We all know Internet usage is on the increase. The term Web 2.0 has showcased how changed technology is helping the Web become more and more useful
We all look at various social-type websites (Facebook,etc) and the ability to create our own content (blogging, YouTube,etc) but I’m a big fan of sites that allow you get a task done easily and quickly in a much easier way than doing it “the old fashioned way”
A great example of this is the new look Travelodge website
We were planning on visiting some friends on the way back from our holiday and wanted to stop somewhere halfway between there and home to help break up the journey so decided to stop in Cambridge
First up was the “auto-complete” style search that is very common now but very useful in this situation
I just did a search on Cambridge and got this initial results screen
Lot’s of great information here. It shows me all the nearby hotels, how far away they are from my destination, it asks if i actually meant another location, allows me to compare different hotels and also plots them onto a map so i can check location vs price
I did a comparison first (the fonts look squashed because of my setup)
Once again lots of useful information including how many rooms are left, parking details and what other facilities are available
Then I switched to the map view and it allowed me to click on each location to get at that hotel information again
Once I’d chosen the hotel it was a few further clicks to enter my payment details and that was it. All booked in about ten minutes and the extra information provided by the site would have saved me money due to the details it gave about parking which may have been difficult to find out otherwise
Imagine if I’d needed to do that without using the Internet? How long would it have taken? Would I have got enough information to make sure I was happy with my decision to book?
Just as to show how difficult it might be it turned out i needed to cancel the reservations. If I’d had access to the Internet while i was away it would have been a two minute job to cancel once i’d logged into my account on the site
Since i didn’t have this luxury i had to make do with the phone.
I didn’t have a number for the hotel we were staying at (I didn’t think I’d need it and normally would have looked it up using my phone) so phoned a general customer services number i managed to find.
They couldn’t deal with the cancellation so gave me the number for the hotel itself.
I called them and i was told they couldn’t cancel as i’d need to speak to the reservation team so i was given another number. I called that and after using the automated phone system lottery i eventually managed to cancel the booking 40 minutes later!
While the site is exactly the next best thing it shows how web applications be created for a specific task
One of the other features on the site is called “Explore the UK”
This part of the site allows you search for things to do (family trips,etc), events (festivals and the like) or store locations of family and friends who you would like to go and see as well as a route planner. Obviously they show nearby hotels in the search results but it’s slightly different twist that impressed me
It’s the way the web should be!
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