Information Communication Technology (ICT)
In recent years, information communication technology becomes an integral part of our life. What exactly is ICT? ICT covers all technical means used to communicate with people around the world through computer. Our lifestyle changes due to the increase in the use of information communication technology.
In The Past 1980s
You would like to have a short getaway, maybe during a long weekend. How do you get a hotel room booked? What are the rates for an average suite in a hotel located in the city? What are the facilities available? Is the hotel a reputated one? What are the promotions that are going on? What are the competitors offering? These are all questions marks that appear in a potential visitor’s mind when he or she wants to go on a trip.
In those days where internet is not that widely available, information are limited to those who are interested to get a suite booked. People who want to go on a holiday have to go down to the travel agency or call up the travel agency for more information on the trip. People are not aware of how the environment of that place looks like until they reach the hotel on the day of check in.
Present
When one thinks of going on a trip, whether its going alone or with a pal or a family member, gone were the days where they need to approach a travel agency to take up a package. They just need to check the days that they will be free to leave the country and the rest could be done and arranged in a few hours clicking away in front of their computers. From choosing their destination right down to getting a hotel room booked. It can be done in the comfort of one’s home or office. People can book their hotel rooms anytime anywhere.
This research is done to analyses how information communication technologies have changed the process of making hotel room reservation.
What has change with the development of information communication technologies (ICT) is that it eases the trouble room reservation has bought to travel lovers before and that it has provide a platform for hotels to showcase what they can offer to visitors worldwide and get them to reserve a room through their websites.
That been said, ICT has also poses challenges to the user out there. There are always two sides to a coin, in this case, advantages and disadvantages.
Like I mentioned before, ICT has bought convenience to the people around the world when it comes to room reservation. It allows hoteliers to pose their latest offering on the net for all to see. A few clicks away, consumers are able to access to the latest updates from hotels, travel agencies and airlines.
To the consumers, they are also able to compare the rates of the rooms that they want in a very short span of time. This not only saves their money but also time. But at the same time, due to the fact that consumers could check out the latest promotion from all the different hotels in the same area within such a short time, hotels have to keep their rates competitive. This causes problem to the hoteliers, in order to stay competitive they might have to offer better services and facilities to stay ahead of the game.
ICT has also brought the world of room reservation to a whole new level. Travelers can now have an idea of what their room looks like and decide if the rate they are paying for matches the quality of the room that they are getting. Service providers like hotels.com, asiarooms.com are working with Google to help travelers to decide on which hotels to stay by providing the location map of the hotel.
With the presence of tools such as Google street view, travelers could check out the surroundings of the hotels, whether it is the map or the real view of the streets, allowing them to have an idea of what the neighborhood is like. This is a good tool as travelers could avoid booking a hotel room in places that they deemed as unsafe. This tool is also an extra service that the service provider can give to their users. This tool is only offered if the website operator linked up with Google to provide that extra service.
Although the tools bring about benefits to the operator and its users, this extra service does post problem to the hotels. Guests are able to see the other hotels available in the neighborhood and thus create the possibility of them changing their reservation. This again boils down to the extra service that hoteliers have to offer to secure that reservation.
Travelers are welcome to post review on their hotel stay on the website they booked from as well as the quality of the room they get. Travelers also posts views on how the website has aid them in planning their trip. This could either make or break the reputation of the website.
Posting of reviews on hotel services and quality of rooms poses threats to hoteliers as visitors now can comment on the quality of service they get from the hotel and immediately the world will get to know as news gets to the masses in an extremely short time. Hoteliers have to provide an all rounded service to win over their guests to get favorable reviews on their hotels. Reviews from the website help travelers to make their decisions on their stay.
Room reservation is no longer as simple and straightforward as before, just reserve a room for the prospective guest, and provide the relevant room keeping services and the job is done. As the hotel is tie up with the room reservation website, what the hotels do also have a great impact on the room reservation website. If the hotels garner negative reviews from the guests, it would inevitably reflects badly on the website operator and have future guests doubting the ability of the operator to provide them with a satisfactory service.
For room reservation operators who would like to further appeal to their users, they even offer their users travel guides of different destination. This allows the users to acquire a quick overview of what the country, that they will be visiting, have to offer.
Besides room reservation websites, hotels itself have created webpage for easy reservation. Hotels which have a regular fix of guests would benefit from opening of their own webpage as travelers would be able to reserve a room from their trust worthy hotel brand.
Big names in the hotel industry have certain credibility and standard thus people who go for better quality and do not mind the higher rates could book their hotel room with their desired hotel right away. Big hotels names also tend to have many branches overseas and guests could ensure similar service standards elsewhere. If one is a frequent traveler, they could join the hotels as members to get better rates or enjoys better promotion and also get first hand news on the latest update from the hotel.
Due to the ever changing technology, hotels and room reservation websites have to constantly update and upgrade their webpage to capture the attention of the IT savvy new generation. Managing their webpage is now one of the main duties of the hotel personnel, no longer something they can leave aside for some other time.
Surfing through the webpage of the hotels is the next most direct interaction with the hotel besides stepping into the hotel and judge the service provided. The first step to attract the prospective guests is to do up their front (in this case, their website) and having them reserve a room with them. Thus, managing the webpage is an important task of the hoteliers. From entering the hotel’s webpage, one is almost able to gauge what they are getting.
ICT also closes the gap between hotels and guests with the existence of social networking websites like twitter and facebook. Social networking websites enable the hotels to get instant reviews from guests worldwide. It is also a more informal portal for guest to express their concerns and the praises that they have towards the hotel. With smartphones winning their way into the hands of users, people are able to access to information anywhere anytime. This further brings users to the latest updates of the hotels they are interested in staying.
Internet has became such a crucial factor in many people’s life so much so that hotels and room reservation websites are looking into more ways on getting notice by the masses throught the net. For example, hotels.com advertises their website on the sidebar of MSN’s hotmail, which attract the attention of the people.
As internet just serves as a platform, it is not sure whether a webpage is credible or not. Thus, security is a major concern. Room reservation websites have to get the approval of security bodies to assess their website and award them with accreditation. This would pave out the first step for travelers to trust and visit their website.
In conclusion, ICT brings about benefits as well as challenges to the parties involve in the room reservation service industry. ICT has changes our way of living and increasingly improving our standard of living. ICT also bring convenience to us where we were able to make hotel reservation, booking of air tickets through the internet without the trouble of going down to the shop personally.
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