Online hotel booking websites are becoming a popular choice amoung travelers in the recent years. This blog will look into an effective e-business model such as transaction brokers and analyse its purpose, features, strengths and weaknesses and etc. Through this blog, we hope to share information to everybody and have a understanding of what a transaction broker is.
Nowadays, online hotel reservations websites are a common and preferred medium through which reservations are made, rather than through the phone because of its convenience and accessibility. Travelers are able to access the websites 24/7, make a hotel room booking within minutes, at their own convenience. Also, with the world-wide web, travelers can search from different transaction broker websites to compare hotel room prices, ratings of hotels, and patrons' feedbacks within clicks. So why use other mediums and go through the trouble when booking a hotel room can be simple with these websites. One such website is AsiaRooms.com.
AsiaRooms.com is a accommodation-only booking site, it is a subsidiary group of TUI Travel PLC Group of Companies, a publicly listed firm on the London Stock Exchange, it is one of the leading leisure travel group now since its establishment in 1994. AsiaRooms.com operates in approximately 180 countries with over 48000 employees worldwide and has a reach of more than 30 million customers in over 20 targeted markets.
AsiaRooms.com is basically a transaction broker and a transaction broker acts as a coordinator though not a representative to either the buyer or seller. It works like a consignment project whereby AsiaRooms.com earns commission out of every transaction. Convenience, information, great deals, all at one stop.
As the name would suggest, AsiaRooms.com specialises in getting You a room, a hotel room that is. With a extensive range to choose from, there are more than thousand of hotels listed on their site, ranging from all over Asia(ASIArooms.com), to all across the United Kingdom and Europe. With key agenda of offering convenience to customers to secure the best guaranteed deals at the best possible rates, to make travel arrangements for their clients easy and fuss-free.
AsiaRooms.com acts as a platform to the listed hotels whereby they update their own prices, availability and information for users. The site is simply a platform for both concerning buyers and sellers. AsiaRooms.com do provide its clients with a updated travel guides.
Mission, like mentioned earlier, is to offer a channel to facilitate clients in securing that hotel room anywhere anytime at the best rate possible.
So what compelling Features you'd get? You not only get to book hotel, it offers reviews for its users that serves as useful information for travelers, an added bonus for virgin travelers. We'd say its a comprehensive site with so much features and services available to choose from. From Reviews (AsiaRooms ratings), to travel guides, AsiaRooms even offers travel insurance. Now, you can even travel safe. It really helps abate the hassle of making trips to different agencies and calling up hotels, definitely (search)cost saving with just a few clicks! Unlike many others, AsiaRooms even has its own forum. Now users can even share useful information, travel perks and what nots in the community. Bringing about humility with such interaction.
The thing about AsiaRooms is that you can book your room as late to the date of your travel, well as long as there's room available. It works just like booking directly from the Hotel, you may cancel your room as long as it meets the Hotel's requirements, you pay at the Hotel, you get information of the Hotel, coupled with all other Hotel's. Seriously, a one stop shop.
Design of the site? We give two thumbs up.
(click for larger view)
Easy navigation that boosts 'user-friendlinest' with all the concise labeled Tabs at the top of the page. The Search Engine is also an available feature, at clear view when you enter the site. So if you have a hotel in mind you can just zoom in straight to look for it, rather than surfing around aimlessly like a lost sheep. Plus, they even sieve out Popular Destinations (at the bottom of page) so upon clicking, you get a list of the Hotels available from the location you picked. Fast and free!
(click for larger view)
What's even better after you pick a location and all the listed Hotels come up, you get all these peripheral information at the side bar. Like Things to Do, Sightseeing, Entertainment and the likes.
I think we share common views of what most would think, other than its easy navigation, clear layout, the colours are really easy on the eyes. You know how some sites have all the weird, striking mismatch colours that goes so wrong. Well we think this one is really cool, pleasant to the eyes. Black words, white background for easy reading.
On another note, if you're browsing through the hotels, you click one and into the Details, you get all these useful chunks of reviews, rates and information of the hotels. You can even check out the location of the hotel on map. Coupled with gallery images of the hotel and even a video tour to have an insight of what's being offered. It doesn't necessary lose out to the original.
(click for larger view)
Strength.
We think its biggest strength lies in its core mission. With best rates in town at one glance from anywhere to everywhere, seriously, it cannot get any better, in our humble opinion. It's not perfect definitely(nothing is!) but it's more than good. The Reviews and Community page is of the most useful we think. Ratings, reviews, travel tips etc are all provided by satisfied(or not) AsiaRooms' customers. These are all true-to-heart travel feedback offered by common people. This way, it's more credible than given by a professional outlet that may only be offering good reviews because of the money. Like we've said, Humility. Time is of the essence, with search costs discounted, it is even more appealing to the sonic paced. Especially if you're a 'kiasu' Singaporean.
In a nutshell, look at the Features, it already is a testament to why they are the No. 1 in Asia.
Else, the Design is another element that build up the company's strength. Look is of the essence(okay, we made this up), first impression counts right. No one would look back to a disorganised and difficult site isn't it. Remember the intricate details offered at upon selection of the hotel? Other than the chunky information provided that are pretty useful, we like the idea of the currency converter featured. It allows users from anywhere on this blue planet to have access to the site and even accommodate for the different currency used. So users will have a much easier time booking than trying to figure out how much it actually cost in a foreign currency.
Their customer service call centers are also available 24hours everyday. Anytime anywhere. Any questions can also be enquired to the hotel on our behalf. AsiaRooms also provides a feedback page to allow consumers to provide suggestions for further improvement on their part(http://www.asiarooms.com/suggestions).
Goodwill can be of the most valuable asset to a company and being around for 15years is no joke. AsiaRooms has definitely garner a substantiate customer base to have survived so long. With internet scams so rampant these days, such goodwill will help to add points to its reliability. Do not forget, it's after all a listed company in the London Stock Exchange, it wouldn't be that easy for them to run away.
Weaknesses. To be honest, it really is as good as it sounds, but we feel that there is no superlative edge. There are quite a number of such one stop all booking sites around and such features(reviews, hotel info, currency converter etc) are all just bare minimum requirements. Yes true, we mentioned that goodwill can be the most valuable edge to them, but given the time today, with influences from internet, anyone can easily grab information and spread information. It is also not difficult for anyone to start a same and new business like AsiaRooms. AsiaRooms will need to find an edge to identify themselves, cling to it and make sure it is not easily copied, in order to differentiate from the rest. (For example, HotelClub.com. They have a membership reward system; earning credits to be discounted on next visit. This system will help retain customers and build loyalty.)
Another issue is of security. Most people are still skeptical of making online transactions using credit cards, fearing of scams and frauds so unless they are 100% sure of the site, we believe they'd still go directly to the original hotel site. Consumers also have this lingering paranoia when it comes to such middle man site. Doubts like 'will my booking be really secured? is it reliable?'etc, never fails to raise eyebrows. Plus, it's just human nature to avoid the 'commission', so they'd rather google around for reviews and rates before deciding to go directly to the Hotel for booking, just for assurance sake.
Security & Privacy. Like we've said, many are still worried about internet transactions due to security issues. Personal Information that Asiarooms.com collects from their customers can only be obtained when given, and there wouldn't be any hidden spywares leeching on your computers for illegal purposes. All information obtained and processed are in compliance and accordance with applicable date protection legislation and in the case of AsiaRooms.com, it being based in the United Kingdom, it will comply with the legislation of the United Kingdom (European Directives 95/46 and 2002/58, Personal Data Protection Act 1998 ). AsiaRooms also hold full responsibility of the keepsake of any personal information. Information is securely encrypted and will only be pass to relevant travel suppliers and to any public authorities or credit card companies by law. Personal information are stored on their secure server, which cannot be accessed by external parties foreign to the company. They are being protected by the latest SSL (Secure Socket Layer) technology, which is independently certified by Global sign. Basically, its quite safe to travel with AsiaRooms.com, if you're still unsure, 15years of goodwill should suffice.
In essence, we think that such transaction broker sites are really beneficial for consumers, especially with the help of the internet. We are allowed to get an overview of what's available at the expense of our comfort zones at anytime of the day. Instead of searching aimlessly, it offers peripheral help after we're zoomed in on our holiday destination.
On the flip side, internet can be pragmatic but it has its problems too. For one, we cannot take for granted information readily available to us. We still got to conduct some minimal searches on the world wide web to sieve out any negative criticisms or feedback. Simply google it, its as quick as finding any websites. For instance, yahoo!answers. We googled and manage to get some really helpful answers - click here!
Anyhow, surf with caution.
credit: AsiaRooms.com, HotelClub.com, Answers.Yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment