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12 Apr 2001, Canada

Dear Dr. Ecommerce:

Could you point me in the right direction (possible other links) to
find good ecommerce strategies for a small hotel chain.

Trent

Dear Trent:

I assume the best e-commerce strategy is the one that brings in the most customers via the Internet. So, I think the best approach is to pretend you are a customer planning to book a hotel on-line. Browse hotel web sites and travel web sites. Join travel related discussion forums and see which strategy works best. Look in particular at features that make you want to book a hotel room and features that annoy you. With this method, you'll soon have a good idea of what kind of strategies are most successful.

Assuming you are interested in developing a strategy for your hotel chain, once you have an e-commerce web site set up, ask friends to try it out and report back to you with comments. This kind of feedback will help you hone the details of your on-line strategy.

In any event, it is critical to have an e-commerce strategy. More and more people are using the Internet to research their holidays. If you lack an on-line presence or, indeed, have a weak on-line presence, you are missing out on a fast growing segment of the market.

Good luck,

Dr. Ecommerce