The Temple of Dagon

The sharing of hotel information between the hotels and the online travel agents makes this information readily available to the online consumer on the latter. These websites are a one-stop shop for these consumers as they can browse different hotels' room rates, facilities, amenities and services, compare prices and make their bookings at a single website, thus saving lots of time and effort. Hence, all parties stand to gain as the hotels gain publicity and bookings, the online travel agents receive commission payments for bookings done through their website, and the online consumer has a large database of hotel information at his fingertips. Even the smaller online travel websites are not left out as the availability of a single database of information means that all agents, large and small, are able to supply online consumers with such information and in turn, the power to make informed booking decisions. The ready availability of this information means that some online travel agents may liaise with the hotels to obtain special rates to compete amongst themselves for customers, which can only be good for the online consumer.