University of Phoenix Material

Hospitality Information Systems: Third Party Reservation Options

• Four Levels of E-Commerce Matrix
The hospitality industry depends very heavily on e-commerce transactions. These e-business transactions occur at four levels of interaction. In the matrix below, first provide a description of each e-commerce level. Then, provide examples of each of the e-commerce transactions. Finally, provide third party hotel reservation Web site transaction examples for each of the four e-business levels. Note each of these details within the Matrix below.

Four Levels of E-Commerce Matrix
| |Description of E-Commerce Level |Examples of E-Commerce Transactions |Third party Hotel Reservation Web Site |
| | | |Transaction Examples |
|(B-B) |Transactions involving business to |Online brokers of travel and lodging |Orbitz, Expedia, CheapFares.com, Hotels.com|
|Business to |business entities (Tesone, 2006) |arrangements (“clicks ‘n bricks”) | |
|Business | | | |
|(B-C) | | | |
|Business to | | | |
|Consumer | | | |
|(B-E) | | | |
|Business to | | | |
|Employees | | | |
|(C-C) | | | |
|Consumer to | | | |
|Consumer | | | |

How do products and services now differ between direct and third-party reservation systems Web sites? (For example, consumer feedback options such as “share your comments” or ratings, products purchased on the site, or (non-hotel) products available).

The evolution of third party reservation websites introduced a new paradigm to planning travel since its inception. The business model of easily going to a website, being able to comparison shop for the best deal, and book directly for a small fee is a direct challenge to bricks and mortar travel agents who have full access to a global distribution systems (GDS) like Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment (SABRE). It is not in the best interest of a direct reservation provider to offer other choices because they would lose business. Why would Marriott tell a potential customer they can get a better deal at Hyatt? A third party company like Orbitz is a provider who offer choices to consumers with no motive. Who they choose is irrelevant as long they book and pay through Orbitz so they will collect the fee.

At its inception third party websites were rather primitive to begin with. Although they offered comparison shopping, technology at the time was limited. Consequently they could only work with merchants who were proactive in updating their infrastructures to work this way. In the last decade the advancements in technology and the ability to link systems globally has now offered third parties endless opportunities to offer consumers choice in their travel desires.

The idea of interactivity has been another benefit from the technology revolution. The idea of consumers being able to speak directly to agents online, share comments through blogs and bulletin boards and being able to rate their experiences both good and bad has all added to the satisfaction of the travelling planning experience for consumers.

REFERENCES

http://www.sabre.com/

Tesone, D.V. (2006). Hospitality- Information Systems and E Commerce. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.