Objective of this Mini Research:
The objective of this project is to investigate on the nature of E-Commerce and understanding on the concept of its operations as a transaction broker. By definition, E-commerce is the purchasing, selling, and exchanging of goods and services over computer networks (such as the Internet) through which transactions or terms of sale are performed electronically. The different types of E commerce are Business-to-Business (B2B), Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C).
Whereas transaction broker is defined as a single entity that basically mediates between a buyer and seller, and earns a commission for every completed transaction. In this report, we will be analyzing on a transaction broker model which is for our project, www.all-hotels.com , we will be touching on its background; strength; weakness and to conclude.
About all-hotels.com:
Based in Edinburgh in Scotland, All-Hotels Ltd aims to be the leading European-based company providing Internet-based hotel room bookings.
In September 2002 All-Hotels was aquired by
All-Hotels regards the security and privacy of the customers’ information as an important component of the service, they are protected by the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology which encrypts the information customer input before it is sent to the server.
Has its own Privacy Statement page where it clearly states what kind of information it gathers from the customers, what it does with these information and with whom they share this info with.
All-Hotels uses a secure page for customers to enter their credit card information. A padlock icon in the bottom right hand corner of the screen can be seen on all their security pages.
Design :
As for the design layout, Users may find All-Hotels Ltd rather complicated with lots of information being scattered around the whole web page. Especially for the first time users, they might feel lost at the first sight of it. Furthermore, the colour theme being used for the overall website looks rather dull and boring for people who are planning for a leisure trip overseas.
Conclusion:
All-Hotels Ltd is an “agent” which brings hotels together with online customers. It does not own the hotels or is in any ways associated with the hotel except by helping make room reservations. Anything positive or negative which affects the hotels will have no impact on All-Hotels Ltd.
It is a user-friendly website with its simple design and easy-to-understand procedures. Also, it has a FAQ page which helps answers most problems faced by new users. Not only does All-Hotels reach out to online customers, they also reach out to hoteliers who wish to list their hotels with them. However, the website only provides limited details about the hotels listed. If an online customer needs to know more information about a hotel he/she is not familiar with, he/she will not be able to gather much from just the All-Hotels website alone. Therefore, All-Hotels is best suited for those who know which hotels they are looking for and to check the rates the website has to offer.
The objective of this project is to investigate on the nature of E-Commerce and understanding on the concept of its operations as a transaction broker. By definition, E-commerce is the purchasing, selling, and exchanging of goods and services over computer networks (such as the Internet) through which transactions or terms of sale are performed electronically. The different types of E commerce are Business-to-Business (B2B), Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C).
Whereas transaction broker is defined as a single entity that basically mediates between a buyer and seller, and earns a commission for every completed transaction. In this report, we will be analyzing on a transaction broker model which is for our project, www.all-hotels.com , we will be touching on its background; strength; weakness and to conclude.
About all-hotels.com:
Based in Edinburgh in Scotland, All-Hotels Ltd aims to be the leading European-based company providing Internet-based hotel room bookings.
In September 2002 All-Hotels was aquired by
Online Travel Corporation, a leading UK internet based Travel Company founded in January 1998. OTC was later acquired by Lastminute in April 2004. In July 2005 Lastminute merged with Travelocity , part of the Sabre Holdings group.
All-Hotels currently provide Internet-based solutions for the online travel customer through its all-hotels.com website. The site is linked to thousands of worldwide and currently receives over 700,000 visitors per month. The distribution of the hotels is not only through all-hotels.com, but also through sites owned or operated by OTC and Lastminute.
Strengths:
·It offers 140,000 hotels in 13,500 locations worldwide and is one of the largest online hotel reservation companies.
·Wide varieties of choices, taking Singapore for example, they offer 2 stars hotels like fragrance hotel to 5 stars hotel of Mandarin Marina.
·Quite a detailed information about various hotels and also states places of interest that are near to the hotels.
·Convert to the local currency itself once you click on the country which the hotel is in.
·Gives customers the option to convert the hotel rates to a currency of their choosing.
·The search bar for the hotels is simple and easy to understand.
·The clientele of All-Hotels are not only online customers but also hotels which want to list their hotel chains on the website.
·In the case where customers are unhappy with the hotel accommodation, they should bring up the issue with the hotel itself. And if the problem still persists after that, customers can write their comments to All-Hotels’ customer care team who will in turn forward it to the hotel.
Weaknesses:
All-Hotels currently provide Internet-based solutions for the online travel customer through its all-hotels.com website. The site is linked to thousands of worldwide and currently receives over 700,000 visitors per month. The distribution of the hotels is not only through all-hotels.com, but also through sites owned or operated by OTC and Lastminute.
Strengths:
·It offers 140,000 hotels in 13,500 locations worldwide and is one of the largest online hotel reservation companies.
·Wide varieties of choices, taking Singapore for example, they offer 2 stars hotels like fragrance hotel to 5 stars hotel of Mandarin Marina.
·Quite a detailed information about various hotels and also states places of interest that are near to the hotels.
·Convert to the local currency itself once you click on the country which the hotel is in.
·Gives customers the option to convert the hotel rates to a currency of their choosing.
·The search bar for the hotels is simple and easy to understand.
·The clientele of All-Hotels are not only online customers but also hotels which want to list their hotel chains on the website.
·In the case where customers are unhappy with the hotel accommodation, they should bring up the issue with the hotel itself. And if the problem still persists after that, customers can write their comments to All-Hotels’ customer care team who will in turn forward it to the hotel.
Weaknesses:
·Not being able to choose 2 hotels at one time and compare the prices.
·Because the website gathers hotel information from 3rd party suppliers and not directly from the hotel itself, the information about the hotel may not be up to date if the 3rd party suppliers are not updated regularly.
·For some hotels, pictures of the hotel and rooms are not provided. Therefore, online customers are not able to view how the place looks like before making their decision.
·The website does not have links that brings customers to the hotel’s official website. Hence, if customers need more information about the hotel, they would have to find out more on their own.
.The overall outlook of the website looks complicated and dull.
Security:
·Because the website gathers hotel information from 3rd party suppliers and not directly from the hotel itself, the information about the hotel may not be up to date if the 3rd party suppliers are not updated regularly.
·For some hotels, pictures of the hotel and rooms are not provided. Therefore, online customers are not able to view how the place looks like before making their decision.
·The website does not have links that brings customers to the hotel’s official website. Hence, if customers need more information about the hotel, they would have to find out more on their own.
.The overall outlook of the website looks complicated and dull.
Security:
All-Hotels regards the security and privacy of the customers’ information as an important component of the service, they are protected by the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology which encrypts the information customer input before it is sent to the server.
Has its own Privacy Statement page where it clearly states what kind of information it gathers from the customers, what it does with these information and with whom they share this info with.
All-Hotels uses a secure page for customers to enter their credit card information. A padlock icon in the bottom right hand corner of the screen can be seen on all their security pages.
Design :
As for the design layout, Users may find All-Hotels Ltd rather complicated with lots of information being scattered around the whole web page. Especially for the first time users, they might feel lost at the first sight of it. Furthermore, the colour theme being used for the overall website looks rather dull and boring for people who are planning for a leisure trip overseas.
Unlike other competitors from the same industry, Asiarooms.com for instance, they chose a rather bright and cheerful colour for their webpage. Not only that, their web layout is simple. It is easy to navigate with and definitely more user friendly than All-Hotels Ltd.
Conclusion:
All-Hotels Ltd is an “agent” which brings hotels together with online customers. It does not own the hotels or is in any ways associated with the hotel except by helping make room reservations. Anything positive or negative which affects the hotels will have no impact on All-Hotels Ltd.
It is a user-friendly website with its simple design and easy-to-understand procedures. Also, it has a FAQ page which helps answers most problems faced by new users. Not only does All-Hotels reach out to online customers, they also reach out to hoteliers who wish to list their hotels with them. However, the website only provides limited details about the hotels listed. If an online customer needs to know more information about a hotel he/she is not familiar with, he/she will not be able to gather much from just the All-Hotels website alone. Therefore, All-Hotels is best suited for those who know which hotels they are looking for and to check the rates the website has to offer.
