with a method of payment (usually a cheque), which would most likely take a longer time to process and approve. This results in a longer duration time to make a reservation.

With the development of information communication technology in this present day, making a room reservation is much faster compared to the past. The guest or intending visitor does not have to wait agonoizingly for a reply that takes five weeks to receive. Results of the intended dates will be shown to the user immediately. This gives the user much more time to decide on whether to change the dates or to change the room type if there are no vacancies fitting the user's choice. On top of that, the hotel does not have to process the cheques when all the payments are done online. Conveniences are provided to both the user and the hotel. Speed and accuracy of the information is ensured, and both parties are happy.

Advantages

On top of spending less time, money and having greater accessibility to online resources to book a hotel room, transaction brokers can help to boost productivity. Transaction brokers are essentially online brokers that represent the hotels in order to facilitate a transaction. By linking up many hotels on to a central site by which customers can access information from, smaller businesses can benefit by having greater access to a larger pool of customers and vice versa. This also helps smaller niche hotels compete with larger, reputable ones by appealing to the same pool of customers online, thus giving them an added advantage.

When it comes to info-communition technologies, websites such as tripadvisor.com and thwarte.com also help to provide platforms where views can be exchanged and discussed. Topics such as where the best places to eat or visit, deals or hotels are bring people from all over the globe to help facilitate discussions about their personal travel experiences. Sites such as these attract a melting pot of cultures bonded by the single interest of trekking the globe and opening their eyes to a new experience or culture. In this case, it can assist visitors with no prior experience to hotels in choosing the right place for their holiday, be it a family vacation or a romantic getaway for two.

Disadvantages

Now that we have seen how implementing information technologies in hotel room reservation services can bring about benefits, let us look at the disadvantages of having information communication technology around.

With so much vital information - such as credit card numbers, addresses, passwords and contact details - being revealed over the internet in order to make a reservation online, problems with privacy may arise. Hackers, for example, may attempt to steal confidential information for their own use. Certain websites have online security systems put in place to deter hackers. Unfortunately, most transaction brokers and hotel websites have yet to implement an online security system on their website that will protect a customer's confidential information from hackers. This is a potential problem that customers have to deal with.

Also, while the use of information technology has made the job of searching and booking a hotel online much easier and more efficient, it makes jobs that require skills related to room reservation services (such as front desk staff or a hotel room booking coordinator) redundant. This would lead to more unemployment and downsizing, as workers may realise that the skills they possess may no longer be relevant, as information technology has taken over their job.

Customers can now check whether there are rooms available in a hotel without the need to pick up a phone and talk to a customer service officer. Hotel staff may feel that their jobs are no longer as secure as before, as info-communication technologies replace jobs that humans can do in a more efficient and accurate manner.

For customers, there is a certain ease in the flexibility of booking at cancelling at will. Certain hotel booking sites such as ctrip.com allow up to a few hours of pre-cancellation time prior to checking in to a hotel. At no extra cost. However, for hotels, this may lead to a lack of assurance as to whether customers will hold true to their word and actually turn up on that day. Most hotels do charge a penalty, with some charging fifty percent of a day's room rate charges. In the end, hotels are still subjected to the customer's whims, and have to cut their losses when customers decide to change their mind and decide not to show up at the last minute.