10 Best Practices for Building an Effective Hotel Website

Building a new website for your hotel business is not an easy task. With so much competition in the hospitality industry, it is important to make sure you are building a website that can override your competition and keep you ahead of the pack.

Hoteliers understand the importance of having an attractive website and getting regular traffic. However, gaining website traffic is only half the battle. The real challenge is making your potential customers stay on your hotel website long enough to find out more about your services and, even better, make a booking. Customer engagement on your website is a critical indicator in determining the success and effectiveness of your website. The longer you are able to keep visitors around, the more invested they will be in your brand and the more likely they are to schedule a booking at your hotel.

Converting visitors into customers requires a strategic approach. It merely takes a few seconds for a website visitor to decide if he or she wants to continue browsing your website or move on to the next hotel website. If, in those few seconds, they are not convinced of the quality service that you offer, they will leave your website. So, is your website striking enough to grab the attention of potential customers?

Creating a website that is modern, sleek and informative is a daunting task. According to a report by HubSpot, websites with more than 400 pages are likely to attract six times more visitors compared to ones with fewer than 100 pages. Here are some best practices that will help you build a modern and user-friendly website:

1. Highlight your unique value proposition (UVP): Use compelling language to convince potential customers how your service will add comfort and luxury to their stay. What service features make your property better than your competitors? If you can get your website visitors excited about booking a stay at your hotel, you will see your conversion rate rise.

2. Establish credibility: Potential customers are less likely to enter their contact information or book a stay if they are concerned your website is not secure or trustworthy. You must communicate your trustworthiness by displaying security badges and customer testimonials on your website. You can also mention security measures taken in your privacy policy. Make sure your contact information is easy to locate so that visitors know they are interacting with a trusted brand.

3. Improve website speed: If your website takes longer than five seconds to load, it can frustrate your visitors and may give them a reason to quit. To increase your website’s loading speed, consider removing nonessential videos and large images that may be taking a long time to load. Compressing the images will also help reduce the page load time.

4. Make your website easy to navigate: Intuitive navigation can set your website apart from the rest. When designing your website’s navigation, make sure you place each section where it is easy to find. In order to build a user-friendly website, limit the number of menu items to seven or fewer. Be sure your brand logo navigates back to the homepage.

5. Place a call-to-action (CTA) prominently: Even perfect web content and modern SEO strategies will fail to convert visitors into customers without a prominently placed CTA. A well-placed CTA will motivate visitors to take the required action. As much as possible, use one CTA on a page to avoid confusion.

6. Simplify the contact form: Contact forms should collect the minimum information required to communicate with the potential customer. Ideally, your contact form should only have four fields: name, email, phone number and comments. Any forms containing additional fields will reduce conversion rates. If possible, make the contact form accessible on all pages. Placing the contact form in a prominent place is a popular tactic for maximizing the conversion rate.

7. Include video content: Video clips can add a human element to your website in an appealing manner. In order to get the best results, keep your videos under two minutes long and capture some great visuals of your property and service. You can also create a customer testimonial in the form of video.

8. Display customer reviews: Customer written testimonials can be one of the most popular sections of your website because a lot of potential and existing customers will take an interest in reading them. Including reviews and testimonials on your website will not only enhance your credibility but will also increase conversions.

9. Upload actual pictures of your rooms and services: To increase the effectiveness of your website, real images can work wonders. You can upload photos of your restaurants, lounges, rooms, lawns or other amenities. A neat flower arrangement in the room can add a nice touch. Pictures will help potential customers connect with your staff and convert at a higher rate.

10. Make your website responsive: With more and more people using mobile devices to access the Internet anytime and anywhere, a nonresponsive website may hinder user experience. A responsive website will provide an optimal viewing experience by making the interaction comfortable, as the interface will become easier to read.

An investment in your website design and usability will pay high dividends in the form of new customers and improved online visibility. You will experience increased traffic, better conversion rates and increased revenue.