Information Communication Technologies (ICT) can be defined as the combination of technologies and medium such as hardware and software to effect communication. The use of ICT is common, useful and important in the world nowadays, and communication is the key.
Looking particularly into the field of hospitality, with the implementation of ICT, hotels have definitely changed the way they conduct business activities and processes over the years. Results of the integration of ICT into the organizations have also been proven effective and efficient.
The time of processing related information in the hotels has been greatly reduced through networks, and the change of storage of information from hardcopies to softcopies had led to more convenience. These are few of the examples on what ICT have done to change the business activities of hotels, and to allow the organizations to ‘communicate’ better to improve its overall performance.
Hotels are in the line of service industry. In other words, serving customers and understanding their needs and meeting their needs are seen as crucial. It is service-orientated. Thus, fast, effective and efficient communication is seen as a key importance in hotels to facilitate its business activities and processes.
One main area of activity in hotel’s operations is hotel reservation. Other areas of activities include providing services to customers in the hotel and maintaining good customer relations (i.e. through feedback).
How has ICT changed the operations of hotel in particular to room reservation processes?
Hotels are very important to many of us (e.g. businessman, travelers). The way hotels conduct their business has changed tremendously. It used to involved operations which requires purely paper work with the very old school way of storing files of documents with essential information such as customers’ details and room availability details into the cabinet. Hotel reservations were so inconvenience back then. People were unable to make advance booking for hotel rooms when travelling to overseas for business or holiday trip. All bookings have to be made in person and the availability of hotel rooms was uncertain. If lady luck is not with us, we would need to source for alternative hotels instead. Imagine after a long flight, you are carrying a big luggage and trying to find an available hotel room. It will be a horrible experience.
With the great changes in technology, the way hotel manages their business have transformed. The old methods have been replaced by computerized system to deal with their day to day business activities. Now, lesser paper work has to be done, which thus reduced the time needed and make the hotel organization more effective. In fact, hotel booking can be done in 15 to 30 minutes now. The implementation of ICT has made hotel reservations much easier!
There are many ways in making hotel reservations. We could make use of telecommunication networks to give a telephone call to the hotel to make a booking. However, with the improved in technology in the recent years, online booking through the internet is now preferred.
Online bookings have effectively led to a few changes in hotels’ business activities. Fewer staff will be employed to be in charge of the reservation of rooms operations. In the past, more staff were needed at the reception counter to handle customers’ reservations, no matter if it is through a face to face direct booking, or answering of telephone calls to communicate a reservation. Now, with the use of ICT, information could be communicated through networks, and hotels now need much lesser staff, in fact just few of them with skill and expertise to handle and use the system.
On the other hand, customers prefer to make hotel reservations online too. It is way more convenient and easy with just a few clicks.
An example of online reservation of a hotel room:
We can make a hotel reservation at HongKong Disneyland for our family. All we have to do is to access to HongKong Disneyland website. The picture depicts that we can check the availability of the dates.
Upon confirming the dates, it will bring you to the next page for filing your personal information, show the breakdown of cost and select the mode of payments.
The above illustration depicts Business-to-Customers (B2C) transaction. B2C can be used for any business or organization that sells its products or services through Internet.
Some people prefer to book through these websites as they are able to compare which websites offer them the best deal. Another way to make hotel reservations is through websites like hotels.com, agoda.com etc. They are known as transaction brokers which acts like an middleman. They bring a connection to buyer and seller to facilitate them in closing a deal. These transaction brokers earn commission for each successful transaction. The above is also known as B2C transaction.
One of the popular website is hotels.com. It is one of the largest hotel accommodation providers that offer hotel booking through its own network or by phone calls. Hotels.com offers more than 100000 hotels in more than 60 countries. Travellers are able to choose from a wide ride of selections. Besides, they are able to source for hotel pricing, amenities and the hotel room availability.
Again, the steps to book a hotel room is relatively simple. It requires you to enter the location and check-in/check-out dates of travel. Thereafter, it will show a range of hotels availability. Details of the hotels include: address, contact, map of the hotel, facilities of the hotel, the distance to city centre and pictures of the hotel. From this, customers are able to choose the one that suits them most. Upon selecting the desired hotel, transaction brokers will help to make arrangement with the hotel.
The type of transaction from customer to transaction brokers are known as B2C. From transaction brokers to hotel is known as Business-to-Business transaction (B2B). B2B refers to transactions between businesses.
As we can see, the hotel activities comprises of huge amount of data and information. These data and information requires storage space. In the past, majority data and information were stored in hardcopies due to limitation of ICT. It took up spaces and created great inconvenience if not properly stored and organized. Now, majority of data and information are stored into computers, in a common database system. It does not only save physical storage space, it has lead to a more effective transmission of information. Authorized users are able to access to these information more easily and with greater accuracy with real time information immediately captured into the system when entered. This is made possible with the implementation of ICT. Effectively, these improvements in the organization’s business processes will lead to better decision making.
In conclusion, the hotel operations, room reservations processes in particular, have been greatly improved with the implementation of ICT. Hotels are now able to carry these processes faster, more efficiently, more accurately and thus leading to the enhancement of the overall efficiency of the hotels.
