How to make a better website for hotel? – find out in 5 minutes!

Why hotel website is one of your best sellers? – find out in just 5 minutes!

The title of my article describes website as a showcase of your property. It raises its prestige and facilitates contact with potential guests. However, this is only one side of the coin – a well-crafted page should cause visitor to perform the action. In your case, this action is of course making a reservation.

Below are some elements that define a good quality hotel website. Check if you meet all the criteria!

1. Convenient to use on mobile devices

Statistics make it clear – an increasing number of people is browsing Internet on mobile devices. Personally, I often close the page immediately after I find out it is not adapted to the phone screen. How many times have you done the same?

If you are not sure if your website is “mobile-friendly”, you can easily check it. Google provides a free tool for this purpose. Just go here, enter your website address and run the test.

After a few minutes you will receive a general review of your site’s mobile status. Additionaly, you will receive tips on how to improve its quality.

The KWHotel.com website is adapted to support mobile devices

2. Easy communication with the guest

Contact forms slowly become a remnant of the past. We are used to immediate access to information. More and more companies adjust to this trend and deploy the chat function on their webpages. Although it requires employee involvement, this tool allows you to quickly dispel any doubts of a potential guest.

Example? Facebook allows you to easily implement the Facebook Messenger service on a website. The vast majority of Internet users have encountered this messenger at least once – many of us use it on a daily basis. It is also a great tool for presenting services or directing visitors to specific activities. You can read more about the business use of Facebook Messenger here.

Our Clients frequently use the chat function.

3. Support for many languages

The world is a global village – you have certainly come across this idea more than once. It is difficult to neglect it, especially for those working in the hotel industry! Currently the safe minimum is to offer your services in your native language and English. The latter, as a universal language, should work in most situations. Remember however, that the multi-language websites are not only favorable to visitors, but also help with your SEO (search engine optimization), giving your site a better reach. You can read about good practices related to multilingual website positioning here.

If you do not have sufficient funds to hire a translator, there is another way. You can use Google Translate! Although the quality of the translation strongly depends on the selected language and complexity of your site, it will certainly allow a foreigner to understand your offer. In case your website is based on WordPress engine, the appropriate plug-in can be found here.

Our website is available in five languages.

4. Online booking engine

Each of the features described above allows you to significantly increase the website’s quality. For accommodation facilities however, your secret weapon is using the booking engine. It is one of those “best sellers” I mentioned at the beginning of the article. How to fully encourage visitors to book a stay?

To begin with, make sure that the “Book now” button is easily visible on your hotel website. Although this sounds trivial, my experience with the hotel industry shows quite different – on many existing websites, the “Book now” button is hidden or does not appear at all, replaced by a contact form.

Sample implementation as a button

To make your sale effective, the number of steps required from your customers should be as low as possible. The vistor may not willing to fill out the form just to ask about the availability. It is a very good practice not only to display the “Book now” button, but also to make the booking option follow the client while browsing the site. Just keep it non-intrusive!

An alternative to the “Book now” button? Availability calendars, allowing you to view the vacancies and make reservations!

To further simplify the booking process for your guest, offer him the option of making online payments. The guest will immediately confirm his stay and money will instantly arrive on your account!

Sample calendar implementation on the website

More good work practices?

If you would like to read more articles devoted to improving your hotel image or improving the process of customer acquisition, write me at mariusz.luzar@kwhotel.com.Any suggestions and comments are much appreciated! If you didn’t have an opportunity to read our previous post about branding, just click here.

You can find more good practices and opportunities offered by the online booking engine in the following presentation of our KWHotel Booking Engine system.