When it comes to encouraging travellers to make bookings through a hotel’s website, everyone knows that excellent images go a long way towards enticing them to click through and enter those all-important credit card details.However, many hotel owners overlook the fact that words – in the form of creative and engaging content – are also very important. Indeed, words and images need to work as a package if browsing visitors are to be converted into paying guests.Not sure how to make your hotel website design work for you? Here are some top tips to increase the likelihood of your bookings going up.Know your customers. It’s vital to know your target audience if you’re going to be aiming content their way, so you’ll need to do a little research in advance. Work out if your hotel mainly attracts business people or tourists, for instance, by monitoring current stays and their purpose using a checkbox on either online or paper forms.You can also keep an eye on hotel social media including Twitter hashtags to get a better idea of who your visitors are and what they might want. If it helps, you could even draw up mock profiles or personas and target them directly once you’ve done this, especially if writing without someone in mind just feels too abstract.
Tell people how you’re different. Another essential is letting would-be guests know what you can offer them so you’ll stand out from your competitors. Provide a little bit of your hotel’s history in your copy, especially if you’ve been around a long time.However, you should also link this in with plenty of information about your facilities and enticing information about why they might like to book a room with you and not someone else.It’s important to be specific here – so don’t just say, for example, that you have a swimming pool and children’s club; point out that guests can relax in the spacious, heated pool while their cares slip away, or spend quality time with their significant others thanks to responsible childcare facilities.Location, location, location. People don’t book hotels in a vacuum without considering information such as nearby resorts and their proximity, so tell them. Is your hotel a short walk to the beach, for instance? Are there wonderful restaurants a taxi ride away? Include it all in your copy, as it will encourage visitors to think of your property as a useful base for a great holiday or business trip.Help guests out. When you go on holiday, have you ever found yourself wondering how you’re going to get from the airport to your hotel? Or thinking about how you’ll get about once you’re at your resort? You won’t be alone. Your guests will probably have to navigate the potentially confusing world of transfers and travel once they get off the plane, so give them a helping hand.
If you can show you’ve provided a raft of helpful information on your website, it should boost their opinion of you – and make visitors more likely to book a stay. Make the most of SEO Cramming keywords into website copy is now thankfully a thing of the past, but that doesn’t mean you can’t capitalise on search engine optimisation benefits in the modern world of hotel marketing.Try using phrases and long-tailed keywords that would come up naturally when someone is searching for hotels or holidays, such as ‘modern hotel with pool’, to ensure your content is visible to search engine spiders and, therefore, would-be guests who haven’t yet heard your name.Be persuasive – not pushy. Nobody wants to feel as though they’re being browbeaten into booking a hotel room – and, in fact, they’ll just leave your page rather than organise a stay if this is the case.Consequently, you need to strike a balance between being persuasive and pushy within your website copy if you’re to get the best results.
Calls to action are often needed to give anyone on the fence that final impetus to go through to the payment page, so fit them in cleverly.As an example, you could point out that there are special rates available for anyone who books during the current month, or promise a free breakfast for guests who go for a particular booking option. Remember, though, to make them feel as though the decision was all theirs.Give our tips a try and see if you can make your copy brighter – and boost your bookings as a result.
