hotel reservation service

Online hotel reservation is becoming a very popular method for booking hotel rooms. Travelers can book rooms from home, using online security to protect their privacy and financial information, and using several online travel agents to compare prices and facilities at different hotels.

Prior to the Internet, travelers could write or telephone the hotel directly, or use a travel agent to make a reservation. Nowadays, online travel agents will 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. Provides online booking service for hotels, resorts, and airfares. 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.

Hotels face several challenges in selling online directly to consumers. There are numerous electronic distribution "channels", and connecting to them, then managing the room inventory and rates to be offered online is essential.

Large hotel chains typically have direct connections to the airline global distribution systems (GDS) (Sabre, Gallileo, Amadeus and Worldspan) that in turn provides hotel information directly to the hundreds of thousands of travel agents that align themselves with one of these systems.