ICTs - An Introduction

"Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven.  I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other" - Bill Gates

ICT is an acronym that stands for Information Communications Tecnology.

The phrase was coined by the new National Curriculum documents for the UK in 2000.

It is an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application, encompassing: radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems as well as the various services and applications associated with them.

As stated by the European Commission, the importance of ICTs lies less in the technology itself than in its ability to create greater access to information and communication in underserved populations.

Room Reservations - Then and Now

ICTs have a range of applications. Be it the student portals of educational institutes, the tap systems in mrts, the online shopping websites or the millions of applications available on our hand phones. Similarly, ICTs have played a big part in the evolution of hospitality by revolutionizing the entire process of hotel room reservation.

 From the times, where one had to spend hours on the phone with travel agents wrecking our brains to get the right deals, we have taken a major leap and moved into an era where room reservation is a task of mere mouse clicks.
For an individual sitting in Bukit Timah to book a room in a hotel in Barcelona has become a transformational experience, where the individual is just short of being in the hotel premises and experiencing it in flesh and blood.

One can now not only book rooms online from a plethora of options, one can check out the site of the hotel, view the map as well as the satellite images, check out the photographs, request for special services and all this not only from the parent website or the virtual front desk but even from various third party travel sites

ICTs and Parent Sites

Parent Sites refer to sites which are directly operated by the hotel themselves and are entirely under their supervision.

Big names in the hotel industry likes of Raffles Hotel, Chateau Les Crayeres, The Westcliff and many more ,all have a full fledged parent website.

Raffles Hotel , operates www.raffleshotel.com. By providing specific details such as their location, room facilitates and promotional offers and a site embedded with enhanced security, they provide the customers an enhanced experience in a way of giving a glimpse of their hospitality.

Snapshot of Raffles Reservation page

Another parent site, of the Ritz-Carlton www.ritzcarlton.com goes a step ahead of giving its privileged customers options like design your vacation as they believe in the philosophy of room and beyond, where for the Ritz-Carlton its never limited to a mere room.

 The site also provides its customers the flexibility of modifying their booking even after the booking has already been confirmed.

Snapshot of Ritz-Carlton reservation site



Such virtual front desks are operating on a less complex level as they have direct access to all the internal information about the hotel but the miraculous wonder of ICTs is the way they make the operation of third party sites, safe, secure,easy and fast.

ICTs and Third Party Websites

ICT link the third party websites in an intricate manner such that there seems absolute no difference in the entire experience. In addition, these sites take the advantage of this flexibility and considering the cut throat competition go a step ahead from the parent sites to give the customer many interactive options.

Third party sites like, www.octopustravel.com, provide a range of hotel selection for travelers to choose from. They operated solely independently from the hotels as they act as a co-agent to liaise with individual travelers and the respective hotels offered. It enables travelers to compare prices between various hotels across the world ranging from one star to five stars hotels. It also incorporates within, www.tripadvisor.com, which allows travelers to view reviews on each hotel. It provides extra information to allow travelers make an informed decision.

Snapshot of octopus travel

 

Then there are other sites like www.priceline.com  which provide customers with option of quote your own rate. The customers can quote their room rates and the site looks up rooms that fit the bill. Together with this, suiting the brand conscious customers, the site also provides the option of looking up hotels by brands like the Hilton, Ritz Carlton. If one is a frequent traveler then based on the assumption that one knows the destination well ,one can also select hotels by their proximity to landmarks. This acts up as a lucrative option for avid travelers.

Snapshot of priceline

 

Then some other offerings  from site like www.lastminute.com comes in the form of price match promise as per which the site promises to refund the difference if the customer can find the same product any cheaper within 24 hours. This is one major point to lure in customers by providing them with financial security. Another remarkable feature provided by the site is the in depth info about the hotel policies.

Snapshot of last minute

 

 

ICT Pros and Cons

Other than the above mentioned site specific details, there are other remarkable features which are across the board on all sites. These sites have options like "choose currency" which gives the flexibility of allowing people from different countries to use the website and not be confused by the exchange rate and the final amount. Also in terms of monetary convenience, the  customer incurs no transactionary costs when making any bookings online. He gets the flexibility of various means of payments like debit or credit card. In a way, with the help of ICT’s you need not be a professional to execute online transactions in a secured manner.

Then we also have a handful of  what we can call link or bridge sites like www.wego.com. Such sites crawl over many other travel sites to fetch you the best results possible. In one go the site can help you scan over 40 different travel sites.

Website of www.wego.com

On the front of the hotel such travel sites benefit them in a sure way by providing more business but in some cases as seen even for popular hotels, they become marginalized by only certain sects of people who are well versed with them. By making use of such sites customers come face to face with new options. But just like the two sides of the coin this enhanced hotel reservation experience has some drawbacks too. Unresolved queries are one of them. When users ask questions, it might not be answered. As e-mails tend to be ignored and answers through phone calls are seldom clear enough. This is when a physical store front where users can go down and ask questions would be deeply appreciated. Another issue often encountered is cumbersome cancellation of booking. Some websites might not provide this service, and should there be any emergency, any cancellation of booking will still be charged as per normal, this causes users to lose out monetarily and might not want to book online through the websites anymore.

Ending Note

ICT’s and their implementation in context of hotel booking is an appropriate example of what is truly said about ICT’s. ICT’s are changing the world by breaking through the “space of place” to “space of flows”. ICT has allowed information to spread across the world bring people even closer. It does not matter where you are, you have free access to hotels all around the globe. All one needs is a pc or maybe now just a smart phone. Some sites like www.hotels.com  have taken the stride and below is a picture of their mobile website for iphone.

Hotels.com Mobile Site

At this point of time our imagination should have no bounds as to what all ICT’s can possibly present us with in the future.