Online hotel reservations in the UAE is becoming an increasingly common practice. Over the past ten years, the share of online applications for accommodation from the total number of rooms reserved in the UAE has increased from 23% to 76%, while on average in the Gulf countries, the share of online requests to hotels remains today at 55.6%.
According to Frederic Morel, curator of the hotel business exhibition The Hotel Show, which will be held at the Dubai Exhibition and Congress Center on May 17-19, 2011, the situation on the online booking market has changed significantly in recent years. "Previously, hotels had to resort to the help of international hotel chains, which provided them with access to global distribution systems (GDS), such as Worldspan, Amadeus, Galileo and Saber. But now, thanks to the development and spread of Internet technologies in the UAE, local hotel brands get direct access to their target audience and can accept applications for reservations from clients in real time, "said Mr. Morel.
Modern Internet technologies give hotels the opportunity, without resorting to the services of an intermediary, to connect to GDS and online travel agencies such as Expedia and Booking.com, and to book rooms online through their own sites. Today, online application forms for accommodation even allow customers to choose a hotel room on their own, similar to choosing a specific place on the plane when booking a flight.
