Nowadays there are very few hotels that do not have websites. In an age of e-commerce, the ability to check out a hotel online and make bookings via the web is vital for commercial success. Of course, it may be noted that it is not just the hotel’s own website that can generate such success; positive reviews on sites like TripAdvisor are an enormous help, while a well-thought out digital strategy will include having a social media presence to help raise awareness of the hotel or chain, as well as highlighting promotional offers.
Getting a lot of hits on your hotel website is not an end in itself. Unless it is designed in the most effective way, the number of visits that will actually convert into bookings will be disappointingly low.
Mobile friendliness
Being mobile-friendly is a critical feature of any website now. The rise of smartphones has been dramatic and so has their use in making transactions, to the extent that many people will use their handset this way. Indeed, according to research by Redzy, 30 per cent of online bookings are now made using smartphones, a figure that is rising fast. For that reason, it is vital to ensure your site is either mobile friendly, or that you offer a ‘mobile friendly site’ option on your home page. The key is to ensure that handset users are not compromised in their capacity to see and access information and pictures, or, most importantly of all, to make bookings.
Good navigation matters
You may have the best landing page in the world, but site visitors will want to be able to navigate their way around. If this is difficult, some may respond by looking for the site map link (assuming that is itself easy to find), but many will simply lose patience and log off. The simplest way to do this is to have a very clear and prominent navigation bar, with an easy-to-follow menu clearly highlighting the things people will want to know: basics like the room types, the tariffs, the catering facilities, how to reach the hotel and how far it is from the nearest visitor attractions. Simplicity is the key throughout: make the choices simple, the layout straightforward and avoid too many colours. The last of these can be hugely off-putting as the last thing anyone wants to see is a psychedelic array of luminous shades. What should happen is that a small number of contrasting colours are used. For example, black or red shows up well on a pale background colour like yellow. As for the topics themselves, place the most important at the top and the bottom, as this is where people will look first.
Use pictures well
Extensive research has shown that visual cues can help draw attention to key parts of a site, an example quoted by Net Affinity being that of the Chemistry.com personality test, in which the test is flanked by the image of a smiling woman looking towards the test template. This is an area in which your site can use hotel images to help attract guests. For example, using food images is a great way of attracting people to look at your restaurant – a particularly important consideration if it partly caters for those not actually staying at the hotel. By using visual images effectively as prompts, you can tempt the potential customer to move onto pages of interest and, ultimately, your e-booking service.
Action stations
The most important element of the site is the call to action, without which you won’t make many bookings. This needs to be prominent, using a distinctive, stand-out colour, as well as using a button that is not only clickable, but looks clickable – such as with a appearance. It should also be large but not huge, prominently positioned and accompanied by clear copy. This is no time to be vague. Instead, it should come with a simple strapline, such as ‘live the dream’ above a button saying book now. Similar brief but unambiguously aspirational slogans are used successfully for many firms to secure bookings for their products and services.
Reap the benefits
The experience of a visitor to your site should therefore be as follows: firstly, they should find the site works no matter what means they are using to access it, be it a PC or smartphone. Once there, they should find it very easy to get around and see the information they are looking for, and not be put off by the colour scheme. From here, they should be led through the site by a range of visual prompts, with something inspirational and aspirational at the end to urge them to go ahead with the booking. If your site does not match up to all this, it is well worth bringing in an expert web designer to ensure it does. Whenever the investment cost for such a measure, it will more than pay for itself as a user-friendly website that has a bigger positive impact on revenues.
