How ICT Change Hotel Room Reservation Services?

What Is Info-Communication Technology?

Information and Communications Technology, usually called ICT, is often used as a synonym for Information Technology (IT) but is usually a more general term that stresses the role of communications (telephone lines and wireless signals) in modern information technology. ICT consists of all technical means used to handle information and help communication, including both computer and network hardware as well as necessary software. In other words, ICT consists of IT as well as telephony, broadcast media and all types of audio and video processing and transmission.

ICT is often used in the context of "ICT Roadmap" to indicate the path that an organization will take with their ICT needs.



The term ICT is now also used to refer to the merging (convergence) of telephone networks with computer networks through a single cabling or link system. There are large economics incentives, for instance, huge cost savings due to elimination of the telephone network, to merge the telephone network with computer network system. This in turn has spurred the growth of organizations with the term ICT in their names to indicate their specialization in the process of merging the two network systems.

"How ICT change Hotel Room Reservation Services?"

In the past when technology are still not as developed, you have only two option to make a hotel reservation. You can either choose to make a trip down to the travel agencies or to call the travel agencies to make a phone booking. And if you are a smart traveller, you would usually do a research with the different agencies regarding the prices, location of the different hotels available. And this would mean you will have to make a few trips to the different agencies. For example, you are comparing prices between Agency A and Angency B. After collecting information from the agency, you went home and think about it. After coming to a decision, you will have to make a trip down to the agency to confirm the booking and to make the payment. And even if you are making a reservation through phone booking, you will still need to make a trip to the travel agency to make payment. So to make a hotel reservation in the past would require alot of time and effort.

The evolution of ICT enables hotels to operate more effectively and efficiently. With the help of ICT, customers do not have the need to go down personally to travel agents to make a reservation. They can now do it online! Therefore, we can see that globalization takes place in the tourism industry. All information regarding destinations, maps, hotels are linked across the globe, leading to a number of advantages for both hotels and most importantly, the customers.

Hotels now make use of the info-communication technologies to operate their business. All departments of the hotel operations are linked, from the beginning of checking-in at the concierge to housekeeping during your stay and finally checking-out. All information are now stored in the system and hence, all departments are able to retrieve and update information that they need. This ensures the accuracy and availability of information which in turn enable a smooth operation of the hotels. The development of ICT allows the operations, especially the administrative tasks to go from handling paperwork to “paperless”, thus saving costs in labour and increasing productivity.

Not only does ICT bring advantages to the hotel operators, it applies to customers too. Firstly, customers are able to make their reservations at their convenience where the trouble of getting down physically is not a problem anymore as they can reserve it online at home, office or basically anywhere as long as they stay connected to the Internet.

Secondly, the major advantage of using the technologies such as Internet to book a hotel is the amount of information you can find. Before making a reservation, research can be done on the hotels around the area you are visiting.

Lastly, the use of technologies to make reservation is captured and remembered in the computer system. Therefore, it becomes quick and easy when the customer wants to re-book at a later date. This leads to customer loyalty and for this, customers receive incentives.

Despite of its advantages, ICT has its flaws too. One of which is security and privacy. Making hotel reservations online requires you to give confidential information such as credit card number before your request can be processed. In addition, in some cases, making reservation online does not offer real time booking. This means that if you are booking a trip on short notice, it will be better to receive confirmation through telephone.


From here, we can see that the advantages of ICT outweighs the disadvantages ones. Thus, playing an important role in its business operations.

View of Mandarin Oriental Hotel

Till date, all if not most of the hotels have their websites set up with a link for guests to make reservation. Let's take Mandarin Oriental Hotel as an example. The picture below shows the initial template of making a reservation at their hotel.



At a glance, they provide mainly two different types of choices for customers to input their arrival and departure dates. You can either manually key in^1 or select from the calendar given. This allows flexibility for guests to make their reservations at their comfort zone. They even have this “Check Availability”^2 function incorporated to avoid two or more guests reserving the same room on the same time. To enhance their customer service, they provide customers with the information on their room types, rates and even packages which you can consider taking up for better deals. In case you are having problems while making a reservation, you can click on “Speak to a Sales Agent”^3 where you provide your information and the customer service officer will give you a call back and assist. At this point, we can see that one simple template is linked to various departments of the hotels, making a reservation quick, easy and successful.

ICT AND TRANSACTION BROKERS

Apart from booking online directly from the hotels’ websites, customers can also make a reservation through a transaction broker. A transaction broker is a third party, acting on behalf of the seller to provide a deal with the buyer. Examples of transaction broker are Agoda and AsiaRooms. For this research project, we will look further into Agoda.

What is AGODA?

Agoda.com is a transaction broker which provides worldwide online hotel reservation service. For the past 10 years, they have worked with more than 140,000 hotels in the world and served millions of travelers. As Agoda is a recognized globally, they provide their services in 32 different languages.

Being part of Priceline.com, Agoda is at its competitive edge to offer best guaranteed hotel rates which brings about affordability and economical to travelers. In addition, these travelers are able to receive the best hotel deals on web through the combination of knowledge and connections with world class technology where their staffs span across globally. This brings about an advantage to understand travelers all over the world.

How AGODA Works?



They worked with hotels, negotiating directly to ensure that prices and services are provided at its best to customers. With these negotiations completed, Agoda will then incorporate the latest technology, through their websites to present all round information and bargains to customers anytime, anywhere. A step further to provide services at its best, Agoda operates in a 24/7 system so that customers can reach them at all times.

Having a list of hotels and enabling customers to make reservation online alone is never enough. With info-communication technologies, Agoda links all necessary information that travelers need such as the attractions, recreational sites and transportation of a particular destination they are travelling. Most important of all, maps which are provided by Google are incorporated Agoda.com allows customers to get a “feel” of what amenities are around the hotels they are staying as well as how to get around the area. Apart from that, customers can get a view of the hotels with the pictures provided.

Agoda also included a section (as you can see below) where we can see the interaction of the members. They can give reviews on the hotel they stayed. In this way, other members of Agoda can use these comments as a reference before deciding which hotel is suitable for them. By doing so, hotels are getting more competitive than before.



By incorporating info-communication technologies into their operations, Agoda is always known for its accountability and accessibility. This explains why many travel partners choose Agoda to provide hotel reservations for their customers.

CONCLUSION

With the development of ICT, we can see a major change of how hotels operate in the past and now. They moved from "space of place" to "space of flows" where customers do not need to go down to travel agencies yet reservations can be made simply by a few clicks on the websites. We believed the use of ICT does not apply only on tourism industry but also all other industries as well.