The Internet and the Web are being confirmed day by day as the most important tools for selling tourist facilities. The intensive development of the Internet and its general acceptance by citizens and the business world have enabled access to information to be expected immediately.
Intensive development of the Internet and the related technologies on the one hand and their general acceptance by the citizens and the business world on the other, enabled and “ordinary people” and the business world to expect access to everything and immediately.
In the hotel industry, the guest, in addition to asking to have as much information about the hotel on the Web in textual and visual form, also asks to immediately see if there are free rooms, how much it will cost to stay and, if satisfied, to immediately book a room and get a confirmation.
The trend of more and more inquiries and hotel reservations happening electronically (via the Internet) is not new. It is also not new that, thanks to the Internet, the share of allotments in relation to individual guests / reservations has been continuously declining in recent years, and that the share of women and the elderly population who make online reservations is growing.
On-line reservations through the hotelier’s website
What is new in recent research is that more and more “online” reservations do not come with GDS (Global Distribution Systems such as Galileo, Amadeus, Saber,…) and IDS (Internet Distribution Systems such as booking.com, HRS, expedia,…) system, but from the hotelier’s own website.
Research has shown that over 95% of people who make reservations online, in addition to finding and / or receiving basic information and prices through various GDS and IDS channels (or websites of travel agencies and tour operators), must go directly to the hotel and, if there is the possibility of online booking, make a reservation directly through the hotel website.
The conclusion would be to invest in your own website designed for women and the elderly, but necessarily with the possibility of your own online booking.
OrangeSmile Tours B.V. / IVRA Holding B.V.
Davor Brenko, dipl. ing
“Catering and tourism, 03 / 2010”