Hospitality and Tourism Hotel

Hospitality and Tourism Hotel

Hospitality and Tourism Hotel

Introduction

The rapid growth of the Internet has had a great impact on the hotel industry in recent years. A 51.6% increase in hotel room nights booked through travel websites in the third quarter of 2003 over the same period in the previous year has been reported, with total electronic room-night revenue for the period up 10.3%. The perishable nature of hotel rooms is prompting hoteliers to maximise their revenue by trying to achieve optimal prices with different online distribution channels in response to increasing demand from customers. Hoteliers, however, do not seem to know how to apply online pricing to achieve such a goal (Enz, 2003; O'Connor, 2002 and O'Connor, 2003. The increasing number of online distribution channels is making it difficult for hotels to control their inventory, even as customers consider that good deals or lower prices can be obtained from online distribution channels (Enz, 2003). Some online travel intermediaries even promote themselves as places that can deliver the best hotel room rates. Consumers are thus confused by the different types of online distribution channels for hotel rooms and the price-offering practices of these channels (Enz, 2003).

It is generally agreed that hotel customers need reliable distribution channels that offer attractive rates in a consistent way. Likewise, hotel managers need a clear understanding of the online pricing of their products and services.

Reservation system in TVU HOTEL

Perceived as a fast-growing business opportunity, the Internet has been viewed by many travel organizations as an innovative and competitive marketing tool in offering travel-related information and online transaction opportunities. Despite the growing online market, hotels are still searching for an efficient way to persuade travelers to reserve rooms directly on hotel -owned Web sites. In an effort to provide the industry with best online business strategies, scholars have been preoccupied with examining the way in which hotels understand online distribution strategies and develop reliable Internet strategies, while others have been concerned with understanding the role of the new intermediaries in the new hotel value chain(Law and Jogaratnam, 2005).

As a substantial portion of online room reservations continues to be accounted for by the third-party Web sites (Law and Cheung, 2006), hotels have been using a variety of tools to attract travelers to the hotel -owned Web sites. Some of these tools include lowest guaranteed rates, in which hotels claim that the lowest rates on the Internet are only available on their Web sites), direct connections with agencies and corporate clients, in which hotels try to convince corporate clients to visit the hotel -owned Web sites, and industry partnerships. However, all these strategies adopted by the hotel industry induced substantial modifications in companies' marketing mix, particularly in distribution (Law and Jogaratnam, 2005).

Hotels have been actively involved in multi-channel distribution in order to sell products and services more efficiently using a combination of traditional and electronic channels. Since all channels cannot be adopted simultaneously, it is important for organizations to rely on the channels that best match the ...