| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 05/06/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 18 |
| Copyright: Other |
This week: www.holidayextras.co.uk
DescriptionABC Holiday Extras, established in 1983, offers a full range of UK airport-based holiday additions – airport hotels, car parks, lounges and transfers, plus foreign exchange and travel insurance – to the leisure market. The Web site currently offers on-line booking for airport hotels and parking for customers and travel agents. Information is only available on other products.
Home page
The home page is kept very simple, displaying just the ABC Holiday Extras logo and concisely explaining what the site offers. The trusty Which? Web Trader logo is also displayed together with a Travel Weekly Globe Award – a link from which provides a page of further information on the Which? association, the Globe Award and Institute of Travel and Tourism Seal of Approval. But to progress further into the site, there’s a choice of just two links – About Us and Search and Book.
Searching for hotels and parking
Taking the Search and Book link, the next page states that finding and booking a UK airport, car park or hotel has never been easier, together with a list of airports the company serves. We are also told that ABC can help with airport lounges, foreign exchange and travel insurance – selecting any of these options displays information about the relevant service butdoesn’t offer on-line searching or booking yet.
To progress with searching for an airport hotel or parking, there’s a choice of three options depending on whether you are the customer, a travel agent already using the Web site or a travel agent that needs to register – after quickly completing and submitting the registration form, the ABC agency sales team will confirm a password and send a starter pack. An existing travel agent simply enters a log-in code and password on the next page, together with the stay date and chosen airport. Hit the search button for hotels or parking and away it goes.
The following page confirms our selected date and airport and presents special offers available – hitting the continue button will check prices, availability and information. A very neatly displayed list of hotels or parking appears on the next page – these are all available for the date searched on. More detailed information on the hotel/car park, including a nice picture, can be found by clicking on the name or information symbol.
Booking hotels
To go ahead with booking a hotel, select the hotel package of your choice – accommodation only, up to eight days parking or up to 15 days parking. Once chosen, the next page asks for the desired number and type of room(s) and the customer’s name. Continue from here to produce a great booking confirmation form – detailing all the necessary information, including directions. Remember to print off a couple of copies, one for your customer and one for your records. Hit continue and the final booking screen offers thanks for the booking.
Bookingparking
Similarly, once the chosen parking location has been selected, click on the parking symbol to link to the next page where the return date, arrival time and the customer’s name needs to be entered. The booking confirmation form details all the necessary information for you and your customer and once again, the final booking screen offers thanks for the booking.
Ease of Use
Overall, the site was easy to navigate – particularly once you had used it a couple of times. Response times were reasonable and we liked the easy-to-read list displays.
However we found the instructions were at times unclear and also felt the site could benefit from some more design input – for example using Web buttons rather than ‘click here’ – making the site slicker.
Value ofinformation
The main focus of the site is on the airport hotels and parking services and the information given on these was superb – including a picture and an easy-to-read listing of facilities/features.
From the home page’s About Us link, we could take a look at the other Holiday Extras services – such as direct airport transfers, foreign exchange and airport lounges.
The site gives ample information on theseservices but they cannot be booked on-line yet – agents should continue to use Holiday Extras’ viewdata service for the time being.
Would you come back?
Yes. Although we’d like to see some design finessing to make the site more user friendly, the Web site’s on-line searching and booking capabilities are good and very available to travel agents.
n The growth of the Internet has given users access to a vast source of information that until now has been the prerogative of the intermediary. A popular buzz word describing this process is disintermediation, which is essentially defined as the removal of the middleman from theequation. The technical revolution is responsible for the change in the sales model from the traditional retail channel to a direct sales model built around low-cost communications and electronic distribution. As companies begin to sell their products and services directly to customers over the Internet, the role of the middleman is being challenged and all retailers understandably feel threatened by the prospect of the Web-based comparison for both shopping and direct sales. Travel agents will no longer necessarily have exclusive access to reservations systems as the Internet will empower consumers and provide them with access to the same information as the travel agent.
Did you know? Disintermediation