Definition of ICT
[i]ICT – Information and Communications Technology is often used as a synonym for Information Technology (IT) but is usually more a general term that stresses the role of communications (telephone lines and wireless signals) in modern information technology. ICT consists of all technical means used to handle information and aid communication, including computer and network hardware as well as necessary software. In other words, ICT consists of IT as well as telephony, broadcast media, and all types of audio and video processing and transmission.
In addition, the term ICT is now also used to refer to the merging of telephone networks with computer networks through a single cabling or link system. There are large economic incentives (huge cost savings due to elimination of the telephone network) to merge the telephone network with the computer network system. This in turn has spurred the growth of organizations with the term ICT in their names to indicate their specialization in the process of merging the two network systems.
Hotel Reservations in the Past
There are 2 ways of making a hotel reservation in the past.
1. Via Travel Agency Companies
As the conventional way of getting air tickets used to be through travel agencies, travel agencies have become the one stop station where you settle all your overseas needs from air tickets to accommodation and even insurance. However, with the wide exposure to ICT, it has already become a norm that consumers purchase their air tickets online directly to the airline companies rather than going through another medium in this case the travel agencies. Thus, it directs consumers to settle their accommodation needs via ICT.
Below are some few addition reasons why the trend of making hotel reservation through travel agencies have decreased
· With ICT, it reduces the hassle of going down to the travel agencies
· Information may be inaccurate via phone reservations with the travel agencies
· With longer booking process there is no immediate confirmation
· Travel agencies absorb unnecessary commission cost which could be saved and use it on other areas.
2. Making Reservation upon reaching their destination
Another mean of making hotel reservation as discussed among us was the last minute approach of going to any hotel that is available upon reaching their desired destination. The main distress caused on this approach is that there is no way of enquiring information of the hotel rooms’ availability prior to reaching their destination without ICT. In addition, with demand and supply, hotels will naturally hike their rates upon last minute bookings to absorb the maximum profit.
Thus, it has significantly shown how convenient our lives are with ICT.
Advantages of ICT
The main reason why consumers are switching to hotel reservations via ICT is basically because it saves their time and money. Reservations can now be done anywhere, anytime with just a click away. As supported from the work of [i]Manuel Castells where the new society has moved from “space of places” where places are important but with ICT, it has now become less important to “space of flows” where information flows widely all over with no barriers.
With ICT now, room reservation can be down via wifi or through internet connection. This makes it convenient for users where they can access the hotel’s information and make reservations at their own availability time period and thus need not keep within the operational hours of hotel travel agencies.
As mentioned above, since we are in a generation of “space of flows”, everything is happening in real time and there are no boundary barriers. For example, information may take days to be passed on from one destination to the other and the fact that with ICT now, the whole time span is greatly reduced. Hotel reservations can be made directly and in virtual stores, consumers may even get quick response in a matter if minutes.
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Agoda.com making use of google map |
There are some hotels however; mostly virtual stores that did not link their website with maps provided by search engines and thus looses it competitive advantage because consumers are deprived from knowing the exact location of the hotel and what is around the vicinity. In addition, map provided by the virtual store itself may not be drawn to scale and not up to date. Thus it is highly recommended that virtual stores where directions are of great importance consider investing in such services to gain that competitive advantage and raise their business standards.
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E.g. of map that is provided by the virtual store itself. With technologies, one can make Hotel cancellations at a later date without having to pay any sum of money. Agoda.com allows for free cancellation if it is made in less than 3 days before arrival or failure to arrive the hotel is subjected to one night charge. Other hotel accommodation website such as booking.com has no reservation fees and provides free cancelation of up to 2 days before arrival; and in the case of a no-show event, full reservation will be charged to credit account. This is because companies are able to simply update any changes hassle-free unlike the past where time costs etc are factors of considerations. With the wide functions of ICT, consumers can make their reservations online by just filling up the forms in the webpage and making payments via any means of online transaction and they are on their way to the confirmation of their rooms. Thus, companies now do not hold the liability of human errors while filling up information. With that, users are usually more cautious of their own information and thus less time required searching for mistakes. As the main goal of every firm is to maximize their profit; online transactions enables businesses to receive money at a much faster rate. In the past, payments are made via written cheque and it usually takes days for the payment to be through. In addition, there’s a probability where the cheque could bounce either due to insufficient funds in the bank or as mentioned earlier; human errors. Thus, with ICT, it solves the situation where businesses have insufficient funds flowing to keep the business running. In addition, any errors made online would be notified immediately. Other reasons are such as with ICT, transaction brokers like agoda.com and booking,com are able to provide its users a one stop solution or information feed. Agoda is able to help its potential consumers convert its hotel rates according to one’s choice of currency preference as well as languages. In addition agoda.com has provided an unbias reviews page where interested parties can read through the reviews commented by various guests who have previously stayed in the hotel. This allows potential and interested customers to have a better understanding of the hotel services etc compared to latter days where interested parties can only hear from the travel agency review about the hotel that might give a bias view statement.  Booking.com that shows its guest review page of a particular hotel Disadvantages of ICT At this moment, we feel that ICT is only considered user friendly and a better option for the more IT savvy generation. Without sufficient knowledge, users would not even know how to surf the internet and what’s more going through online transactions. In addition, the more conservatives would not trust that the transaction is through without any human to human communications. For example, the less developed countries and the older generation such as baby boomers may not have as much knowledge and money to invest in information technologies. With that, countries or cities where it is less developed are prone to making mistakes as there isn’t any environment to expose them to the beauty of ICT. One personal experience is via the online reservation with peacelagunaresort.com. Despite the fact that users are asked to include their salutation while filling up the form in their webpage, the staff still couldn’t get it right. For this, it clearly shows that the employees are unfamiliar with the hotel’s website and they are not aware of the purpose of having users to fill up their salutation in the forms online. First impression is always the most important factor for consumers. With the lack of proper training, there are a significant number of spelling errors while the staff is making a confirmation with the consumer via email. With that, it leaves a bad impression to the users prior to their arrival as they may feel that the hotel standard is still not up there yet. Thus, the hotel actually looses one competitive advantage and has to work harder on the arrival of their guest to gain their trust and loyalty.  Another disadvantage of ICT is that any enquires can only be made via email or dialing the hotel’s hotel. In this case, the chance of immediate response is slim as compared to going down personally to enquire. This of course only applies if the user is within the vicinity. Last but not least, companies who rely heavily on ICT to run its business may require high operational cost and high cost of security measures to safeguard against potential viruses, fraud and hackers. In addition, their system software has to be updated on a frequent basis to avoid unnecessary technological maintenance. In conclusion, no doubt ICT has indeed benefited us as consumers retrieving information and making room reservation etc much convenient for us. However to it downsides as mentioned above, we can see that with ICT it has transformed many organizations to emerge into becoming digital organization and tapping onto ICT to reach out to a wider and new spectrum of customers. |
