In this digital age, having a hotel-specific booking engine is crucial for driving direct bookings on your website, which in turn impacts profitability while saving vast amounts of money in OTA commissions.
NB: This is an article from Cendyn, one of our Expert Partners
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One of the booking engine’s most important components is ADA compliance, which refers to the legal requirements set forth by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Understanding ADA compliance
The ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act, is a federal law in the United States that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life. In the context of websites and hotel booking engines, there are specific ADA standards for accessible design, which state that all electronic and information technology must be accessible to people with disabilities. This includes your website’s booking engine reservation system.
The law recommends using the following standards and guidelines to achieve ADA-compliant requirements.
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
- Section 508 standards
Market potential
Research has shown that ensuring your booking engine is ADA compliant has a huge market potential to grow your revenue and profitability:
- Mandala research reports that American adults with disabilities spend more than $17 billion each year on travel.
- A World Bank Group report says that one billion people, which is around 15% of the world’s population, experience some form of disability.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 27% of adults, which is one-fourth of the U.S. population, have some type of disability.
Why ADA compliance is good for business
Achieving ADA compliance isn’t just about avoiding legal complications – it’s also a smart business move to grow your brand and reach more potential guests. Here’s why:
- Expanding your customer base: By making your booking engine ADA compliant, you’re opening your hotel doors to a broader audience, and a significant market segment. Ensuring more guests can effectively use your website can significantly increase direct bookings, profitability, and revenue growth.
- Drive loyalty: Beyond physical accommodations, the digital realm matters as ADA compliance ensures that the hotel’s booking engine caters to the needs of travelers with disabilities and provides a seamless experience for every guest. This future-proof strategy enhances the guest experience and fosters loyalty among travelers.
- Enhancing the user experience: Adhering to ADA-compliant requirements not only improves usability for individuals with disabilities but also enhances the overall user experience for all customers. This includes ensuring accurate alternative text and descriptions for images, enabling UI interface reading with assistive technology, and facilitating keyboard and mouse navigation within the UI interface.
- Building a positive brand image: Inclusivity and accessibility are increasingly important to consumers. Hoteliers can enhance their brand image and attract more customers by demonstrating a commitment to these values through an ADA-compliant booking engine.
In today’s competitive hospitality industry, ADA compliance is more than just a requirement—it’s a key component of a successful customer acquisition strategy. By ensuring that your hotel’s booking engine is accessible to all users, you can expand your customer base, foster loyalty, enhance the user experience, and build a positive brand image.
At Cendyn, we consider ADA compliance a shared responsibility. Our team of experts are always available to assist our partner hoteliers with the technical expertise required to achieve compliance, while hoteliers ensure their content and on-property features are accurately represented.
We are committed to achieving WCAG 2.1 level AA web accessibility standards. The Cendyn CRS and Cendyn Booking Engine platform ensures that relevant features, such as alternate text and descriptions for images, can be easily updated. We prioritize assistive technologies, ensuring the UI interface is readable and navigable using both the keyboard and mouse. Hoteliers are also provided with the flexibility to display ADA/WCAG compliance statements on the front end of their booking engine. Additionally, any new feature introduced to the booking engine undergoes regression to ensure it meets WCAG standards.
