What are types of bookings?
Types of Bookings
As mentioned before, there are several steps involved in booking an appointment, an event, or a reservation. The traditional methods of booking have developed greatly with the help of technology and the Internet over the past years. In this section, we will look at the major categories of booking how they are made, and the process that is followed.
Hotel Bookings
Reservation of hotels is among the most popular forms of bookings that people make about their travel and holidays. One can reserve a hotel room directly by calling the hotel or through its website, or with the help of an OTA (online travel agency) such as Expedia, Booking. com, or Priceline.
While booking through the hotel, you choose the check-in and check-out dates or the duration of your stay, preferred type of room, number of guests, and so on, and input your credit card information to guarantee the booking. The rate is normally quoted in advance and is mostly charged on a non-refundable basis. Looking at hotels through an OTA site makes it easy to compare a number of them side by side but often comes with extra booking charges.
When a particular hotel has been secured you will receive an email that will contain all the details regarding the booking. Some of the hotels give the option to choose the desired accommodation type or let them know about early check-in/late check-out requirements at the time of reservation.
Flight Bookings
One of the things that has made it easy to book a flight is the advancement in technology especially the use of the Internet. You can either directly contact an airline carrier or use flight consolidators such as Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity among others to search for and book with multiple airlines.
When you book, you get to select where you’ll depart from and where you are headed to, dates and times of departure and return, what class of service you want, input your travel companions’ details, and pay for the bookings. Options regarding the selection of the seat can be made while making the reservation, and in some cases, during the check-in process.
Most airline companies or any website, that provides flight tickets, provides a facility to sort the flights according to price, time, number of stops, and so on to get the best flight for the journey. After booking with the online travel companies you get an e-ticket confirmation with your itinerary details.
Restaurant Reservations
The next tip is for restaurants with high demand where many people are likely to book their services and therefore, it is important to book early. Reservation can be done through a direct call to the restaurant, or through the restaurant reservation services like OpenTable, Resy, etc.
When choosing a table, one chooses the date, time, and the number of clients to be served at the restaurant. In most of the apps, you can search for the existing reservation time ranges and select your preferred option. You shall receive an auto-generated email with details of the booking. Some sites have special request fields for instance to indicate that there is a birthday in the group or somebody with a food allergy requiring some attention beforehand.
In addition, most restaurants also reserve some tables for customers who don’t make a prior online reservation. Well, that leads us to the next option which is going to the restaurant and waiting on the waiting list.
Event Bookings
The purchase of tickets for concerts, sports events, conferences, and other intriguing occasions is best done in advance. Tickets can be sold or bookings can be made several weeks or even months before the event dates.
Web-based ticketing solutions like Ticketmaster or Eventbrite enable booking tickets to events without any issues. After selecting the type of tickets, and the number of tickets needed, the customer enters his or her information and then proceeds to the payment process. Tickets are sent through e-mail or directly to your account on the booking site as the case may be.
Besides these sites, tickets may be directly acquired through the box office of the respective venues. It is important to note that at times special pre-sale ticket portions are given to fans clubs or sponsors before the general tickets to the public.
Since events fill up rather quickly, especially the ones with low-cost tickets, one can easily get a ticket if they book early enough.
Medical Appointments
Consultants, therapies, diagnoses, and operations require appointments to be made regarding time schedules available. These are the types of bookings and they are made by simply calling the clinic or visiting the clinic’s website where one can access the calendar and choose an appropriate time.
Other services that have a similar portal to Practo include online appointment booking as well as doctor and clinic searches. Patient details such as the required specialty, the doctor, date, and time are all inputs that you enter to effectively complete your appointment booking. These sites offer simple self-check-in procedures, following which one is notified of booking details through text or email.
For check-ups, access is offered based on the availability due to cancellations for that particular day. However, if you are visiting the facility for consultations from some of these popular specialists, then it will be wise to book for the date you desire in advance.
Spa and Salon Bookings
It is important to note that self-care appointments such as; massages, facials, haircuts, and nail booking can be made with your normal salon or spa without having to go through an online platform by a direct call or even a visit. However, the desire for services and the ability to choose and book them online is available.
Currently, there are websites such as StyleSeat where you can search for spas and/or specialists available in your locality, their schedules, list of services offered and costs, among other features, choose the service you prefer, date and time for appointment, contact information and payment options to make the appointment.
The fact that one can just click a button to place their appointments and also can change or cancel them easily, makes more people choose online salon/spa bookings today. Other notifications that also go out are appointment reminders so you do not forget your appointment.
Ride-sharing Bookings
Taxis, which used to be booked through calls or going to the taxi stand, have been replaced with apps such as Uber and Lyft. To schedule your trip, you input the pick-up and drop-off locations the type of car you need to receive the approximate cost, and the time for order creation. The ability to build visibility of nearby cars in real time means that fast dispatch is possible.
The driver and car details are provided in your confirmation after you have booked a ride. They include trackability of route time as well as the extension of sharing your ride status with other people which enhances safety and convenience. Another area where it offers convenience is in payments, as these are processed directly through the app, thereby eliminating any complications that come with handling cash.
In addition to cars, share apps are venturing into bookings for electric bicycles and scooters which are also cheaper means of transport for first and last-mile travel which are usually short point-to-point trips.
Some of the many services that are now easily available for booking through online mode are house cleaning, pet grooming, car washing, house cleaning, and many other errands of daily life. The benefits that are associated with online booking such as time-saving, transparency in the pricing, cashless transactions, and minimal follow-up calls make online booking a preferred mode over the phone. Mobile and app usage and its integration with various segments help in making easy bookings for customers and businesses too.
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