How building a hotel website can put you back in the game in a down market

This is not an easy moment for the tourism sector. Those who work in the sector know perfectly well that the pandemic has stopped, or at least greatly reduced all travel, including travel. People travel little and, unfortunately, only almost exclusively out of necessity. However, new preventive measures and the constant search for cures suggest that we will soon be able to resume our normal lives, or almost. We must work from now to prepare for the recovery because the markets will be very competitive and in this the creation of a website for hotel will play a major role, we explain why.

Website realization for hotel, what role does it play

Before going into detail, then explain the importance of creating a website for hotel, let's see more generally what weight the site has in the success of a business. Let's start by saying that today more or less all businesses have a website, whether it's an institutional site, a showcase site or an e-commerce.

But while in the last case it's clear that the site is primarily for selling, in the others it's important to understand what purpose it can be used for.

The website, first and foremost, is a showcase, a business card. A company, therefore also a hotel, that has a website, is perceived as more professional and reliable. Obviously it cannot be reduced to this.

Having a functional and effective site also means being able to be found more easily. It is therefore necessary to do a job of SEO optimization, in order to position the site on search engines, a job made of keywords, but also of link building, an activity that allows the site to be "named" by relevant sites and that have a certain credibility for search engines. Let me give you an example: it's a bit like if a famous or well-known person speaks well of you.

A well positioned site, when users search for something, it will be found easily. In the specific case of hotels, if someone was searching for "hotel Porto Cervo" he would find among the first positions your hotel in Porto Cervo, if your site has been optimized with that keyword, but it applies to any location of course.

Online Reservations

In the case of hotels, however, the site also has a specific function, namely, to get online reservations. You know perfectly well that people are always busy, always in a rush, what they don't want is to waste time on the phone. If your portal has a booking form, you can take advantage of your competitors with this tool. You can also choose which payment methods to include, if online, then by bank transfer, credit card, PayPal, etc., or if you simply request a deposit and have the reception pay directly.

In this case, some don't have to worry about managing credit cards, paypal, or anything else, because most use Channel Managers or PMS (hotel software) that allow online booking integration directly on the client's site.

Promotions and customer acquisition

Once you have a website you can take advantage of many strategies aimed at acquiring new customers and this is the real strength of a website. Nowadays, the mere presence on the web is only the beginning.

With a well-built and, most importantly responsive website, you can launch campaigns aimed at acquiring new customers and this is what will give you the ability to be truly competitive. There are so many strategies that you can pursue. One of the most common is to have a social page where you can create a good engagement in order to make yourself known to users.

You can offer a discounted booking at a certain time of the year, or a free stay for several bookings, you choose, what matters is that thanks to these strategies, you can drive traffic to your website and have a much larger pool of possible customers.

Let's take a practical example. A user arrives on your social page, sees beautiful photos of your hotel and reads a post where you announce a particular promotion. Click on the link, lands on the landing page, fills out the data form to request information and initiate contact, from here on you can send directly to his email all the offers and news about your hotel and if the whole process is applied correctly, the user will become a new customer.

Reviews and feedback

On the website you can set up a very important section, that of the reviews. Clients who have stayed in your hotel will be able to describe the service they have received and its quality, thus encouraging other users to book a stay.

How the site should be

Now let's try to understand how a site should be in order to really work. First of all you have to rely on professionals, we at Evobyte recommend it not for personal interest, but because over the years we have seen many sites made by "improvised" in the industry that not only did not have the desired effect, but were totally ineffective, requiring a new job resulting in further loss of time and money.

It must be a navigable site, with a simple interface. It must be navigable from all devices, especially mobile ones: people, as we said, are in a hurry and often book from smartphones.

You must include the best photos of your property, if users see your hotel they will be convinced sooner of the quality you offer. Add short descriptions, but that are evocative. Often it is not so much the vacation itself, but the idea of vacation that induces people to book.

Finally, as you have already seen, the site must be optimized, cared for and must offer the possibility of booking. Do not forget to show users that behind the structure there are people, today this is very important, do not overlook the section of "About Us", a family environment, however elegant and refined the hotel is, puts customers at ease.

Strategy pages

When you create the pages, also, you have to adopt a specific strategy for each of esser, so that each has its specific goal, so not necessarily just the mere presentation of your structure, but let's take an example.

If in a page you talk about the wines you have in your restaurant, you can make an offer such as: "Weekend dinner offer for two with a choice of wines from the hotel cellar".

Another example would be to place offers, when they become active, on the pages of the services themselves.

These are just examples, but each page can have specific call-to-actions so your site will not only be functional, but it will also be effective because it will work for you.