Most PC web travel bookers today are
well informed, know their options, and want to get their results
quickly. A marketer’s goal should be able to understand their
market segments and be able to anticipate their shopping behavior in
order to capitalize to meet their needs.
When you frame the content and design
layout of your hotel website, not only should it be appealing and
attractive, but it should also have clear content in terms of
understandability and a design layout that compliments your hotel and
its services. An intelligent hotelier is one who keeps himself
informed and updated of the latest terms and technologies not only in
the hotel industry, but also in the affiliate industries.
The online travel industry is rapidly
evolving with the demands of today’s travelers. Content is
available through a variety of sources including third party travel
sites, review sites, social media sites and destination pages. Travel
marketers should expect that when potential guests visit their
website, they may be landing on various pages based on their searches
and often come loaded with information from other sites.
Hence, it is imperative for hospitality
websites to engage their potential guests at every level.
A
compilation of the top ten things you should be doing on your hotel
website:
Embrace
Social Media: Majority of
social media users expect companies to have a social presence. They
want companies to interact with them on social sites. By embracing
social media i.e. with a well-planned social initiative, you can
turn visitors into fans and ultimately, into brand loyalists. Your
social media page should be neat, tidy and not cluttered with too
many buttons. You should use a concentration on interesting
articles, offers and promotions to make your social media page more
attractive. In addition, by embracing social media, you can send
messages to thousands of people with just a few clicks on a button.
Download
speed and Landing pages:
Internet users are highly impatient and if your website takes too
long to open, it will encourage potential visitors to visit your
competitors’ website. The loading time of a page should be no
longer than 4 seconds. Please note, background music, flash or large
images increase your load time. If you are adding any of these
elements, make sure that you account for increases in loading time
or you might end up driving potential guests away. Once the
potential customer has visited the site, the landing page needs to
be convincing enough for the customer to stay on the site and
ultimately make a booking.
Image
& Video search: Image and
video search is an effective way to benefit from different search
traffic. You can render image search by including searchable photo
galleries, adding images for things to do on the site, being a part
of image sharing sites like Flickr, Picasa and adding images on the
hotels social pages on Facebook, Twitter etc.
Mobile
search: With over 590 million
mobiles in use in India, you can leverage the mobile market by
modifying your website for mobile phones and improving the download
speed of your website by eliminating flash and heavy graphics. You
need to ensure that your website is mobile compatible. This will
enable you to tap a larger audience and promote mobile sites across
all platforms.
Manage
website navigation smartly:
Most web users focus on the upper half of the webpage and then
scroll down if they find it appealing. Since the space above grabs
most of their attention, it has to be made attractive. You can
enhance your web page by using an engaging photo and prominent
calls-to-action. The website should be crisp, clean and consistent
in every way; after all, it reflects the image of the hotel.
Maintain the same layout throughout all of the pages and be uniform
with your site navigation, as users do not like learning how to use
an unexplored site.
Booking
engine: it is imperative for
every hotel website to have a booking engine. By installing a
user-friendly booking engine that easily integrates into the look
and feel of your website, you can be rest assured that your bookings
will keep growing. Adding additional benefits for the customer such
as dinner vouchers, spa treatments or arrival gifts can also boost
the number of bookings.
Clear
brand image: Knowing who you
are as an hotelier and what you are promoting is very important. If
you do not place a clear picture in front of the customers then they
will not comprehend the brand or your product. Including a prominent
hotel logo, which has a direct link to the home page, will make it
more convenient for the user. Without using too many unnecessary
marketing fuzzwords, include a descriptive tagline that clearly
states what your hotel is all about and maintains your hotels brand
image.
Broken
links: It is necessary to
check your website for broken links on a regular basis as broken
links leave behind a very questionable image. Missing one or two of
such links is inescapable for some hoteliers; this calls for the use
of creative error messages.
Get
Hyperlocal: The term
Hyperlocal is essentially an extension of your local social
marketing, which is typically intended for residents of a particular
community, region, town, city, village or neighborhood. It includes
websites such as Facebook Places, Google Maps etc. Getting
hyperlocal will literally put your company ‘on the map’. The
rise in popularity of geo-tagging applications means that you can
offer incentives for ‘check-ins’ to your hotel.
Study
the site statistics: Studying
your website statistics will show you the ‘ways and means’ to
improve your website. Acquaint yourself with the various terms that
are used to describe website traffic including- visits, hits, page
impressions, unique views etc. This will enable you to find out
which pages are the most successful, at what time of the day does
your site receive maximum hits, which search engines people use to
reach you etc. Keeping a track on these statistics will keep you
posted on how successful is your website.
In a market where travel buyers are
becoming more price constrained and choosy in their choice of
supplier, travel retailers simply cannot afford to be losing sales to
basic mistakes. The issue is that the journey a customer takes
towards a purchase is getting ever more complicated. Awell-managed website will help you
to advance your sales and bookings. Let your website start working
for you now!
