Six things you need on your hotel, B&B or Guesthouse website

http://youtu.be/0F4zg2Xah2E

Topics Covered in this video:

1. Grab the visitor’s attention.
2. Make it obvious what you offer.
3. Make it easy for people to contact you.
4. Provide online booking.
5. Provide a mobile version of your site.
6. Provide rich information about your hotel and the surroundings.

Transcription

“Successful hotel, bed and breakfast and guesthouse hotels have several things in common.

First of all they know how to grab your attention. When someone arrives at your site you have between 5 – 15 seconds to get them interested. The best way to do this is by having beautiful photographs basically on your home page. Better yet, use video because video is really captivating and gets peoples’ attention. So grabbing attention is the first step towards gaining a new customer.

Secondly now that you’ve got the attention of your visitor you need to answer the question “Should I stay at this hotel?” Make it obvisou what you offer and put this information on the home page of your website. Put the information somewhere obvious and make the information very very easy and simple for people to use. The more reasons you give for staying at your hotel, the more customers you will have.

The third piont is that now you’ve hooked the visito and you’ve proved that your hotel is a great place to stay, make it easy for them to contact you. Offer numerous different ways of contact, so for example, email, contact form, always display your telephone number prominently in the header of your webpage particularly on the home page of the website. Because the easier it is for people to contact you, the more enquiries you will receive.

Fourthly, make it very easy for people to search availability and also to book a room. A great system is the Booking Button solution from Siteminder. It is very simple for you as an owner to add this system to your website, it’s very simple to use. And it provides your visitors with an absolutely seamless booking experience. Online booking will definitely increase sales.

The fifth point is that between 20 and 30% of people now access the internet only through mobile devices such as iPads or mobile phones. So you’ve got to offer a mobile version of your site. Many hotels basically squish their existing website to fit on a mobile device and when they do this it just looks absolutely terrible and it’s unusable. You can confirm this by looking at your own site on a mobile phone to see what it looks like. If your website works well on a mobile device you are going to sell more rooms.

The sixzth point is that some people will come to your site, they will book and they will leave. Other people require more information, for example about the rooms, or they want to know what’s happening around the hotel, where they can eat, if they can go out for the evening. If you provide this information for them they are much more likely to book with you and stay at your hotel. Providing rich information helps sell more rooms.

That was very brief but I hope you found it useful. We are West Town Web Services, we build great value websites and help our clients to get more business online. We have a special value package for hoteliers, and owners of Bed and Breakfasts and Guesthouses. So if you’d like further information, please contact me on the email address below. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks very much.”



Six things you need on your hotel, B&B or Guesthouse website

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