Objective
This research is carried out in conjunction with the recommendations of the UOL-ISORG study guide. This is a group research to investigate into the nature and operations of one e-commerce, transaction broker website. A transaction broker is an intermediary who acts as a middleman, merely providing the business link between a buyer and a host of sellers, and earning a commission for each successful transaction. Transaction broker do not own the end products or services transacted. They are NOT wholesaler or retailers (e.g. NTUC, Amazon.com, Vehicle Resellers).They earn a commission for each successful transaction that is made.
Introduction
What is E-commerce?
E-commerce is Electronic commerce, commonly known as (electronic marketing) e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. E-commerce is made popular by the widespread of the usage of internet or the worldwide web.
The use of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems.
E-commerce can be divided into few categories:
1) B2B (Business to business): describes commerce transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer.
2) B2C (Business to consumers): describes activities of businesses serving end consumers with products and/or services.
3) C2B (Consumer to business): an electronic commerce business model in which consumers (individuals) offer products and services to companies and the companies pay them. This business model is a complete reversal of traditional business model where companies offer goods and services to consumers
4) C2C (Consumers to consumers): electronic commerce involves the electronically-facilitated transactions between consumers through some third party. A common example is the online auction, in which a consumer posts an item for sale and other consumers bid to purchase it; the third party generally charges a flat fee or commission. The sites are only intermediaries, just there to match consumers. They do not have to check quality of the products being offered.
Background
Hotels.com is a leading provider of hotel accommodation worldwide, offering reservation services through its own network of localised websites and its telephone call centres.
Hotels.com gives travellers one of the widest selections of accommodation on the net, including both independent and major chain hotels as well as self-catering in over 100,000 properties worldwide. The company offers a one-stop shopping source for hotel pricing, amenities and availability and also specialises in providing travellers with accommodation during sold-out periods.
Hotels.com LP is an affiliate of Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE). CST: 2059975-40. Hotels.com LP headquarters are located at 10440 North Central Expressway,
Purpose of the website
Hotels.com is a one stop online hotel accommodation booking site which let travelers book and reserve their hotel stay. Its is a transaction broker using the business model of B2C.
Designs and Features
Hotels.com does not charge cancellation fees if you cancel any reservation, however the hotel may still charge a fee. Lowest price guaranteed, if there is a lower rate available for the same dates and the same hotel or self catering rental, the user is able to contact them within 24 hours of booking your prepaid hotel and self catering reservation and they will either refund them the difference or cancel the reservations without penalty. You are able to book the hotel stay through their 24 hour, toll free call number.
The user is able to select any of the global sites on the webpage such as http://singapore.hotels.com/. There is also an option for the user to toggle the type of currency being displayed. Users are able to sign up with the website to get emails from them regarding the latest offers
Hotels.com webpage design is simple (using simple layout and headings and colors) yet professional, allowing user to navigate easily on the webpage. Pictures of the hotels are easily available on the website to let the user have a feel of the hotel.
Payment is made through a secured site identified by Https links certified by Geotrust and most type of credit cards and debit cards are accepted such as Master card and VISA
Strengths
· Received SSL certificate frm Geotrust (http://www.geotrust.com/)
· Easy to navigate front page with functions to search for hotels and listings of travel deals
· Emails newsletters that provide the latest news and promotion
· Able to create account to bookmark hotels as 'favourites', allows the site to remember your previous searches and allows you to check your past and forthcoming hotel stays and track your payment history
· Build in currency converter
· A comprehensive frequent asks questions
· Pictures of the hotel and room are easily available and the location of the hotel are display on the map
Weakness
· Hotels.com lack of other services such as assist in helping users applying for visa, booking of air flights
· Hotels.com charge a fee to facilitate the booking of the hotels room
· Navigation links (such as Home) are at the bottom of the page making it inconvenient for users
Security
For hotels.com, they required to sign in for an account in order to do all hotels booking transactions. By signing up the account, hotels.com will have their customers’ particulars so as to easily track down any discrepancies that occurred. As a result, both parties will have the benefit of securitization on their acts.
Moreover, at the right bottom of the main page, it stated one of their promises to the consumers which is “SECURE ONLINE BOOKINGS by GeoTrust”. GeoTrust is the world's second largest digital certificate provider. More than 100,000 customers in over 150 countries trust GeoTrust to secure online transactions and conduct business over the Internet. Our range of digital certificate and trust products enable organizations of all sizes to maximize the security of their digital transactions cost-effectively. This will double assure that hotels.com is a secured website to perform monetary transactions and thus allow more customers to book hotels through transaction broker.
Privacy
There is an icon, “Privacy”, at the bottom of the main page. It has clearly stated their Privacy Policy and Statement. All the clauses that are written on the site is to allow customers to clearly understand the Privacy Act on the broker and to give assurance that their all private particulars will not be leaked out. However, the Privacy Statement is to protect the transaction brokers from any unnecessary or unforeseen circumstances that may separate the purpose of their Terms & Conditions. This is to prevent any delay in processing the transactions and to gain consumers’ trust as well.
Underlying problems in Hotels.com
Hotels.com may encounter unserious consumers who left a hotel booking and cancelling it without a second thought. This is due to the non-chargeable fee for cancellation of booking which may lead to much inefficiency.
Attractions from Hotels.com
- Hotels.com is not an agent, but they assist the buyer throughout a hotel booking transaction.
- It can assist the consumer in fulfilling their desired hotels according to their preference and they are given different kind of hotel group to choose from.
- They provide all the different hotel group’s promotions in their site. This allows easy comparing of prices for customers.
- They don’t charge cancellation fees which indeed give one of the main attractions for consumers to book from them without worrying to pay for any extra fees if they need to invalidate the transaction.
- They guaranteed the lowest price in booking hotels through them.
- Fuss-free and it is easy to reach them at their 24 hours hotline.
- Fast in receiving their great deals promotion or advertisement through emails.
- Hotels.com is a global site.
How Hotels.com maintain the Trust of its customers?
They show out their good testimonials from customers, applying for GeoTrust, having partners and affiliates with other big companies and most importantly giving the best customer service to their consumers.
