Introduction
The sites for online travelling act as a greater way of booking for trips in exploring mysteries of life (Cornelius). That is they provide everything that is required in flight sectors and lodging ticketing to attraction sites, coupons for meal times with inclusive packages at competitive prices. The travelling agencies are important nowadays since they have limited the number of hours spent in searching for travelling agencies in pamphlets and on mobile phones with different hotels just to find that the best offers are no longer available for booking. Otherwise, one should just punch in their approximate travelling dates with their desired destinations, and the rest of the work will be done for you by the travelling and booking websites at no cost. This paper will analyze various types of travelling agencies such as Expedia, Orbitz, and Priceline in conjunction to their pros and cons.
Expedia
This website provides the most comprehensive services, and it makes it easy to search the site for any planned trips of choice (Cornelius). Similarly, it is an excellent and resourceful site for bargaining at last minute with deeper discounts that includes hotel packaging and rental of cars. Once the client has created an account with Expedia Inc., they can get mobile alerts concerning the pricing updates on their desired routes. After which, they can make a review on their booked routes at any time. Consequently, they will be assisted on a frequent basis regardless of how often they travel. It also has an additional unique feature called Expedia (plus) that provide special offers that reward the customers based on the number of times they book using Expedia.
Orbitz
This company was founded in 1999 by six key airline companies (Cornelius). Therefore, it is one of the oldest and leading online booking and travel companies. However, its operations are more or less the same to Expedia. In this company, guests and travelers are capable of booking the hotels and flights inclusive of other services. Similar, it has a website with overwhelming options and ads.
Priceline
It permits customers in bidding the rooms of the hotel particularly by making a choice in the general area of the destination of the city at ranging prices and star ratings. These criteria are then filtered by the Priceline website as it makes an offer to the customers. Similarly, the site hides the identity of the hotel until the reserved rooms are paid. Consequently, the hotel guests or travelers will remain committed to the deal. Therefore, they will not be interested in cancelling their tickets since there is no an exception to the arrangements. The company has about 40% pricing strategy that is lower than those from the competitors. Similarly, the company also have a price guarantee aimed at refunding customers if they experience better price somewhere within one day after booking.
Brand hotel.com
The brand hotel has loyalty programs that help them in steering travelers to make a direct booking with the hotels.
It provides for many rewards to the clients such as free meals, facility upgrades, and lounges with caretakers.
However, some chains of brand hotels are trying to compete with the OTAs. For instance, Hilton hotel has provided for arrangement of some rooms that should be booked directly via traveling sites such as Booking.com where booking will receive a commission that is half that could have been charged by Expedia.
Comparison with (Hilton Hotel)
Hilton offers several services such as digital check-in for their guests who are booking for the rooms directly and this assists in eliminating the waiting lines. The app has been adopted quickly by its clients. In comparison, Expedia has mobile app alerts for price updates on the desired hotels. Consequently, Hilton has over one million users per month.
The hotel provides an option for direct booking where the guests have the option to select specific rooms. This feature is similar to the website of Orbitz where customers can see every room and click any room that they want.
This brand hotel has adopted the use of direct booking, but the business is coming with substantial commission costs.
As the Online Traveling Agencies such as Priceline, Orbitz, Expedia, and Booking.com offer better commissions to lure customers, likewise to Hilton hotel who provide free meals, Wi-Fi, and digital check-in to attract travelers to choose their rooms directly.
Pictures
The Brand hotels have taken good pictures and some videos of their properties since it is essential to invest appropriately in the website of the OTAs. Additionally, the Brand hotel has taken many photos to create more bookings and to capture high ADR. Consequently, there has been doubling of pictures for the hotel resulting in a take-up of 4.5% of ADR. Similarly, the provision of a full description of the properties led to a take of 5%. Through the website of Priceline, the pictures displayed shows that Brand hotel provides gym facilities conference rooms and center for business to their clients.
Easy booking
Orbitz will allow a customer to click simply through to the company and book.
All OTAs have easy cancellation policies especially on the last minute deals through mobile Apps. Therefore, the hoteliers should be aware of the booking pickups in that if the rooms are almost empty, take a chance for cancellation. This system is flexible, and it is one of the major issues that guests should look for, and since there are non-refundable programs concerning the rates, it is a bad idea.
Online websites such as Booking.com are capable of capturing the last minute clients. Therefore, they should continue to participate in such deals but should ensure that there are no cheaper rates under any circumstance than what is offered on the mobile platforms.
The entering of the details of the credit cards and going through the authentication as the second factor is considered as a big hassle on mobile. Therefore, customers should be encouraged to book by permitting them to make payment at the hotel while making reconfirmation to reach customers on their phones for early arrival and to prevent no shows.
Target market
Booking
Target market- 49.96 million of people
Achieved – 40 million
It is prominent all over the world
Commission – starts at 15% for each booking made. However, the commission increases according to management decisions.
Orbitz
Targets 20 million users
It has achieved 11 million users
It is prominent around the globe
Commission offered is at 10% and above
It has parity agreement in several nations
Priceline
Target users – 30 million
Users achieved- 20 million
It is a prominent world website
It has a sliding commission scale
Restriction- has parity agreements in many countries
Expedia
Targets 30 million users
Has acquired 20 million users
It is prominent all over the world
Increases commission with some packages
Operating worldwide
Rate parity
All OTAs are not created equally. That is all of them have different structures of commission depending on the type of property, size, connectivity, and the desire for visibility.
Recommendation
Expedia indicates the total rooms that are available for price points. Similarly, it has a big inventory of the hotels than other tour providers. The programs such as Expedia plus enables its clients to get points specifically on travel bookings. Expedia has good customer services that help in chatting and call backs. Lastly, the star rating of Expedia provides checking of customer bags with integrated search result fees. It has limited options for advanced searching with inflexible options for booking ant travelling dates. This online booking company may sometimes be overwhelming. However, it is not easy to during navigation as other competitors like Priceline. Lastly, a customer can only do one search at a time during hotel or flight booking.
Orbitz is the most trusted site since it is recognized by several users in the travelling and booking industry. Similarly, this site does not charge any fee for changing the reservation of hotels. It has a price assurance guarantee that refunds its users especially when one room or flight is booked twice by the different client at a reduced cost. Tickets can be changed directly after contacting the hotel management via the Orbitz. The website has limited support from the customers, and it has a heavy design for the ads that is cluttered.
Priceline has a fantastic app that provides booking through the mobile phone. It also has approachable customer services such as live chats, and this provides quick solutions to urgent questions. The bidding features of this site exert control on customers to stay within their set budget. Lastly, it provide rates in almost ten thousand hotels globally and guarantee up to 200% of refund programs. The transaction is sometimes complex thus consuming a lot of time. Moreover, the site has several restrictions especially on the royalty programs of the hotel.
Regarding rate parity, Orbitz and Priceline offer the best discount rates for hotels than Expedia and Booking. Therefore, all travel companies that are competing with Orbitz should secure servers for credit card securities. Consequently, hotels that do not offer immediate confirmation will be displayed before the hotels that need confirmation through requests of emails. However, Booking has the capability to capture the records of last minute bookings by clients. Consequently, its participation in such operations should limit cheaper rates at any given circumstance.
Bibliography
Cornelius, Sadie. "Time to Get Out Of Town! The Best Travel Websites". Exploring Life’s Mysteries. N.p., 2012. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.
