Stowe, Vermont (November 25, 1997) - Digital Frontier today announced the launch of ", a Worldwide Web reservation and transaction processing service for the travel and tourism industry.
Hotels and other property management companies worldwide can now offer secure, online reservation services through their Internet Web Sites by linking their Web Site to onlinereservations.com, which is a commission-based booking service. Hotels receive a graphic icon and hyperlink to place on their Web Site, and any other Web Site, which will take visitors directly to the onlinereservations.com network.
Hotel participants receive password-restricted access to the onlinereservations.com room inventory system, which they access using Web browser software. The room inventory system allows the hotel to set aside, or "block", some or all of their available rooms for the onlinereservations.com network. Hotels can define and then modify an unlimited number of room types, rates, minimum stay requirements, extra person charges, multi-day discounts, a room inventory release date, tax or service surcharges, available inventory and other parameters. They can also define other products to offer for sale through the onlinereservations.com network, such as travel, dining, attractions or activities packages.
When visitors to a hotel's Web Site want to check room availability or make a reservation, they follow the link from the hotel's Site to onlinereservations.com. They then use onlinereservations.com to submit their arrival date, departure date, desired room type and other information about their travel or vacation plans.
Onlinereservations.com checks that hotel's availability as "blocked" by the hotel, and creates an invoice and credit card entry form for the customer to complete, which is processed using a secure Web server. Onlinereservations.com validates the credit card, decrements the hotel's room inventory to avoid double bookings, and sends instant email and fax notification and confirmation of the transaction to both the customer and the hotel.
The onlinereservations.com service can also act as a central reservations service by incorporating "global searching" of availability. For example, visitors to an association or Chamber of Commerce site can enter an arrival date and a departure date and quickly locate all availability in the region and book their stay at their preferred property online immediately. Central reservations offices can utilize the service in a similar manner.
"The Web and the travel and tourism industry are perfect matches," explained Karl Schroll, president of Digital Frontier, "and many hotels have discovered that a well-designed Web Site fills beds. However, there can still be a lot of work involved to close a sale, with multiple e-mails and phone calls still the norm. With the launch of onlinereservations.com, we are offering hotels and other destination resort businesses the next logical step by actually processing the transactions for them -- which will save them time -- while giving them complete control over their inventory through a simple interface."
Hotels and other property rental companies can register their Web Sites with the onlinereservations.com network by visiting the service's Web Site, located at www.onlinereservations.com.
About Digital Frontier
Digital Frontier, located in Stowe, Vermont, USA, is a unit of Schroll Media Services Inc., a privately held company established in 1994. Digital Frontier specializes in Internet software development for the travel and tourism industry, with clients throughout the United States.
Additional information about Digital Frontier can be found by calling 1-802-253-8612, by visiting the company's Web site at or by emailing [email protected].