If you've ever tried booking a college accommodation from a resort chain, you won't be surprised that hotel chains score the best on customer usability among travel-related websites. The report arises from eDigitalResearch, the outcomes summed up by Travolution:
Online travel agencies are stealing direct reservations away from hotels, and particularly chains, due to the poor usability of those websites. Hoteliers must purchase their own, branded hotel website in order to retake direct online reservations from OTAs. eDigitalResearch took the following things into consideration when judging websites:
Ease of Navigation Information architecture (IA) is the structure of a website--where important info is placed. If your website has good IA, it now is easier to navigate. radisson The very best websites have all of the important info, such as for example photos, rooms, locations and a reservation button, right where in actuality the browser expects to find it. Websites with poor IA force the browser to hunt for the info he needs, which reduces his chance of actually booking a room.
Travel Inspiration What inspires a guest to book an area? Photos! Most people are visual learners. They should see exactly what a hotel is similar to before booking an area so that they can make their decision. Hotel websites need large, glossy photos front-and-center on the homepage, immediately showing off what that hotel needs to offer. They need easy-to-find photo galleries with interiors, exteriors and local sights.
Social Media With social media booming--Facebook, Twitter and now Google+--hoteliers must embrace it, because that's where in actuality the guests are. It doesn't matter how scary, intimidating or confusing social media is. You run a resort, your hotel needs guests, and your guests are on Facebook. It's as simple as that. Good web design incorporates social media into every page so that guests can certainly share your hotel making use of their friends and make you their thoughts.
Easy Booking Process
The worst thing a hotelier may do is make the reservation process confusing. I've seen this on innumerable hotel websites. Calender pickers that don't work or have unexplained prerequisites, reservation engines that provide sold inventory, unclear reservation confirmations, a reservation button buried beneath five sub-directories--and so on. Good web design simplifies the reservation process and places a reservation button on each page, so that guests can book an area wherever they are. This sounds obvious, but you'd be shocked just how many hotel websites completely miss it.
Contact Info
When guests have a concern, hoteliers must be there to answer it, so they can secure a reservation. Having hidden contact info frustrates your potential guest and keeps him from booking a room. Instead, place your contact number, address and email on each page, in the footer at the least, but also above-the-fold, in the event that you can.
Kudos to eDigitalResearch for doing the grunt-work and producing the report. The more hoteliers realize how bad their digital marketing is, the sooner they can correct it, wither employing a hotel web design service like buuteeq [http://buuteeq.com/en-us/default.php?channel=bd] or starting an easy blog on WordPress.