7 Reasons Why Visitors Bounce Off From Your Hotel’s Website

Your hotel website is a significant tool in generating more reservations as well as presence online. Alas, many websites fail to create that impact it intended to make. Having gone through hundreds of hotel websites by now, here are some small yet big reasons why a potential visitor moves out of your website without a booking.

Cluttered interface: Hotel website goes well with the maxim “Too many cooks spoil the broth”. Websites should present content wisely. All features and benefits cannot accommodate on a single page. The trick is to just arouse interest wisely and the customer will follow you. Hey, don’t forget to make the navigation user friendly.

Pages that take your entire life to load: Flash videos of a mesmerizing swimming pool view or cosy room looks good but steals a lot of precious time of your visitor. Another added disadvantage is that flash photos are not SEO friendly. 

Bad Photography: An image speaks a thousand words. Hiring a professional photographer in this case would be a better decision rather than using generic photos. A good picture that does justice to your hotel’s selling points is the bull’s eye which you need to be hit very carefully. Minute mistakes like table cloth not ironed, crippled bed covers, empty restaurant or pool or poor lightening can cost you a potential customer.

Website is not mobile friendly: Mobile bookings are expected to surpass desktop/ laptop bookings with each passing year. 19% of the hotel queries come from mobile devices. Thus, mobile web is expanding at a lightning fast speed. Having a website that works well on a laptop isn’t enough in the present scenario. Your website should be able to reach customers’ pocket.

Call to action button missing: Now that your visitors tend to view the home page far more than any other page of the website, a call to action button is a must to allow them immediately take actions and result in reservations. It should be placed at a strategic location so that it stands out from the content and design. Do not confuse your visitors with multiple options that make them lose attention.

Annoying background music: A background music that starts off by default as soon as the webpage loads has a high probability to annoy a visitor. Keep in mind, everyone’s taste in music is not the same as you. Secondly, imagine the awkward condition when a visitor is browsing hotel websites while in office or library and suddenly the music kick-starts. The frustrated user immediately hits close; and you lose a customer forever. A better alternative can be turning the music player to a default “off” condition and let the user choose if they want to turn the music on.

Keyword stuffed content for over optimization: Don’t make your readers frustrated with stuffed keywords. Write a copy for your visitors rather than search engines. You can lose a potential customer by doing so and your website might also get penalized.

TECHNOLOGY IN HOTELS: NEW HOUSEKEEPING APPS CAN REDUCE COSTS UPTO 50%

Apps for hotels are an upcoming marketing opportunity carrying two-fold benefits in the travel landscape- 1) Enhancing the guest experience, 2) Reducing operational costs and enhancing staff efficiencies. However, having an app alone isn’t the key. Instead, it’s turning that app into unique, helpful and memorable service for guests. It should be capable enough to attract potential guests and keep loyal ones coming back. Big chain hotels have already implemented several interesting apps that allow guests to order room service, check in, fault reporting as well as manage housekeeping tasks. Further, marketing your hotel app through social media or any free platforms can greatly boost up your hotel promotions at minimal costs.

The latest revolution being brought by the Hibox housekeeping app has proven to reduce around 50% time taken to carry out housekeeping tasks and has powerfully enhanced inter-staff communication. This innovative application is a web based service that is hosted on cloud and offers easy reporting of room status to PMS, fault reporting and management through photos, manage multiple cleaning sessions, track minibar usage etc. All this enables better servicing to guests, gives real-time picture of every room’s status and substantial reduction in manpower costs.

Apps are a latest trend for those hotels who wish to plunge into world-class status and offer guests a lasting impression of their stay. Not just this, today apps bear the potential to meet real business needs and make a commercial sense. With all hotels striving to be neck-to-neck in standards, mobile and web based apps can play a crucial role. 

As the technology develops, it is not just the hotel-branded apps participating in the competition. Instead, more and more hotels are heating up the competition using various third party apps that are offering tailor made solutions. Believe it or not, the more a hotel can grow its app technology, the better opportunities it has of competing in the tech-savvy world we live in. To conclude, much of a hotel’s repo revolves around digital platforms.

About Vibes Communications: Vibes Communications has been in the digital marketing space since 2010. We focus on creating powerful digital marketing strategies to help organizations reach their target market through the power of web. We have delivered effective solutions for small, medium and large businesses. We specialize in website development, digital marketing and mobile application development.

Visit our website to learn more about what we have done so far and we aspire to do