Traveling worldwide has been made easier with the advent of the World Wide Web. What used to be the hassle of finding more information about the destination and available choices of accommodation to suit one's budget had all been done away since. The over reliance of seeking travel agents to make travel arrangements is slowly but surely diminishing with many information being made on the internet.
Accommodation providers have since realised that they can make do without indirect marketing whether online or traditional mode over time if they embark on their online direct marketing. With such realisation and visionary approach, Hilton Group had embarked on this initiative years ago which they are now enjoying the fruits of their labour.
It is with such initiative and eliminating the "middlemen" would guests making online reservations be able to enjoy better hotel room rates, packages and promotions. In similar fashion as the hypermarkets, the savings on commissions paid to reservation portals and travel agents are transferred to the guests as hotels are able to save on administrative costs by leveraging on technology.
A point of comfort for guests making reservations directly with the hotel would be the instant confirmation they secure from the hotels itself instead of emails which would need 24hours reply confirmation which are practiced by most reservation portal. This not only causes inconvenience to all but simple process which
Most online reservation facilities on the official hotel website are still on F2E ("Form To Email") which means that guest personal and reservation details are entered and sent through email. Complications arises during guests request for cancellation and more critical when there are “no-shows”.
With “no shows” by guests making reservations online and further complicated without any deposit or payment, simply means that the hotel’s personnel would need additional wasted hours in trying to secure the payments and in many cases, they would be able to present a case to recover the sum.
However, with more hotels getting on board with online reservations directly to the guest, guests are able to interact with the hotel much closer and more importantly perform reservation cancellations and modifications with ease. Credit card verification and security encryption by established companies working on the hotel’s online reservation facility would greatly enhance the confidence of guests providing credit card details online for payment.
There are also a fair number of hotels reluctant to join the revolution and prefers to keep to the traditional mode of F2E. The outcome from such conservative approach would only mean that they would be lagging behind their fellow peers who embark on such move whilst aggressively marketing their website on the web.
In a nutshell, making reservations directly with the hotels provide the guest benefits of;
(a) communicating directly with the hotel,
(b) room reservation availability confirmed by the hotel with credit card guaranteed
confirmation,
(c) allows the hotels to look into your special requests immediately prior to arrival,
(d) making reservations, cancellations and modifications anytime and anywhere via internet,
(e) no more emails, faxes or phone calls going to and forth,
(f) savings in room rates or packages and
(g) most importantly the peace of mind of having a room to rest after all the traveling.
Should a hotel decides on joining the online reservation directly with the guests, drop me an email and would be pleased to assist.
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