LanguageWhen making travel arrangements, the selection of hotels can be quite a complicated task. This is because when you are about to visit an alien land that you know nothing of, you would want your hotel to be comfortable with no problems with regards to hospitality. The hotel should be such that it offers you plenty of luxuries and comforts, where you can relax after a hectic day. When it is a place you are visiting for the first time, you do not have the means to find out what sort of experience you can expect to have at a certain hotel. This is where it gets tricky.
This is the era of the internet. Every information that you require is available over the internet, as long as you know where to look. Every reputable business these days has a website that is meant to make things feasible for its clients. The purpose of these websites is to entice potential customers and provide them with a reflection of everything that the business stands for. Hotels are no different in this regard.
If you are looking for options with regards to the hotel that you ought to reside in during your visit, the best choice would be to take a look at the websites of the probable hotels. A good look at the site would reveal many secrets and make the decision easier for you.
We are now going to discuss the characteristics that make up a good hotel website. If a particular place has paid the utmost attention to keep their site enticing and attractive, there is a high chance that they will not let you down in terms of quality. So let us now move on to the things that you ought to make note of when you take a look at the websites of various hotels.
Simple yet innovative design
When you visit a website, the first thing you ought to take notice of should be the design. Too flashy or complicated designs are not the ones that will entice you. Instead, you should look for a hotel website that has a unique yet simple design. The design should be such that it leaves an impression on you.
Innovation is one thing, but it should not be so complicated that it makes you feel as though you have been entangled in a maze. The usage of colors is crucial. Most hotel websites make use of light colors, which is a good idea. Using black or dark colors is not that impressive.
Content is king
This is the cardinal rule for every website. Even hotel sites are not exempted from this. The website that you visit should have updated content at all times. You need to gauge if the people behind the site have taken the required steps to make their content attractive. The presence of broken links or speed and configuration problems implies that the website suffers from lack of attention. Such is not the hotel that you ought to contemplate visiting since they are not even trying to make you come their way.
The content should be simple yet powerful. It should not be burdened with tiresome images and neither should it be so complicated that the visitor faces difficulty in understanding it.
Complete information is available
At the end of the day, the basic purpose of visiting a website is to get as much information about the hotel as possible. A website that fails to provide you with what you are looking for does not belong to someone that you ought to collaborate with. The hotel website should have detailed information with regards to the facilities provided. There needs to be an ‘About Us’ page that gives you information regarding the hotel, its owner, and the team behind it. A website that features videos or virtual tours deserves extra marks.
Information about the areas that surround the place should also be a part of the site. There should be a brief guideline regarding tourist areas, public transportation, weather and so on.
Booking
A website should make things as feasible for you as possible. It gives the impression that the site belongs to people who are genuinely interested in catering to a large number of people. The hotel website should feature a booking engine link such as BookLogic Smart Booking Engine or a Hotel with Flight Package Deal engine on every page.
Keeping in touch with customers and guests
A website that endeavors to stay in contact with its guests is one that is run by a management that wishes to ascertain that it leaves no room for complaints. Look for the option of live chat on the websites you visit. Live chats are actively managed by the guest relations and sales departments to cater to the guests’ questions and to provide them with support where required. This is certainly a characteristic of a good hotel.
A platform for the guests
A good hotel website should give guests an opportunity to provide a review of their stay. A good hotel would not shy away from this since it would be confident of the service it provides. The guest review page should be such that it is open to all guests who have resided in your hotel. Do not give anyone a reason to doubt your credibility. Refrain from linking your review site to external websites.
Blogging
If a hotel is interested in attracting people there way, they would surely advertise all upcoming events that are about to be conducted in the city. Therefore, look for blogs of the hotel where you can find local news, upcoming events, festivals, business fairs and so on. They would also ensure that the events are cheap but comfortable so as to make it certain that they are accessible to a wider range of people.
Professional SEO management
A neglected website does not give a good reflection of the people who manage it. The right usage of keywords, attention to content, and other guidelines provided by SEO are maintained by those who care enough about the image that their website presents.
Impressive first look
The pop-up is the first thing that you see when you visit a website. A good site would manage this carefully. They would ensure that this pop-up is brief yet informative. Only a brief insight into promotions and offerings should be present. Multiple pop-ups and promotional links highlight the fact that the hotel has a lot to offer.
Emphasis on location
There should be great emphasis laid in the website on the location of the hotel and every bit of feasibility that it offers.
Catering to a wide range of options
You can judge this factor by seeing whether the site provides multi-language options as this proves that it is diverse and targets a larger section of people.
Diversity according to the IP address
A good website should aim to make things as feasible for the visitor as possible, irrespective of where the visitor belongs to. Therefore, a good site would have the feature of customized translations to different languages according to the target market or brand image. It should be such that it will change according to the IP of the visitor and thus, make things easier for him.
Simple and colorful
The template that the website uses should be simple so that one does not feel confused or lost. At the same time, the booking engine should be colorful and big so as to grab your attention in an instant.
A mobile version available
If you wish to ascertain that more and more people can gain access to your website, it is advisable that you ensure that your website has a mobile version available which is responsive and impressive.
A needle in a haystack
Due to the fact that nearly every hotel has a website of its own, at times you might feel that it is a rather troublesome and protracted exercise. But the truth is that it is rather fruitful. A website is supposed to be the reflection of the people that run it. If you feel that some neglect is evident in a website, you can expect the same in the services it offers. The exercise becomes simpler if you focus on a few core points. By looking for the factors mentioned above, you will find it easier to decide which hotel website is the one that you ought to be enticed by.
