Do you find making bookings time-consuming and energy-consuming? From reserving a table at your favourite restaurant to booking your flights for your next trip home, doing everything offline and in person may not be a very ideal solution when you are a busy university student. But don’t you worry! The benefits of online booking services are here for the rescue.
In this blog, we will dive into the advantages of online booking system and how they can help you have a more enjoyable adulting experience. Let’s find out!
Importance of Online Booking Services For Students
Being a university student isn’t easy. There’s so much to take care of while being responsible for your academics, well-being and social life. In this case, online booking services can make life easier and help you take care of your essential needs more conveniently. You can utilise the benefits of online booking services for
- Flight bookings
- Finding accommodation and bookings
- Airport transfer booking
- Grocery shopping and food delivery
- Booking insurance
- Banking and loan management
- SIM cards and network plans
- Booking tours, events and local activities
- Gym membership bookings and much more!
Benefits of Online Booking for Students
You can get everything online, from flights to banking and transportation to groceries. But why do the advantage of booking online seem to outweigh the old-fashioned ways of traditional booking processes? Here are some benefits to consider:
1. No Standing in Queues!
The first and biggest benefit of online booking is that there is no need to physically go to the booking office. Thus, the need to stand in long queues, waiting for your turn, is eradicated. With online booking options, you get the upper hand while booking anything from your flight tickets to airport pickups or even your student accommodation.
Not having to wait in long queues and dealing with the desk staff also helps you save a lot of time. So naturally, online bookings are a great option for people with busy schedules or working long hours. Checking availability while booking and your booking status afterwards are also easier when you opt for online booking rather than doing a traditional walk-in type of booking.
2. Accessible 24/7
Have you ever started procrastinating booking your tickets, pick-ups or restaurant reservations because your work timing doesn’t match the booking office timings? Another one of the benefits of online booking is the fact that you can opt for a booking at any time of the day (or night!) Online booking portals and websites of businesses are usually always available for bookings.
The 24/7 accessibility ensures that their customers can make their booking easily at their convenience. No matter what time zone you are in or where you are, online booking services give you the freedom to book whatever you want at any time you like. For example, you can be commuting to your university and at the same time book your flight tickets for the next solo trip you are going to take! Convenient, isn’t it? Thus, while discussing the advantage of booking online, you cannot overlook this specific benefit!
3. Payments are Secure
With the digitisation of bookings, payment options have become significantly secure, even in banking and loan management. Almost all online booking sites have integrated secure payment platforms to reduce credit card fraud and security infringements. Online booking options can offer simple and quick access checkout options with access to secure payment methods. These options can be used without worrying about who sees your credit card and contact details, adding another point to the benefits of online booking.
4. Personalised Experience
With the help of AI and data analytics, companies can make experiences more personalised for their customers. This ultimately makes things more convenient for you. For example, many online booking services offer virtual assistance to their customers throughout the booking process. Hence, the user experience is more pleasant even if you do it for the first time. Similarly, features like geo-targeting and customised recommendations can help you find essential products and services faster, creating a more integrated and personalised experience as one of the benefits of online booking.
5. Increased Transparency
Unlike the traditional offline processes where you have to ask the right questions to make an informed decision, online booking platforms already have all the information available to the customers. Transparency factors like booking prices, availability, and market rate comparisons are a significant part of an online booking experience and one of the benefits of online booking.
The transparency thus helps you stay informed and make the best choice for yourself as a student. Online booking services also usually provide you with their customer ratings, testimonials and reviews so you know what other people have experienced with that specific service provider. This empowers you with the knowledge of what exactly to expect while making the booking.
6. Student Discounts
Another of the amazing advantage of booking online is that you can avail of the discounts the service offers. Most companies don’t openly advertise their student discounts; thus, it is very possible that you will miss out on these discounts while doing an offline booking. On the other hand, their online booking sites likely feature student discounts you can opt for while booking your essentials online. The discounts may not sound very significant, but they help you save a lot of money in the long run.
7. Consistency and Efficiency
When it comes to offline booking, the experience of the customer completely depends on the customer-facing parties, resulting in a lot of human errors and a lack of consistency. However, with online booking services, you are essentially making the booking yourself. The sites are also designed especially to make the booking process as efficient as possible. In contrast, a standardised process brings consistency to the experience no matter how many times you make a booking with the specific service. Thus, consistency and efficiency are some of the biggest benefits of online booking.
8. Reminders and Notifications
Among some of the most unique benefits of online booking, reminders and notifications are some of the most significant. Usually, online booking platforms send automated reminders and notifications to their customers. So, if you are a student with a busy schedule, these reminders can be very helpful for you.
The reminders can enable you to stay more organised and eradicate the possibility of missing important events and dates. Similarly, the notifications can keep you updated. For example, suppose you have made an online booking through a food delivery app. In that case, they will automatically send you notifications via email or SMS to inform you about any delays and inform you where your food is.
9. Integrated Services
Most companies integrate multiple essential services into their online booking sites, adding to the benefits of online booking. The integrated services ensure that all the needs of the customer is taken care of. For example, a flight booking site can integrate other services such as the calendar application, payment links and airport transfer services into their website. So the customers, especially very busy university students, can benefit from the system and save time on having to find every service separately and make multiple bookings. Rather, they can get everything done on the same platform in just a few clicks!
10. Convenient Modifications
Regarding offline bookings, making any modifications to the booking, including rescheduling and cancellations, is time-consuming. As more parties are involved in the process, things get delayed, and the customer might have an unpleasant experience.
If you are a student, you may not even have the time and energy to go through such long processing times just to make small modifications to your bookings. This is where the benefits of online booking outweigh it all, as there is no need for phone calls or physical visits to make modifications. Modifications and cancellations are just a click away with an online booking platform. As there are fewer parties involved in the process, fees related to such modifications also go down significantly.
Online booking sites are the perfect solution for all students' inconveniences. Booking things online doesn’t just help you save time and energy but also provides you with a more seamless and convenient experience. The benefits of online booking services enable students to manage their schedules and live better while making choices that significantly enhance their academic experience.