Hotel Websites - Tired vs Wired

From O'Rourke Hospitality ... with a great blog

>>>Are the websites that you analyized 'old world' or 'new world' ???

A Typical Hotel Website Today:

• designed to promote hotel with emphasis on beautiful photos
• difficult to navigate, too many options, user gets lost
• static, no fresh content supplied
• designed from a template
• no links to social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook
• no blog
• no video
• no division between types of travelers (i.e. leisure, business)
• no calls-to-action
• no incentive for user to supply e-mail
• no reason for user to visit your site again
• no personal profiling
• no personal communication with guest
• no reviews
• not optimized for the search engines
• no analytics in place

A Modern Hotel Website for 2010

• designed for the user with emphasis on supplying the information they need

• easy to navigate with no clutter
• dynamic with continually updated content
• created on a content management system that allows hotel to edit content themselves
• links to Twitter and Facebook (or place Twitter stream directly on site)
• a blog to supply useful content to users and help SEO efforts
• videos of hotel and city – videos should be authentic and not glitzy ads
• information should be organized by type of traveler and answer specific questions
• calls-to-action should lead user through the sales funnel
• offer an incentive for users to supply their e-mail (i.e. a downloadable city guide)
• give users a reason to re-visit your site (i.e. ski conditions if your hotel is in the mountains)
• maintain a database of your clients and learn their preferences. This allows for more targeted email campaigns, and a better guest experience at your hotel
• communicate with your guest before, during, and after their stay through email or Twitter
• request reviews from your guests and post them on your website
• make sure your website is optimized for the search engines
• install analytics which will allow you to track user behaviour

iSommelier ???

Tabletop touchscreen at Adour Wine Bar - view

Clo Wine Bar in NYC

Hotel Direct Bookings - For Class 17/02

In the previous semester, we looked at 3 party online distribution...essentially reseller opportunities.

This semester, we will examine hotel direct booking ... the most profitable channel. In keeping with the 'customer in charge' concept, let's review this HEDNA presentation - Travel 2.0

Most effective Hotel Websites are:

• Easy to find
• Easy to use
• Easy to book

Exercise - compare 2 hotel direct websites - Post due Monday 15/02 by 9 PM

1. Choose 2 non-chain hotels - search online, as if you were a guest looking to book

• by brand name
• by location and type of hotel

2. What easy was it to find the hotel's own website? How did it rank in Google search results?

• List the 3rd party sites that had more visible results, using the brand
• List other 'competiting' hotels were ahead of your hotel in search results

3. How easy was the site to use

• Assess - ease of access to 'decision' information
• Guestroom details
• Ammenities - facilities
• Location
• Pricing

4. Click through to the booking engine

• Which booking engine (look at the URL)
• Assess - appeal - 'sell' the hotel
• Pricing, product and conditions clear

5. Conclusion - Which hotel is doing a better direct sell effort? How do you know?

Brand of You - Due Thursday 04/2

As covered in our session last week, I'll be looking at each of your blogs to see the setup of your "professional reputation center".

Be sure to include:

1. NetVibes in your blog roll - selected resources in the Netvibes, not just default weather, etc.

2. Your 'center' - Linked In or whatever the starting point is

3. Your best Slideshares embeded to text linked within your 'center' - this can be a screenshot

4. Twitter account set up - and at least 1 tweet.

5. Screenshot of your ACTIVE Twitter reader - I use Tweetdeck, but you choose your own

6. Screenshot of your ACTIVE Google Alerts

Bonus - links to any:

-Flickr photo shows (not family, cat, vacation stuff)

-Your book reviews

-Reading lists

-List of favorite hotel sites

All of this is in addition to your weekly reading recap + cross post.

You may choose from any professionally oriented online media - JDN is always a good bet.

See you on the 11th.