Online hotel reservations are becoming a very popular method for booking hotel rooms. Travelers can book rooms from home by using online security to protect their privacy and financial information and by using several online travel agents to compare prices and facilities at different hotels.
Prior to the Internet, travelers could write, telephone the hotel directly, or use a travel agent to make a reservation. Nowadays, online travel agents 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. 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.
DirectRooms is a is a B2C dealing in transaction brokering eCommerce.They are a discount travel company, with headquarters based in Phuket, Thailand which provides booking of over 9000 hotels in 63 countries.
DirectRooms operate both in a brick and mortar setup as well as in the cyberspace and is the trading name of Glad Enterprises Co. Ltd, incorporated in Thailand, January 2000. A separate UK office was established in 2003 to focus on European business development.
Purpose
DirectRooms understands the pain of travelers to look for a hotel in a foreign country. They are also aware of how competitive the online hotel reservation business is right now.
That is why they aim to serve travelers by providing them with the most affordable hotel rates, world-class customer service, informative, user-friendly website and simple booking.
This is made possible as they are a professional agency and by having high sales volume, they are able to negotiate good rates from any hotels. In addition to that, they are based in Thailand and are able to enjoy much lower overheads when compared to other worldwide destinations.
Design
This design of this site is found to be straightforward, user-friendly and very systematic.
The main page of the site consists of a Hotel Search function which allows travelers to search for hotels. Beside that, there’s a Top Destination section which shows popular destination. At the bottom part of the site, it classifies all the different countries into continents. These functions just show how systematic the site is.
DirectRooms listen carefully to their client’s feedback and conduct website usability tests to help ensure that their site is easy to use and provides a positive user experience
Strength
Information Hub
You do not have to be a paying consumer to enjoy the features on the site. DirectRooms offers other services like free downloadable maps and also travel guides which provide information on different countries. Information includes History, Festival & Events, Weather, Time, Currency etc.
Customer Driven
Ever have the problem of not being able to contact any customer service consultant due to time differences? Fret not! DirectRooms’ call center and office is staffed by experienced travel advisors and contactable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to provide the best levels of customer service and to deal with any potential problems or issues their clients may have.
Lowest Price Guarantee
All discounted rates booked through DirectRooms.com are guaranteed to be the lowest published rate. If there is a lower rate available for the same room, same dates and the same hotel, customers will be able to contact them within 72 hours of booking.
They will either refund the difference, try to better the price or give customers the option to cancel the reservations without any penalty. Their priority is to try and beat that price!
Charity Contributions
Travelling and doing charity at the same time? DirectRooms is sincere in helping the less fortunate.
5% of profits will be donated to charity. A staff team is set up, chaired by a director, to define suitable recipients, distribute, monitor and manage this.
A key principle is that their donations should be directed to the countries where they make profits, primarily to under privilege children to assist with education. DirectRooms philosophy is simply: ''to give some thing back''.
Accurate hotel information
DirectRooms review and check all their hotel information on a regular basis to ensure its accuracy and aim to present this in an unbiased, factual format. They also operate a restrict complaints review process, to ensure they list only the best hotels in each category.
Weaknesses
Compared to other Online Transaction Broker websites, DirectRooms does have some weaknesses. One of the features that they are lacking is a Review function. A site like asiarooms.com allows users to type their reviews on the hotel that they had stayed in.
In my opinion, I feel that this is a very good function as it allows users to have a second opinion on the hotel before they make a reservation for it.
The other feature is a 24/7 Live Chat Assistance. This service is provided by Hotels2Thailand.com. This is a very good service as your queries will be answered in real time, instead of waiting for your emails to be replied.
A single live chat service personnel will be able to handle multiple chat sessions.
Security
DirectRooms secure server software (SSL) is the industry standard and is among the best software available today for secure e-commerce transactions. It encrypts all of customer’s personal information, including credit card number, name, and address so that it cannot be read as the information travels over the Internet.
Privacy
DirectRooms understand and respect the importance of customer’s privacy. It is their policy that personal information, such as customer’s name, postal address, e-mail address or telephone number is private and confidential.
Accordingly, the personal information provided is accessible only by designated staff and is only used for the purpose such as to book a hotel room.
Personal information is not released to third parties, except if release is required by law, or is pertinent to judicial or governmental investigations or proceedings. There are no other circumstances under which they will provide or sell personal information to third parties.
