9 Strategies to Make Your Hotel Website a Booking Magnet

Websites are considered an essential part of any eCommerce business, may it be in the hotel/hospitality industry or any other field. Your website is your gateway to a vast platform of potential customers to be able to achieve success and goals.

Statista reported that the total retail value for the global hotel industry is $570.18 billion. Now, imagine a scenario wherein your hotel is not getting the amount of booking or reservations you need and expect, in most cases, your website is not doing its job properly.

A lot of hoteliers are constantly wondering what needs to be done to improve their website and generate more conversion — become a booking magnet in the vast hospitality industry where competition is high and challenging.

Your hotel’s online presence is crucial and sometimes, having a website alone is not enough to generate more bookings, so we’ve compiled 10 strategies to help you increase your conversion.

Here are the strategies to make sure you’re maximizing your chance of getting and retaining more customers:

1.Build a personal brand — authenticity is the key

Just like any other industry, building a personal brand is crucial for a business. You have to become relatable and likable to people, to your customers. Keep in mind that creating a hotel brand that connects with people are important, especially in the hospitality industry.

Be authentic because this is one of the most essential factors in creating a successful digital marketing campaign — being authentic is the key. Your brand defines you as a leader, and an expert in your industry. Everything you share online directly impacts your personal brand and when done properly, it can deliver excellent ROI (return on investment).

2. Mobile Compatibility

Did you know that there are 52% of all travel consumers using mobile devices to search for travel information? This is according to Mobile Marketer. You should take advantage of these numbers and generate more bookings for your hotel by creating a website that is mobile-friendly and functional. Placing your “click-to-book” buttons in locations that can easily be seen and clicked by your customers is crucial while adding features like links to maps or directions is also advised.

3. Never neglect best SEO practices

When your hotel website is placed on the second page on search engine platforms, chances are you’ll be getting less potential customers visiting your website. Just like any other website, it is highly important that your website lands on the top spot on related searches. Make sure that your website is packed with rich and useful content — you may also want to consider regional terms as well, instead of just using hotel specific terms.

4. Stand out with a beautiful website design and excellent UX (user experience)

Customers always look for convenience and a poorly designed website would instantly turn them away, rendering your digital marketing efforts useless. Make sure that your hotel premises are presented in its full glory using high-quality photos, videos, and descriptive content. Keep in mind that it is not only your hotel rooms that need excellent write-up, but your facilities and other amenities need it too. If you’re looking to showcase your hotel as an ideal place to stay for tourists, include a “things-to-do” section and other recreational options available on your location to add inspiration.

5. The importance of analytics

In every business, keeping an eye on how your customers use your website is crucial because this would help you determine and monitor how they are navigating through your site, and make sure you’re drawing the correct conclusions from their behavior. If you’re not getting enough number of bookings on your hotel website, there might be some errors that prevent your potential customers from arriving at the final steps in their booking process.

Once you’re able to identify the errors in your overall website structure, you’ll be able to make solutions and improvements that are essential in increasing your conversions.

6. Make sure that your hotel website is responsive

Your potential customers rely on your website to be able to get information and book reservations, but if some of your website features are not responsive, then this can lead to huge losses on your end. Imagine if you’re trying to click on a button and it isn’t working, I’m sure you’ll feel frustrated too and would look for other options immediately. Make sure that your website pages are functioning and all your links are working — this goes for both desktop and mobile devices.

7. Hard sell your unique selling points

This one is considered as one of the most important strategies if you have a lot of local competition. No matter how modest your accommodations may be at your hotel, you should always try and load up your site by promoting your USPs (unique selling point). If your hotel facilities are almost the same with the other hotels in your area, talk about how excellent your services are and your proximity to desirable tourist hotspots and destinations. If you offer transportation, hard sell it. Always make a point to talk about your unique and extra services that would appeal to your potential customers.

8. Have an engaging social media handle

Always maximize the potential and power of your social media handles to promote your website and its online booking capabilities. Almost all businesses have their social media pages where they can engage with their customers in real-time. This is also a good opportunity for you to gather reviews and feedback from your customers that can add trust to your brand.

9. Build confidence and security

Savvy customers have become more vigilant when it comes to internet security, this is most especially when using their credit cards to purchase or pay for services online. If your hotel website does not partner with a PCI (Payment Cards Industry) compliant booking engine, this would lose their trust and would feel uncomfortable sharing their credit card info and would not continue with their booking process.

These are incredibly simple but effective strategies to turn your hotel into a booking magnet and would give you an increase in conversion. Sharpening your website to ensure that your digital marketing efforts result in huge numbers of bookings is not that difficult. Always keep in mind that slow but sure steps go a long way.