Ideally all Hotels, B&B, Homestays etc. should have their own website even though the majority of your booking is from OTA, GDS etc.
Having your own website is helpful for prospective visitors to get the necessary information
about your hotel. Even if the guest book through an OTA, while they are looking for rooms and
looking at several hotels in your city or destination, they may wish to see your hotels website before confirming the booking.
The guest always expects hotels to have their own website. Not having one may make your hotel appear unprofessional and unorganized. However, having a bad website may be worse than not having one!
Websites must be contemporary to international standards:
- Good quality photos
- Easy to read
- Nice design (colour, layout, etc.)
- Accurate, up-to-date, and clear information.
- Book rooms as per their exact preference like (away from the elevator, non-smoking, twin/double bed etc.)
- Easy to contact the hotel.
- Reservation/booking systems work properly.
- Possibility make a deposit or payment.
- Generate Confirmation voucher.
It is also important to decide whether you will include:
- A complete booking system on the website
- A partial system in which booking requests can be made, but not confirmed on the website
- No booking capability
Does my website ’ transport ’ the user to and from the hotel?
Featuring the quality photos and effective hotel copywriting which uses sensory rich language, one can bring the star features of hotel and location highlights to life. This indeed will help you to create a vivid mental picture which instantly inspires the travelers.
Among local contest, is my hotel website the best in class?
You need to check the various websites of your local competitors in your area. If their websites do a better job of presenting the destination or their own facilities, it is likely that your own website requires a revision.
Does my hotel website better sell the property or the OTAs?
Your hotel website must be the best depiction online of your estate in the battle for immediate reservations. Compare your OTA listing to your own website and view multi-personal content on social locations, such as Instagram and Facebook. Be frank and see if your website actually sells your hotel better to prospective customers.
Does my hotel website make use of all the available e-commerce tools?
Your hotel website must also be constructed with sound e-commerce principles in mind, besides being of excellent design. Also you must prevent prevalent UX errors, committed by many in your trade. All main instruments that can transform viewers into bookers are live rates, calendars and the use of emergency OTA-style texts, etc.
How my experience in website booking is compared with the competition?
Most tourists prefer to book with OTAs because they can easily use their websites. Make sure that it is simple to navigate and has a streamlined checkout procedure to generate a hotel website with an equally impressive user experience. Also, to decrease the overwhelming choice, divide room choices from extra room prices and extras. Learn more about the conversion features you need to drive on your hotel website.
Are the unique value propositions highlighted on my hotel website?
With fleeting spans of internet attention and a highly competitive marketplace, your website requires to rapidly find out why individuals should book with you instead of the city-wide hotel. To inspire customers and promote them to book directly, make sure that your main selling points are convincing, prominent, and obviously defined. It is also important to avoid mistakes committed by lots of hotel stakeholders as your website was built or updated recently which doesn’t mean it is performing at its optimum.
Above all, you need to define the correct service provider that not only beautifully displays your property, but also has leading usability, conversion optimization and technological innovation knowledge.
Setting a proper budget for your hotel website
The price of a new website is the reduction in the bucket when it leads to enhanced direct bookings, so it’s essential to see this as an investment and not just a cost.
How much one must allocate?
The amount you settle would surely depend on your hotel’s gross revenue and the budget along with other factors specific to your property.
Weighing up the payment options
For large website projects, most of the web agencies allow the hotels to mitigate the design and the development costs just by splitting them into monthly payments. The other companies also offer the hotel website as a service rather than building the custom designs right from the scratch, one can customize the existing layouts for creating a simple website.
Return on investment
While picking the cheapest solution is often tempting, don’t let savings interfere with efficiency. Think of the potential return on investment in the long term, your website SINGLE HANDEDLY is your biggest investment to generate revenue after the investment in the hotel.