Why Your Hotel Needs its Own Website

A standalone website is vital to driving bookings and revenue.

All hotels need their own website and mobile website. Independent properties are more aware of this fact than their perceived nemesis, the franchise hotel. Many franchise hotels operate with a false assumption that their template corporate site is all they need to get by. Most times “getting by” is all a franchise property can hope for without seizing the ability to showcase their individuality through means of a standalone website. The grave mistake most independent property owners make is pinching pennies where it counts most – their website. A cheap looking, mobile-unfriendly, template website with minimal information and virtually zero support will get you nowhere. Especially with the advance of algorithm updates that have arrived. If you haven’t invested in mobile and responsive websites you can sit back and watch your hotel SEO ranking drop into oblivion.

New Features to Your Website – Free

If you do not have a hotel website Powered by INNsight, your website could be outdated within months. INNsight is a cutting-edge award-winning Technology Company, continually bringing new features to your hotel’s digital marketing presence; ensuring that you aren’t left behind. And yes, bringing new features to our clients is free.  We are not a website design company or internet marketing agency who is going to charge you thousands to just ‘set-it and forget it’!  We do website design and internet marketing but we are much more–your hotel website Powered by INNsight offers a powerful toolkit to help drive more direct bookings to your free custom designed and hosted hotel website.  There are competing products that simply offer templates–INNsight offers much more at a lower cost.  Your hotel website is fully custom designed at no cost, there are no long-term contracts and we also layer on internet marketing services to help drive traffic to your wonderfully designed hotel website.

Travelers are bypassing desktops and getting online using mobile devices for their travel research and planning. Travelers increasingly prefer booking online as the primary channel. 32% of travelers are booking their accommodations via websites. In the U.S., 50 % of business owners report their own website as the channel that generates the most bookings, followed by the telephone (22%).

With over half of the travelers choosing digital channels for their travel planning and research, traditional word of mouth has been amplified and online booking has become the global norm. The next logical step is mobile.

50% of travel-based mobile queries result in a purchase. Five percent of all hotel bookings are made via mobile devices, and 51% of business travelers use mobile devices to research travel information.

With this increasing rate of mobile diligence hotels must seize the opportunity to capitalize on the bookings that are made via mobile devices. It is essential to encourage mobile bookings by supplementing your stand-alone website with an optimized mobile website.

Promote Direct Bookings to Increase Profit Margins

It is a fact that hotels lose revenue every time a booking is made through an OTA. Having a great looking and great performing stand-alone website and mobile website Powered by INNsight allows you to uniquely highlight your property and offer specials and discounts, in turn, increasing your profit margins. Simply put, encourage travelers to book direct, and you will see the benefit.

Your Hotel Website is the Face of Your Business

Many hoteliers find themselves at a loss trying to grow their revenues with no clear structure on the best strategy to produce the highest returns. 50%-70% of all hotel website visitors and website bookings originate from the major search engines. With the evolving online landscape and the way prospective guests’ research, look, and book their lodging accommodations, it can be a daunting task for hoteliers to find the proper channels to reach their targeted audience. Implementing a successful strategy for your hotel is key.

Having a positive reputation on TripAdvisor and other OTA’s should be part of this strategy. Maintaining your presence on the OTA’s while driving direct, more profitable traffic, to your own website must become part of your strategy. INNsight offers hotels a multi-channel marketing strategy to reduce heavy reliance on OTA’s. Your standalone website and hotel booking engine delivers the most control over your brand, positioning, rate, and margins. By selling rooms on a website Powered by INNsight, you can save tens of thousands of dollars every year in egregious commissions charged by OTA’s while easily driving your own direct bookings.

Make sure you take a more proactive stance. Leaving your web strategy in “set it and forget it mode” ensures you will miss out on opportunities. Search engine ranking algorithms are rapidly changing and your business stands to benefit from your competitors who have a simple landing page.

Increased Opportunities

According to the global business travel association, overall U.S. business travel spending is expected to advance 6.2% to $310.2 billion this year. What does this mean for you? It means that there is more opportunity now than ever before to capitalize on this internet growth and claim your piece of this financial pie.

INNsight delivers a comprehensive online strategy that will not only help drive new guests to your website, but to your hotel. Our strategies can assist in increasing your website traffic, while increasing your room occupancy rates. Various SEO studies report revenue increases anywhere from 37% to over 100% once the website and its usability have been updated and improved.

Social Media is “Word of Mouth”

Social media has the power to engage your past, current, and future guests. It is the compass for travelers who don’t know you and would otherwise stay somewhere else.

Feedback from social circles can influence travel decisions ranging from a choice of hotel, airline, resorts, or trip destinations. 92% of consumers trust Social Media and recommendations from friends and family beyond other forms of advertising. Creating and managing an active social media presence, means your hotel can easily spread word of mouth recommendations and stay top of mind with former guests.

Online Consumer Reviews – The 2nd Most Trusted Form of Advertising

Another aspect that is critical for hotels online success is to complete and optimize local profiles and listings such as Google Places, Bing, & TripAdvisor. Search engines have evolved into a tool that is extremely personalized, offering tailored search results that are narrowed down to the zip code. It is mandatory to claim your hotel profiles to ensure your appearance in search results. Claiming your profiles can positively impact to your hotel and generate increased bookings.

INNsights

INNsight has made it easy to present your guest comments and feedback directly on your website. With INNsight you can easily present your guest comments and feedback to prospective guests with our “INNsights Reviews” directly ported into your website. We know that sometimes, no matter how excellent your property and service may be you can’t please every traveler. Some travelers will have a negative tone. No need to worry; we’ll algorithmically work to highlight feedback on your site that speaks volumes about your property.

Award Winning Hotel Technology

Your website must be part of the guest experience. Think of your website not as just a landing page for people to know you exist, but rather an extension of your hotel. The most important extension really; because your website is the public’s first glance at what is offered. It is your first chance to make a lasting impression. The professionals at INNsight will create quality content and enhance the user experience once guests arrive at your site, just as you would when they arrive at your hotel.

INNsight.com was honored with The California Hotel & Lodging Association’s 2014 Technology Innovation of the Year.

This award recognizes a company that uses technology to optimize success relative to guest service, cost reduction, and/or revenue growth in addition to innovation that can or will impact the industry at large.

At INNsight we work for you, with the common goal of increasing visibility, bookings, exposure and increasing your margins.