At greatvenue we've been looking into how people with disability and the wider public enjoy and book their holidays. As accessible travel is an important part of getting australia up to a more inclusive standard. So what has been affecting tourism recently: online booking!

Research has shown that roughly four out of five people now make the internet their first port of call when researching businesses. This has a huge knock-on effect for businesses, such as the hotel industry in Canberra, as it suggests there is a growing need to innovate in order to make sure a hotel’s message gets across to its target market.

One impact of this has been the recent rapid growth of online booking sites, which many people now use not only to research hotels they want to stay in, but also book their stay before they travel. So what does this mean for hotels? How has it impacted Canberra’s hotel industry?

A representative from the local hotel industry suggests that around 75% of their activities are now moving online, further highlighting the growing demand for online services as more and more people gain access to the internet and it becomes an everyday part of their lives. It also suggests that hotels that don’t make use of popular online booking sites will be losing out when it comes to acquiring business.

This is confirmed by Emil Kovacic, General Manager for Hotel Realm, who says that in relation to his hotel, ‘you can’t open a hotel of this size and ignore the internet booking companies’ In other words, if you want to play with the big boys, you need to take note of the shift online. Kovacic also says that ‘they [the booking sites] changed the way people look at booking their hotel rooms.’ Interestingly, he also says that while in his experience many people use these sites to research the hotels that are available in Canberra, they then visit the hotel website direct to make their booking, often in the hope of being offered a better deal than the one displayed on the booking site.

This highlights two things. Firstly, hotels in Canberra definitely shouldn’t ignore online booking sites. When so many people are using them to compare the best deals and find out about the hotels in the area, it would be foolish to miss out on that potential business. Secondly, it also suggests that while booking sites are hugely important and are definitely a game-changer, hotel websites are still as important as ever.

A hotel with a good, high quality website full of relevant information about amenities and deals can be reassuring to potential customers. As many people still book their room through the hotel website direct, it also suggests that the ecommerce side of Canberra hotel websites needs to be better than ever, too, in order to compete with both the booking sites and other hotel sites.

Undoubtedly, this raises challenges for hotels in Canberra, but arguably it also poses opportunities. Online booking sites may have revolutionised how people find hotel rooms, but it is still essential to have top quality hotels to back up good online deals. Kovacic leaves us with a final thought on booking sites: ’10 years ago they didn’t exist. Now they’re invaluable.’

It will be interesting to see what the next 10 years will bring.