With the fragmentation of the travel industry, it gets harder and harder for hotel owners to secure their piece of that action. With the internet playing a much bigger role in the travel industry than it once did before, it is vitally important for hotel owners to have an online presence. To grab some of the travel traffic your first step as a hotelier is to have a website.
Travel experts claim that a hotel website should be the most profitable marketing tool in place to promote bookings. The website should be generating the majority of the bookings with online travel agencies adding to that number. It is also the cheapest way to get more bookings but to do that, your website has to be functional and effective and not all flash and glitter.
So how do you get more bookings online through your website?
1 – Storytelling
One of the biggest challenges for hotels online is to stand out from the competition. One way to do this is to tell a story. It has to be a unique story that is aimed at making an emotional connection with visitors to that website. This is done with words, images, and captions that explain the uniqueness of your specific story. The images should be of high quality and say a lot about the story being told.
The story also has to be authentic and genuine so that the emotional connection can be made. Stories that are the most effective are those that cause the reader to experience good memories of their own. The right emotional connection will have a great influence on whether or not that traveler will decide to book a stay at your hotel. That is why it is important to stick to factual elements in the story being told.
2 – Start With Photos of Guest Rooms
The most-viewed images on hotel websites happen to be those of the guest rooms. With this in mind, it makes sense to use these as your primary first impression on your website. As tempting as it is to feature exterior photos of your hotel property, your website will experience more visitors spending time looking at the guest room images. It makes sense, the average traveler wants to see what all comes with a night’s stay and a series of room photos answers that question.
Because travelers want to see what the room they will be spending the night in looks like, it is a good idea to show photos from every possible angle of a room. This gives a good idea of the amount of space available in the room, the overall layout and gives you a way to show what additional features are included in the room. Do this with each type of room available and it will save a lot of explaining on the phone about the differences and extras.
3 – Show Real Feedback From Customers
Travelers shopping around for hotel choices like to see evidence that others have spent time at the property they are considering booking a room at. This type of third-party feedback is important on many levels. Good reviews can turn into more money with additional bookings and there is never a wrong time to brag about awards or star ratings earned from member associations or peer groups. But online reviews are where the real gold exists.
By embedding reviews onto your hotel website you provide visitors to that page a reason to spend more time on your website. It allows them to scroll through a series of reviews and even if there are a few one or two-star reviews, how your hotel has responded to them is also a telltale sign to website visitors. If the bad reviews are met with graciousness and responded to professionally, it builds your online reputation.
4 – Give Special Offers
Incentives are always a good thing but they should be a standard offering for booking a room online. When you provide these special offers on your hotel website it prompts travelers to book their stay online. The types of special offers are entirely up to you but do not have to be price-based, but should instead create a value of some kind in the mind of the traveler. An example would be free parking or free breakfast for booking a stay on the website.
5 – Go Mobile
This should be a no-brainer. With more and more people turning to handheld devices for information, your website has to be optimized for mobile users. Things to include on the mobile version of your website should be:
– Google Maps integration
– Mobile booking engine integration
– Images that show the interior of the rooms and any other amenities
– Click-to-call functionality
– A clear “Book Now” call-to-action on every page
According to Digital Authority Partners, mobile optimization will put your hotel presence in front of those who search online for such information with their smartphone or tablet. This will also increase the reach of your website.
In Conclusion
Making better use of your hotel website, if you have one, or are considering launching a new website will improve your booking stats. Plus, with a website that features the correct elements that travelers are seeking online, you will be providing the emotional connection required to encourage visitors to your website to book a stay at your hotel. But it all starts with selling the benefits of a stay in a room that is completely featured through photos and captions online.
By focusing your efforts on bookings through your website, you will be seeing a greater return on investment which translates to a cheap way to decrease your vacancy rate. It can spell the difference between a strong year or a weak one. It isn’t difficult to boost your bookings online, you just need to know how to do it. Hotel managers: Not sure what to do next? Check out this list of consulting firms that can help you out this year.
