Technological Innovations in the Hospitality Industry

Technological innovation and recents business models have created a revolution in the tourism and hospitality industry. Such innovative examples include, mobile self-check-in phone-as-key-cards, mobile booking,  lobby media panels, electronic tags for luggage, boarding passes on smartphones, service optimization systems for hotels, device connectivity tools for guests, wearable devices for identifying guests, menus on tablets, etc (Balan & Lindsay,  2009).  These innovations can be frontline where customers have direct interaction with them or they may be invisible to the consumer which are also called backend innovations. Some hotels like the Sheraton use touchscreen devices that help create dinner reservations and other services, on their own mobile devices thus they experience a new way of exploring local attractions for tourists therefore enhancing their overall experience.

Wotif is Australia’s first online travel booking site that promises pocket friendly and efficient ways of travelling through the country. The Brisbane based company, which went into business during the “trainwreck” of 2000. It survived the crisis and expanded both nationally and internationally offering affordable accommodation to tourists and travellers all across Australia. It has recently started its “live” pricing feature which provides customers with rates of hotels three months prior to their needs. This has revolutionised the hotel booking market.

Product Background

The industry of tourism and hospitality is large and diversified and is comprised of a number of different sectors. They include tourism, travel, holiday theme parks and resorts, cookery and catering, hospitality exhibitions and events. The industry of hospitality and traveling  has seen a rapid growth in the past decade and this growth has remained continuous. This has created a continuous demand for skilled labour.  Most of this growth has been centred in the small to medium segments of the industry like cafes, takeaway food services and restaurants. The innovations that are developed in the hospitality and tourism generally follow  the trajectory of service innovations mode which is different from product innovations (Wilkin, 2012). These innovations have led to an increase in the efficiency of operations. As most of the recent innovations in this field have been technological different vrads have created innovative collaboration amongst themselves. These brands may paired in separate segments of the industry or may even belong to different industries but together they are responsible for huge developments in the hospitality industry. 

Product  Review

Wotif.com is a web based application providing reservation services and other travel arrangements in Australia and around the world. The company was developed by Graeme Wood on March 2000 in Brisbane, Australia. Since then it has built up offices in the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Malaysia and  Singapore. Graeme wood has mostly been associated with the IT industry and was involved in several there IT startup before Wotif (Lee, Bergin-Seers, Galloway & McMurray, 2008). His idea of real time online price management led to the company’s rise to success. The company listed itself on the stock exchange of Australia on 2nd June, 2006 but unlisted after being acquired by Expedia, Inc. Wotif was ranked as one of the most trafficked websites among 15000 others. The websites can provide  information for 3 months in advance. Details were provided for 7 days in advance at the beginning which was expanded to 14 and then to 28 days after getting enlisted on the ASX, it finally expanded to 3 months in the last year. This was an exclusive innovation as it introduced the management of online rates in real time (Wilson & Riley, 2012). The website was acquired by Travel.com.au, an australian website for travel for 57 million dollars (Anon, 2018). Expedia bought the website 657 million dollars on July 2014. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission approved his saleon october 2014.

Wotif: Australia’s First Online Travel Booking Site

Product Development

Last year Wotif expanded its pioneering idea of real time price management ad increased it to 3 months. This implied that customers could get the rates of accommodation 3 months in advance through “live” prices and immediate confirmation of booking. This has revolutionized the hospitality industry. This model of price management not only helps the customers but also the buyers. Thus it is a win win situation for both. The suppliers of accommodation can manage their inventory better. As the accommodation industry is a service oriented industry and the storage of inventory is not possible, if a hotel room or apartment does not become occupied their will be loss of income and it cannot be reoccupied (Daily, 2011). This is where Wotif’s new feature comes to play. It provides the supplier with options of renting rooms that are empty at a discount. This way the customer can also gain by accessing rooms that are competitively priced.  And to further benefit Wotif does not change the rates on advance bookings during the time of the arrival of the customer (Tan & Pearce,  2004). As the accommodation industry is a service oriented industry prices tend to change depending on the demand of the service but if customers books a room 3 months prior to their arrival Wotif guarantees that the rates wont change for them even if the rates increase in the future market. For his extensive management skills and innovative approach towards the industry as a whole Graeme Wood has received many accolades including “the Australian Institute of Management Medal for Management Innovation”, “ the Premier of Queensland’s SMART award” and “the 2005 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the Technology, Communications, E-Commerce and Life Sciences category”. 

Type of innovation

To categorise the real time price management into either radical or incremental innovation,both of these types need to be thoroughly understood. Incremental innovations can be categorised as an innovation of dominant nature. But radical innovation is a complex process. It is not a discrete event but rather involves lengthy, difficult and risky processes. New entrants in the market and small firms are important players in introducing radical innovations. The dissemination of radical innovations are mostly dependant on improvements that are incremental, refinement and modifications that increase productivity or product valuation, development of technology that is complementary, change in organisational behaviour and social learning (Pearce, 2011). The contributions made by incremental innovation that address social and economic challenges are extremely substantial and tend to be even more necessary in a developmental context.  

The Growth and Integration of the Hospitality Industry

The Online hotel booking applications were created to sell off the excess inventory that accumulated during slow business season. But this online reservation applications have in turn become one of the key factors in driving the hotel business awards. So much so that now these applications provide bookings for every other services along with hotel bookings that a traveller might require. Wotif is australia’s first online booking service that offers a variety of service and have customers ranging from business personnels to leisure tourists and with their latest innovation of three months advance ates and live price management their growth is expected to rise exponentially (Ballantyne, Hughes, Weiler, & Moscardo, 2008). Though the online reservation system as a whole can be considered as an incremental innovation the introduction of real-time rates and ‘live price management should be considered as a disruptive or radical one. We must view Wotif and its innovations as a case study and compare it them to its competitors in the market. In North America online hotel booking services like Priceline, Hotels.com and expedia operate on a merchant model where these providers buy rooms from the hotel at wholesale prices, increase them to a significant amount and then sell them to the customers. The operating model for Wotif is a commission based one (Rao, 2007). It does not carry or create a inventory but instead generates revenue by charging booking fees and 10% commissions on the bookings total value. In addition to this, with the introduction of  the three month prior booking service Wotf will earn a significant amount of income from the interest earned from the advance payments by the customers. This is a win win situations even if there is a late cancellation Wotif can refund the original sum but keep the hefty interest (Chua, 2012). This changes the whole scheme of things as Wotif now operates its own customer base but does not directly handle them i any way. Instead they collaborate with the suppliers and still remains relevant in the market. Thus it can be concluded that the real time pricing and live rates from 3 months in advance is a radical innovation that will change the whole model of how these online booking services function.

Assessment of the innovation

Given the uniqueness and simplicity of the business model used by Wotif and its simple idea of providing real time rates it is a wonder  how other brands have not caught up to it yet. It appears that Wotif’s business model concentrates on doing one thing really well (Swift & Nitins, 2011). The company approaches its service as a very low cost model. It tries to be effiecient with its service internally. It works on a very slim margin from the hotel owners. And once a company dominates a market the entry barrier for other brands become very high. The real time price offerings have done just this. No other online reservation has been able to provide this service and now even though the model is simple, Wotif has become associated with this service and general psychology dictates that customers will opt for a service that innovated a certain design than go for brands that are simply copying it (Wason, Sleeman, Moriarty & Simmons, 2007). But Wotif may loose this lead if simple flaws surface in terms of service. Simple faults like change in prices that are too extraordinary and lagging of the website will be risks that wotif needs to avoid. Though customers prefer the innovator they will not lose precious time behind a website that does not function properly. The services may change but the market sociology remains the same through and through, thus contributing to the success of Wotif. 

Real-Time Pricing and Live Rates Three Months in Advance: A Game-Changing Innovation

Even though Wotif is dominating the market in its segment and is running profitably the new feature that has been innovated can use a few improvements and a few recommendations are provided below.

Though the interface of Wotif is quite simple and user friendly and does not have many complications and the new mobile application can be used with ease an an AI powered chatbot can solve every other problems that may rise (Kim & Ha, 2006). Chatbots have become a very relevant aspect for a lot of companies and integration of his service will  help with by solving real time queries. Chatbots are the new buzz as they can automatically start a conversation without waiting for he customer to act on their problems. They boost service by letting the guests now that the company has a caring attitude towards them thus eating a sense of loyalty.

SEO or search engine optimization is another way to ensure an increased amount of traffic  the website. An effective SEO is important as it makes sure that the website is properly set up n order to be visible on the results pages of a search engine (Zumpe & Madlberger, 2007). SEOS help by increasing the rankings of the website on different search engines and ultimately aims at ranking higher up on the results page. 

A responsible website with proper CTA or Call To Action needs to be employed. A responsible website is necessary for proper connectivity an orientation so that the website can be accessed from a variety of devices without any kind of glitche. Since the new real time price system involves a lot of intricate and delicate information processing well programmed CTA’s to ensure a glitch free experience. As Wotif operates on a highly competitive market a lagged website will make customers look for other options thus creating losses.

Conclusion

Wotif is Australia’s first Online hotel and tourism service booking website that offers a variety of services to tourists visiting the country. It operates in a few major cities of the world and offers a variety of offers. Its new and updated feature of real time pricing that offers rate, 3 months prior to booking(Murray & Lewis, 2011). This real time management of rates has created new revolutions in the industry and optimised online bookings in a way that wasn’t conceived before. 

References

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