Third Party Reservation Options

This paper will research and compare the third party reservation and the direct reservation system. Third party reservation allows a business to subscribe or contract with other websites to help promote their business. Team A will research why third party reservation, and direct reservation systems are important to the consumer and businesses. This research will determine which type of transaction helps the consumer save money, and contribute to the profits of a organization. The research will also determine the competitiveness of each site.

When comparing direct and third party reservation systems it became apparent how different they were from each other. When comparing the Hilton Hotel reservation system to the Priceline.com website several differences stood out. The first thing noticeable is that the Hilton website did not give customers the opportunity to review or rate the hotel and their stay. Priceline.com had a system that allows comments as well as a rating system for its customers. Priceline.com also offers the ability to break down its searches by star rating giving customers higher end options only and lower end options. All of this can be vital to consumers today as they look to the Internet to make decisions and value what others in their demographic say about companies. Although Priceline.com does tell the consumer what kind of traveler wrote the review (business, solo, or a couple) it does not say how old or whether the customer is male or female. One thing that the Hilton does very well is describe their property and telling customers about their amenities. Also when comparing rooms in big cities like Chicago and New York the Hilton website gives information about parking in the hotel; this is a big deal because it is an extra cost that customers should know about and that Priceline.com does not provide. One thing that both websites give is options on the type of rooms customers can stay in; they range from king size bedrooms to double beds. However, the Hilton website gives customers better options in that it offers breakfast in bed options and romance packages. Finally on option on the Hilton site was that of requesting special items like rollaway beds or extra items.