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M-commerce equals M-reservations!
Just as you were becoming
accustomed to E-commerce, advances in wireless
technology and the Internet are combining to drive a
new generation of electronic commerce called mobile
commerce, or if you prefer, ‘M-commerce’.
What’s the difference you ask? Well, where
E-commerce uses the Web on a computer screen to run
transactions, M-commerce uses much smaller screens
on mobile devices. Mobile Commerce connects business
and customers via the Internet through wireless
devices, cell phones, Palm Pilots, personal digital
assistants (PDA’s), handhelds and basically any
wireless device. Although applications for the
general consumer industry are showing slow growth,
the travel and hospitality industry in particular
are poised to take advantage of the growth in
M-commerce. What level of growth is expected? Well,
the Princeton, NJ-based Kelsey Group is predicting
1.4 billion wireless users by 2005. With those numbers it’s easy to understand the
potential impact of telephony automation and
Internet on the travel and hospitality industry.
Travel occupies the cutting edge in both spheres and
for simple reasons. A travel purchase is inherently
a remotely-made decision. Before you go on a trip,
you pick up the phone. You look at a map. As well, travel, by its nature, deals in
constantly changing, massive databases of train,
plane, and cruise schedules, fares and room
availability. In fact, across a wide area,
M-commerce will enable business travelers to better
access hotel information, find out where rooms are
available, check price and room details then make or
change reservations from their cell phone or PDA.
With the advent of M-commerce, hoteliers need to
realize that online access, i.e., a transactional
website, is no longer optional. An increasing number
of would-be travelers use the Internet to find, view,
evaluate, and book hotels and travel. They want to see
the spread of room prices, pictures of the rooms and
suites, current availability grid and make a
reservation online.
Yet even with the
internet, online access is not enough, as even though
many travelers have seen the range of services and
perhaps made their initial selections via web forms, a
large number of them want to follow through by
speaking with a live representative. If a hotel's web
page has a click-to-talk option or a fast-track 800
number plus real time reservations, the chances of
locking in traveler's business go way up.
The M-commerce
technology combining the old (telephone/fax) with the
new (Internet) is the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP),
an open, global standard for communication between a
mobile handset and Internet oriented applications
which allows users of Web-enabled phones, pagers and
PDA’s the ability to search for hotel information,
book hotel reservations and access guest loyalty
programs using their wireless devices.
Currently a number
of the largest hotel chains, have entered the
M-commerce arena with the launch of a wireless
capability, expanding on their company’s well
established Internet presences. Mobile reservations or
M-reservations will also become part of the travel
industries repertoire.
Yet, the technology
is so new, that apart from the larger players or more
technologically advanced hotels, few lodging companies
have anything up and running.
Considering that
the mobile handset is often the hub for working while
traveling and the WAP
technology simplifies much of the
administration around
reservations, the travel and hospitality
industry should begin thinking how these new
technology opportunities can further their E-commerce
and M-commerce goals.
In the meantime
hoteliers and other players in the travel industry
should be rethinking their current E-commerce efforts
and concentrate on converting more of those mouse
clicks into sales.
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