Introduction
Wotif.com sells accommodation online in more 45 countries.
They offer great rates, broad accommodation range, easy-to-use site and 24/7 Customer Service Centre have made them the most popular way for business and leisure travellers in Australia and New Zealand to book accommodation online.
They offer great rates, broad accommodation range, easy-to-use site and 24/7 Customer Service Centre have made them the most popular way for business and leisure travellers in Australia and New Zealand to book accommodation online.
Every month their site attracts 3.4 million visits, with customers making over 205,000 bookings.
First started in Brisbane, Australia, they have now expanded offices in Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom, to support global demand. Wotif.com is listed on the Austrailian Exchange.
First started in Brisbane, Australia, they have now expanded offices in Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom, to support global demand. Wotif.com is listed on the Austrailian Exchange.
Purpose
Wotif is a online accomodation agency that provides bookings to international hotels around the world, offering an affordable rate to budget conscious travellers.
What differs them from other business of such nature is that they offer a 'live' view of available hotel allotments. This allows consumers to quickly compare and view the differences in rates across hotels.
Features
An extensive search engine linking to the major hotels and accomodation available worldwide, coupled with general and specific options and categories to help fulfill travellers requirements.
With on-going promotions in line with the hotels available, Wotif also offers specialized discounts when booking through them.
Able to subscribe to wotif's newsletters for the latest promotions and discounts available on-site.
Design
Simple and easy to navigate website which allows travellers make their bookings easily hassle free.
Traveller can search their preferred destination by various ways. The list is sorted by popular searches, alphabetical order, popular destinations.
The "contact us" option is where travellers can refer to if they have any queries or they have any problems that may arise.
Strengths
Wotif has been a strong establishment in its market. Hence, they are very informative and updated on the hotel's concurrently allotment. This allows for efficient and accurate bookings.
Also because of their establishment, they have access to most recognised international accomodations. This allows travellers to readily compare and plan for their holidays to their budgets or travel time.
Being an intermediate agent, one would think that the rates will be more pricey due to agent fees. However, upon comparing with official published rates of each hotels, most rates through wotif are more likely to offer a better deal. Due also to their 'live' updates on hotel demands, it is especially so when hotel demands are low and Wotif is able to sell last minute accomodations for fire-sale prices.
Wotif also has excellent service support. Most agents stop at enquires with the online transactions but Wotif provides extra assurance through their 24 hour service lines.
Weakness
It will be more difficult to be able to get help on countries where they have no establishments on them.
Payment is by way of credit cards (currently only MASTER CARD and VISA credit cards). Hence some customers may not prefer their credit card details to be given over the internet due to security issues and may not use such a service. In addition, the younger audiences are also deprived of such payment methods and hence unable to use the service
Wotif website is based in English only. This may thus allow only customers who are English literate to use the website. The minority who are english illiterate would not have the privilige of using the website.
Cancellation charge that varies in different countries. Thus it may seem unfair to some other countries where they may face a higher charge in terms of currency wise.
