| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 22/05/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 18 |
| Copyright: Other |
Did you know?Internet facts and figures
n On-line advertising revenues are set to jump from £50m last year to £625m according to Fletcher Research and on-line advertisers are moving towards more creative advertising concepts to make better use of the Internet. Web advertising can be sold on a cost per thousand impressions basis or CPM (when a visitor views a Web page where an ad is displayed) or on click-throughs (when the user clicks on an ad and is redirected to the advertiser’s page). Banner Ads, which usually appear at the top of a page, are good at generating traffic, and account for around 54% of on-line advertising. Less obtrusive are sponsorships, where a company buys an ad that appears on a Web site with content that’s generally related to its own products. Keyword advertising involves paying a search engine, or directory to have your link appear first when a users searches on keywords. Interstitial advertisements appear in a separate browser window while you wait for a page to load, although users may find these obtrusive and may slow access.
This week: www.laterooms.com
Description
LateRooms.com, launched in November last year by start.co.uk plc, claims its database is used by over 1,500 hotels in the UK and currently has over 150,000 room rates available. It also claims that both leisure and business travellers can make savings of up to 80% on the normal rate and search for rooms up to three weeks in advance. Hotels that sign up pay the site a weekly fee to offer their room rates to users. The site is also developing a Global Cities section.
Home page
The home page presents the user with an abundance of information. Most prominently displayed is the Search UK form which allows you to get searching quickly.
A menu at the top provides useful information links to how to book; partners; add your hotel; about us; and contact us. The Global Cities section is featured to the right and typical LateRooms deals are shown lower down the page.
Yet more links further down the page can take the user to the owner’s other related sites – minibreaks.com and holidaydeals.
Ease of searching
Searching starts straight from the home page. To search for anywhere in the UK simply select a town or region – only one region can be selected but as these are categorised quite well it did not matter – plus the date, length of stay and the number of people in the room.
The search can be refined by either picking a hotel category from a comprehensive list – from Seaside Resort and Hidden Gem through to Child Friendly – or selecting a ‘deal’ – including Big Savers, New Entry, Best Deals or Budget Beds.
The results list is returned within seconds and displays in a clear and easy to read table the hotel name and location, grading, room size and the room price per night for the dates requested – LateRoom rates appear in orange type.
A details link at the end of each row provides further information on the requested hotel.
This gave concise information on the selected hotel, including facilities, strong points (but no weak points), directions, room type and rates but there was unfortunately no picture.
Ease of booking
If you are interested in the selected hotel, you are invited to click a button for the phone number and contact name and reminded to mention LateRooms when booking to qualify for the rate published on the site.
Booking on-line is not possible, as LateRooms explains, because all hotel reservations systems work differently, so you must ring the hotel direct and pay for your LateRoom by credit card over the phone.
Value of information
Information given on each hotel is good, however, a picture would be really nice to round the experience off.
Although its not possible to search for hotels with particular facilities the ability to search by a hotel type – such as seaside or leisure hotel – works well and gives the user a suitable selection of hotels, minimising the amount of wasted time.
Helpful and reassuring information is provided on how to book and the LateRooms organisation.
For hotels interested in using the site to generate further sales, a simple form can be submitted to LateRooms to obtain more business details
Site design
We found the site very user-friendly. No jargon was used – just everyday simple English – and the design incorporated some fun images which helps to add to the whole experience.
Navigation around the site was easy to follow and best of all we found searching for hotels very straightforward.
Nice features
Subscribe to the ‘deals by e-mail’ service where LateRooms will e-mail any suitable great deals, special rates or minibreak offers to you.
‘E-mail a friend’ recommending LateRooms and a voucher can be downloaded for a free round of golf or free leisure-club pass.
We were pleased to see that alternative hotel locations were given when our chosen search town had no hotel rooms.
Would you come back?
Yes – the site is so user-friendly and does seem to offer some good deals to the consumer and a solution to hotels wanting to fill empty beds.
Unfortunately booking on-line is not possible but the telephone number to call is always clearly given along with a contact name.