Known across more than 130 countries and through a network of 8,000 local professionals for its greater choice, tremendous travel content and cost savings to travellers, travel professionals and travel suppliers every day, it offers a wide range of business and consumer services, from distribution technology and travel packaging to retail sales and solutions. This world-known recognition has definitely played an important part in instilling trust in its steady flow of clientèle.
- SITE DETAILS
Octopus Travel is reaching out to all adventure-seeking travellers who are gutsy enough to plan their entire vacation via this site. It seeks such people who can easily be surmounted by cheap prices and a few glossy pictures.
Unprecedented attention is given to the customer's selection and purchasing process online. Thus, customers experience a simple and quick booking process whilst receiving detailed information to allow informed choices to be made. What's better, the web site is also able to confirm availability of the customers' selected hotel immediately.
Every form of budget is being catered to: from 1 star hotels to those with 5 stars.
~ The accommodation lists even includes popular international chains, small boutique hotels, French chateaus and English manor houses. To ensure their customers receive great rates without any hidden costs, Octopus Travel individually negotiates with each hotel they sell.
~ All their rates include taxes and service charges, which makes it easier for the customers to gauge their expenses. And most of the time, this even includes breakfast, which is a huge plus!
It also greatly assists customers' to the best hotel selection suited to their needs by:
~ Providing a full list of amenities and an independent report for each hotel. Written by travel professionals who have personally visited the hotels, it provides an honest and up-to-date appraisal of each property.
~ Hotel location maps plus interior and exterior photos are also included to avoid any surprises.
- FEATURES
Business Model
~ Transaction Broker
It is apparent that Octopus Travel engages in booking of mentioned services that involves a B2B (as Octopus Travel needs to negotiates with other hotels, car hire companies etc) and B2C (i.e. the traveller). This involves money transactions over the Internet or through banks.
~ Information Broker
A wide variety of information is provided such as travel guides, accommodation reviews and images.
Payment Modes
Payment is mainly made via any credit/debit card(ie. VISA, MasterCard or American Express) with an international billing address. This means that those without such credit/debit cards are at a disadvantage. However, they can approach other such cardholders to undertake the payment on their behalf first or use other alternatives such as Paypal.
As the payments are needed to be in the currency of the country of destination, the cost can be pretty unpredictable as it is susceptible to the constant change of exchange rate. As such, Octopus Travel or the consumer can either incur losses or gain the benefit depending on the situation.
- CHARACTERISTICS: DESIGN SCHEME & GRAPHICS
The site is found to be quite straightforward, user-friendly and systematic. It can be easily navigated with step-by-step guidance and helpful pointers. Thus, consumers can effortlessly plan their whole dream/budget/family vacation. However, it is also found to be quite unappealing to the mass as it appeared to be “too good to be true” or bogus. The layout was relatively dull as well. It clearly needs to have a more professional outlook. Graphics or images were also limited to very few for each item: be it for the hotel rooms, cars for hire or the sightseeing attractions.
The guides provided for some countries are apparently quite lustre-lacking too. Although the contents are relatively rich, without the attention-grabbing glossy images of the destinations, travellers would tend to not be captivated at first sight and thus, would fail to give a really good and lasting impression of the places featured.
- ANALYSIS
Strengths
Octopus Travel does not only just provide online hotel service but also, sightseeing tours and car hire. This one-stop service for consumer makes it highly convenient for potential consumers. Step-by-step instructions are also given for consumers to reserve their hotel rooms and other services online. To cater to the different nationalities, the website details are avialable in different foreign languages. An emergency hotline is also available for those consumers who encounter any sort of problems with respect to the service rendered by Octopus Travel, where help will be given on location itself.
Weaknesses
However, Octopus Travel has missed out on an aspect that could have probably captured it more market power : sale of flight tickets, which rival Travelocity has. As a result, Travelocity is able to capture a far greater pool of customers, making it globally-recognised as can be seen from its existence as one of the main sponsors of the Emmy-winning reality show, 'The Amazing Race'. With such coverage, consumers will feel that it is more reliable and trustworthy unlike Octopus Travel. Besides, the design of the website which lacks in graphics and animation, makes it even less attractive.
The site also seems to be lacking in security. It requests for the consumer to register and log in before they can make their reservation. Although this step may ensure the security of the site. It does not necessarily mean that the consumers are safe. Private information will have to be given at the consumer’s own risk as it is known that some online companies or individuals may hack into such sites and steal private information to sell off to interested parties.
As online travel agencies are more likely to be frequented by Budget Travellers, Octopus Travel should instead be more tactful to provide different modes of payment to cater to those without credit cards such as students and middle-income families.
- COMPETITORS
Octopus Travel does face a whole lot of competition from a host of other online travel agencies such as:
~ http://www.cheapflights.com/
~ http://www.travelzoo.com/
~ http://www.skyauction.com/
~ http://www.travelocity.com/
~ http://www.asiarooms.com/
Travel agencies with a physical existence can also be a major competition not only for Octopus Travel but also to other online travel agencies.
It is only human nature to want to be more secured with a physical existence, where consumers can interact on a more personal level rather than just via online, with a few clicks. This can be proven otherwise if the impending traveller lives in a small town in U.S., for instance, with no well-reputed tour agency which can link him or her up with the many hotels that Octopus Travel and other online agencies can.
