ICT - ICT is an acronym that stands for "Information and Communication Technologies" and is used often in the context of "ICT roadmap" to indicate the path that an organization will take with their ICT needs. The terms ICT should be read as "Information Technology and Communication Technology" literally to clarify its meaning which refers to the merging (convergence) of telephone networks with computer networks through a single cabling or link system. The term ICT has grown in usage out of huge economic incentives (huge cost saving due by eliminating the telephone network) to merge the telephone network with the computer network system
Hotel Reservations in the Past
From a visitor’s perspective, hotel reservations in the past were more inconvenient as compared to today. For last minute reservations, visitors were more at risk of not securing an accommodation upon arriving. Calling the hotels for reservations can be tedious and unreliable as there is not much information pertaining to the hotels that visitors can acquire from a long list of hotel phone numbers. In addition, the telephone lines may not be working 24 hours a day.
From a hotel’s perspective, hotel reservations in the past were inefficient as most transactions were done manually on paper. This is very time consuming and hotels incur higher costs as they needed more employees to carry out data recording and data retrieving jobs. On top of that, if a reservation is cancelled, it is hard for the hotels to find a substitute guest to fill up the vacancy.
Hotel Reservations in the Present
The introduction of ICT has facilitated the speed and efficiency of information processing, storing, retrieving and distribution. This has helped to reduce costs of information handling. Besides that, hotels can also collaborate with online travel agencies (OTA) such as Expedia and Priceline. These OTAs assist the hotels by promoting their rooms especially during distressed periods or times when the hotels wished to occupy remaining rooms. Due to larger traffic visiting the OTAs, hotels also enjoy more publicity as compared to them just relying on their main websites.
From a visitor’s perspective, hotel reservations can be carried out in several ways. They include reservations made direct to the hotel’s main website, via OTAs as well as through aggregate sites which are search engines that work together with the OTAs. Examples of these aggregate sites are Kayak.com and Ixigo.com and they generate revenue through advertising and charging the OTAs. Visitors can use the aggregate sites to compare the prices of hotels offered by the different OTAs. On top of that, visitors can now make hotel reservations online regardless of where they are. The decisions made are more informed and reliable due to guest reviews and pictures available online. For example, some websites incorporate views of the facilities and amenities in and around the hotel. This allows the visitors to choose the hotel according to their budget, desires and preferred location. The reward points system available on certain online travel agencies websites allows users to enjoy discounts on their future reservations made through the same website. With ICT, cancellations can be done with the click of a mouse at anytime. For some websites, there might not even be a penalty such as asiarooms.com and ctrip.com. On the other hand, even with the convenience and benefits of the ICT, there are also some disadvantages to it. Photos on the websites might not be up to date while reviews may be subjective and varies from person to person which can be misleading to the visitors. Cancellation policies are not standardized hence this can lead to complications when a visitor chooses to do a cancellation. Faulty monetary transactions or even scams can occur when making payments online.
In conclusion, ICT has changed hotel room reservation services for the better.
