Online hotel reservations
Online hotel reservations are a popular method for booking hotel rooms. Travelers can book rooms on a computer by using online security to protect their privacy and financial information and by using several online travel agents to compare prices and facilities at different hotels.
Prior to the Internet, travelers could write, telephone the hotel directly, or use a travel agent to make a reservation. Nowadays, online travel agents have pictures of hotels and rooms, information on prices and deals, and even information on local resorts. Many also allow reviews of the traveler to be recorded with the online travel agent.
Online hotel reservations are also helpful for making last minute travel arrangements. Hotels may drop the price of a room if some rooms are still available. There are several websites that specialize in searches for deals on rooms.
Benefits of Booking Online Through Online Booking Hotel Sites
In recent times, the number of people embarking on vacations both local and foreign has increased dramatically. Experts are still pondering on the reason for this increasing trend. It is a healthy trend, no doubt, but they want to find out why it has happened so that they can sustain the tourist inflow. Several reasons are being forwarded, but one of the most substantial ones is, of course, the grand proliferation of the Internet in the tourism industry.
Before the Internet happened, it was very difficult to book reservations needed for vacations. Flight booking was simple one has just to go to the airport or to visit a travel agent’s office. But for hotel reservations, getting the booking completed through a travel agent was the only choice possible. Then, people would have to rely on the travel agent to provide the options for hotel accommodation in the foreign place. Through, the agent would only show the hotels on his or her list, making the selection completely restricted. To top it all, there would be the travel agent’s commission, which made the entire reservation much too valuable.
But now, wise vacationers are booking their reservations through the Internet. Apart from extreme convenience, they are able to make a much better selection and are also saving good money in the process. People planning to go on a trip would visit a site and see the hotel list there. Then they would make the selection from a list of hotels that have rooms on the date they want and, of course, in their chosen destination. Payment can be made online itself, and a confirmation email will be sent almost promptly. Booking online hotel reservations is as simple as that.
There are exactly many advantages of doing an online hotel reservation in this manner. Firstly, you won’t have to step out of the home at all. Second, you don’t have to rely on a few lists as the travel agents have. And finally, you save money. This is because there are usually offers you can avail of. Also, you must not forget that there are no agent’s commissions to be paid.
With all these conveniences and benefits, it is definitely no wonder that most vacationers are making online bookings. The simplicity of booking hotels within the budget is a prime cause why the tourism business has seen such a large boom in today’s times.
About Booking.com
Booking.com is an online accommodation booking website started as a small start-up in Enschede in 1996, based in Amsterdam, Netherlands and since 2005 owned and operated by United States based Priceline. Its operations and call-center is in Wyoming, USA.
Booking.com claims to have over 700,000 properties globally under contract and that it deals with more than 900,000 room nights reservations each day. In 2013, it accounted for more than two thirds of Priceline’s revenue. Booking.com is available in more than 41 languages.
In 2012, the United Kingdom’s Office of Fair Trading found that Booking.com may have been limiting price competition for short term accommodation by including unlawful restrictions in its agency contracts.
