As a hotel owner or manager, you’re always looking for ways to increase bookings and drive revenue. One of the most effective ways to do this is by improving the conversion rate of your hotel website. Here are five quick conversion rate wins that can help you boost bookings and drive more revenue for your hotel.
1) Maintain user confidence throughout the buying process
You must maintain your customers’ confidence throughout the purchasing process if you want to persuade more visitors to book a hotel room straight from you. Offer a top-notch and organised booking experience to win over customers’ trust and establish a favourable first impression of your company.
Offering an online solution that is customised to your hotel brand gives you the most confidence. Customers will interact with your brand when they visit your website, and if they rely on it, they will trust you. They must continue to believe in your brand in order to keep this trust when using your reservation system. Their trust will erode if they are forwarded to an external booking engine that is not part of your website’s URL and doesn’t maintain your website’s and your brand’s identity.
Keep your visitors engaged and on your hotel website by using a customised booking engine which has your brands identity, rather than sending them to an external site to book with you, as this will increase the probability of them converting.
Also consider whether your reservation system offers a quick and secure means of payment. By offering a variety of payment options and assuring customers that their card information is handled & stored securely, as this may increase the credibility of your business. Make it very apparent that your booking engine’s integrated secure online payment processing will protect their credit card information.
2) Ensure that the user journey is seamless
To provide a satisfying user experience, your booking engine must be constructed and designed with the users in mind. Because of this, it’s critical to comprehend your brand identity, product offering, and customer profile while designing software that makes users feel as though it was made just for them and points them in the proper direction—making a reservation.
Consider these three factors if you want to improve user experience. To build brand trust and loyalty, start with the aesthetic appeal, which entails maintaining a unified identity across all of your online platforms.
The emotional resources come next. Introduce features that make your booking engine enjoyable to use in order to enhance user experience.
And finally, usability. Give your visitors a straightforward path into the booking process that is free of uncertainty and contains the least amount of information. Make the platform user-friendly, simple to use, and intuitive because it is designed for users.
3) Highlight the benefits of booking direct
Show your guests the advantages of making a direct reservation with you. If consumers can see the value in making the reservation on your company’s website, they are more inclined to do so.
For instance, Britannia Hotels’ website features a special page that stresses the advantages of making a direct reservation there that customers won’t discover with any OTA: Best price via reward programme; no additional fees; a wide range of packages; a quick and easy booking process; no cancellation fees.
You can use phrases like “last room available,” “limited offers,” “number of individuals looking at the room,” and “limited time in acquiring the room offer” to create a sense of urgency in your audience. Show how fantastic your hotel is, highlight the one-of-a-kind experience that visitors can’t miss, and showcase guest experiences by using photographs and testimonials.
4) Boost your reach with mobile optimisation and metasearch
The majority of travellers begin their trip planning online, and 60% of your consumers use their mobile devices and tablets to look for and book hotels.
Travellers are choosing this platform to find their next lodging because of the new capabilities and user-friendly front end of Google Hotel Ads. A list of hotels is displayed by metasearch channels according to a specified destination and set of requirements. You increase your chances of receiving direct reservations by comparing your direct rates to those of the OTAs.
You acquire a new channel to advertise your website to potential customers when you integrate it with Google Hotel Ads, TripAdvisor, and Trivago. This increases your likelihood of getting direct bookings and improves conversion rate.
You may reach more people if your booking engine is responsive and all of your website pages are optimised for whatever device that your potential visitors may be using.
5) Draw attention to the qualities that matter to your customers
There isn’t one booking engine that works for all hotels because each one has a unique target market, set of services, and brand. You must provide a method that is customised for your situation and in line with your marketing objectives.
– Establish an emotional connection with your visitors by displaying a lovely collection of images of your hotel’s interior spaces, particularly its rooms.
– Incorporate customer reviews into the reservation process so that visitors may see what other guests have to say and base their choice on their positive experiences.
– Highlight the affordability of staying at your establishment through the room rates, available amenities, and location. Increase brand credibility most critically by using an e-commerce platform that was expertly planned and constructed.
These are a few pertinent tactics you may use in your booking engine to start increasing your conversion rate. In conclusion, your online booking system must show all relevant data that customers require while making a reservation. The booking procedure must, above all else, be straightforward, simple to use, and user-friendly. Don’t make your visitors’ lives more difficult. Help them find what they need by using your web platform to reserve a room at your hotel.
Enjoyed our last quick conversion wins episode? Why not listen to part two below!