Hospitality industry experts across the nation are forecasting that 2021 will continue the growth and recovery of room demand as the pandemic eases and pent-up demand returns to the market.
With that in mind, it is a good idea to revisit a topic we spoke a lot about in last year: best practices in conversion optimization that works for hotel websites. Why? Because our RevPAR will recover a lot better if these additional demands are converting on our own website rather than OTAs! Without any particular order, the top Conversion Optimization Best Practices for hotel websites are:
- Trust factor
- Calls to action
- De-cluttering of pages
Trust Factor comes from many different sources; it could be a money back guarantee for retail website or certificates/credentials for a law firm’s site. For a hotelier, things that help build trust on the website are things like:
- A Best Rate Guarantee statement
- Social interactions such as Likes
- Reviews
- Or simply by maintaining an active blog
Call to action best practices include things like:
- Legible Reservation Phone # on Home Page
- A Book Now Calendar that is accessible on any pages
- And most important of all, a site design that follows eye-tracking and usability guidelines. If you haven’t had a chance to read about it, you can find it here: https://blog.milestoneinternet.com/web-development/eye-tracking-usability-and-neuromarketing-research-ses-san-francisco/
De-cluttering of pages. This is an effort to prevent “Banner Blindness”, ensure all the pages of your website have a clear and concise purpose, and to avoid confusing your website visitors. This is especially important on pages with conversion elements. “Banner Blindness” is having multiple banners for special packages on the same page, this actually distracts the visitor from making a purchase decision and adds to their decision-making fatigue!
To sum it all up, we believed the three most important best practices for Conversion Optimization on a hotel website is adding trust factors, following call to action best and usability best practices, and focusing our web pages to prevent banner blindness.
Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html?pagewanted=all
Next, we recommend reading other marketing-related articles for hotel:
2021 Hotel Strategies to Increase Traffic and Revenue
Top 5 Digital Metrics for Hotels
Building Your Hotel’s Digital Presence with Google My Business
8 Amazing Hotel Promotion Ideas for Holiday 2020 and 2021
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