Many hoteliers are willing to spend significant amounts on marketing campaigns, flashy advertising, meta search engines, and more, when in reality the first thing to invest in is essentially their own “home”, aka their website. And honestly, not even needing too much investment.
NB: This is an article from Direct Your Bookings
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Why is this so important? Because we can spend a lot of money trying to bring people and generate traffic to our site, but if our website doesn’t work properly, it’s like a leaking sink: we keep pouring water in, but if the sink continues to leak, it never fills up.
Consequently, focusing on just a few simple improvements to the quality of the site can make a big difference.
Often, the mistake is made of thinking that giving the management or development of the site to a freelancer or marketing agency means they know how to create websites effectively.
While this line of thinking is understandable, it’s not necessarily true. So, ensure you have these four things I’m about to list and pay attention to them.
If you already have them in place, you’re off to a good start; if not, then that should be your top priority in your overall marketing strategy.
1) Above the fold
The first point is what’s called “above the fold.”
The term comes from journalism since newspapers used to be folded and the top part was considered, indeed, above the fold; it was what could be seen without having to open or extend the newspaper.
In digital terms it similarly means what could be seen without any scrolling.
We want bookings, right? Metaphorically, asking users to book is akin asking them to marry us.
Since before getting married, we should invite our potential spouse out for a date.
That’s what the above the fold is for: a tool to ask them out.
It is crucial to persuade the person in front of us that we can offer them something interesting.
Often, I see hotels that have barely any text, relying only on images, and sometimes even just a few.
When there is text, it’s often wasted with phrases like “Welcome to Hotel [Name]” or “Welcome to [City Name].”
While these aren’t negative, they are neutral and don’t take full advantage of the above-the-fold space, which is the most important area for capturing attention.
Instead, use this space on the website to state your promise and help your potential customers picture what they’ll be experiencing if they choose you. For example, something like The luxury and relaxation you were looking for.
It doesn’t directly talk about you (the hotel), it talks about them (the customer). In fact, your hotel should just be functional to what they really want: luxury and relax.
