Intensifying competition, the proliferation of video and changing travel shopper behavior are a few key drivers encouraging hotel owners and marketers to rethink their existing approaches to online revenue generating activities. Put yourself in the shoes of an active online travel shopper looking to book a hotel in downtown New York for a weekend getaway with friends. As you search the Internet for hotels that meet your buying criteria - price point, room size, amenities, proximity to attractions, shopping and nightlife, you find several comparable hotels and struggle to choose the "right one." What is it that motivates you to choose one hotel over the others? READ MORE

Customer Relationship Marketing more or less evolved from a long line of existing initiatives. It predominantly grew out of database marketing in the early 1980's, most notably with American Airlines' introduction of the landmark AAdvantage frequent flyer program (which ironically itself was somewhat of an evolution of the cultural phenomenon that was S&H Green Stamps) and was quickly followed in the hospitality industry just a few years later by Holiday Inn and Marriott. READ MORE

Because searching for the perfect vacation is not an every day affair, hotels are engaged in a continuous battle to retain customer mindshare both when they are and - perhaps most importantly - when they are not actively seeking to travel. While price is an important facet to the hotelier's marketing effectiveness, it is not one that companies can really hang their hat on. On the Internet, competitors are only a click away and, according to a recent Forrester Research survey, many internet retailers are addressing this challenge by making customer service a priority by investing in live customer service solutions (33 percent) and streamlining their guest checkout process (53 percent) within the next year. READ MORE

Today's world of travel is profoundly changed. Thanks largely to technology, we live in an "It's all about me" world for everyone - from kids with their first cell phone to group tour travelers to celebrities and heads of state. This "make it for me" world was developed by Gen X, who demand it; discovered by the Baby Boomers, who take to it; and is taken for granted by the Millenniums, our future customers. Simply put, consumers expect to get what they want when they want and how they want it. As Dr. Lalia Rach has written, "Knowing me - that's luxury." So why then, do we as hoteliers too often serve up information, offers and incentives to broad market segments with so little consideration of the individual and his or her particular preferences, cultural nuances, age, even how he or she relates to the technology that provide the information? READ MORE

Hotel operators have been, for the most part, aggressive and smart in offering potential customers information about their properties online. In fact, the Web and e-commerce play such a central role in attracting customers, we often don't think about how a Website might actually turn off prospective clients. Hotels in the U.S. generated more than $105.3 billion in revenue last year. That number is expected to grow according to the American Hotel & Lodging Association. That said, here are five Website missteps that that are sure to turn off your customers, before you've even spoken with them. READ MORE

Many independent hotel managers are unhappy with the small amount of business generated by their websites. This should come as no surprise as these websites have poor visibility, and often less than 20 visitors a day. Simple techniques like being present in a few online channels and registering for Google Local Business can dramatically increase the level of visibility of an independent hotel's website. This article suggests 5 simple and 5 advanced tips to dramatically boost the visibility of an independent hotel's website as a first step to create a structured online strategy to ensure e-commerce success. READ MORE

The electronic age has arrived. For some hotels, the Internet has represented just another place to market. They've created a website, added a booking engine, and maybe done some rudimentary marketing. Yet for others, it's a renaissance of opportunity-with a new generation of hotel professionals finding endless ways to capitalize and gain market share. Where does your hotel fit on the spectrum? Are you in the game with a ho-hum website? Or have you put on your boardies, grabbed your board, and popped up to ride the next wave? READ MORE

Travelers who make the Web a first stop when researching hotels and booking reservations aren't just finding your business. They're just as easily being wooed by, and clicking that button to check out your competition. How can hotels measure online success? Now more than ever, it comes down to being able to measure the results of the enhancements you put on your site. Here, I offer seven tricks designed to help you measurably strengthen customer loyalty via your Web sites and lift online reservation rates, even in these interesting economic times. READ MORE

One of the things that hospitality marketers got "right" before many other industries is the practice of maintaining wonderfully detailed customer records and databases. The problem, however, is many hospitality marketers still haven't learned to use email marketing to its full capacity and they continue to rely primarily on ad hoc email campaigns and direct mail to reach their audiences. By doing so, they completely fail to use the great data they have while it's still fresh, leading to disappointing results. To succeed in today's environment, hospitality companies must do better... READ MORE

The revolution in marketing and business affairs that has placed the customer at the epicenter of all strategic and tactical thinking has become so mainstream that the acronym CRM can be tossed around in television advertisements (see Microsoft's recent ads) without any need for further explanation. From top to bottom, sector to sector, it has become increasingly clear that everybody "gets it" and that the voice of the customer has its place at even the highest level of decision-making. This is particularly true of the hotel industry, where loyalty is king and customer feedback goes a long way towards the maintenance of competitive advantage. But even the most sophisticated combination of clickstream data, usability reports, and attitudinal information might not be enough to know your website visitor completely. READ MORE

It goes without saying that probably the most important people who visit your web site are those that are there to make a reservation. Satisfying their needs quickly and allowing them to get the information they need to complete the reservation process will translate into increased revenue, increased customer loyalty and a high probability that your visitors will refer friends and associates to your web site. One of the first things you must do to make your site "look to book" friendly is understand who is visiting your site and for what purpose. Put another way, what percentage of your total visitors are bookers as opposed to lookers? In a recent report we published with HSMAI and Cindy Estis Green, information from our own client database revealed 41% of all website visitors to hospitality websites come with the intention of making or changing a reservation. Think about that number. Four out of every ten visitors to your site are there to make or change a reservation. What is disturbing is that 21% of the people visiting your site to make or change a reservation abandon the site before completing their purpose of visit. READ MORE

It may seem like too simple a solution, but when you get right down to the basics, the best way to learn what your customers and web site users really want is to ask them. Off-the-shelf behavioral tracking solutions can help you watch what your customers and visitors are doing but to really understand what is going on in their hearts and minds, you have to communicate with them. You have to listen to them and one of the best ways is getting feedback from them - feedback from potential customers as well from your most valued visitors - the online bookers. On the net, the user is king and you should be using your site to engage them in a dialogue. You can't assume by simply watching what they do that you know what they are thinking. Even more important, every opportunity you give your customers and visitors to interact with you is another opportunity to extend your relationship with them and increase lifetime customer value. It builds goodwill and fosters a sense of community that is so critical if you want to increase visit frequency to your site. READ MORE

A recent research report from The Boston Consulting Group estimates that 65% of all online consumers bail out of a transaction and abandon a shopping cart before the transaction is completed. Since there is not that great a difference between making an online purchase and making an online reservation - both requiring the use of a credit card, it is probably a fair guess that the Boston Consulting Group estimate for shopping cart abandonment is not far off the mark for the hospitality sector. In fact, feedback from 34,000 visitors to hospitality web sites captured in The Rush Report on User Satisfaction & Hotel Web Site Performance published by Hospitality e-Business Strategies confirms that the overall "look to book" ratio in the sector is approximately 65/35 - For every ten people who visit your site only three actually make a reservation. Imagine how the numbers might look if you could move that look to book ratio to fifty/fifty. Do the math and I'm sure you will agree reservation abandonment is one of the most important issue facing hospitality web sites today. READ MORE

In the past, whenever a customer had a question online, companies were quick to offer them FAQs, and perhaps an email address. While these self-help strategies are fine for handling routine questions, they are ineffective at turning undecided prospects into customers. The days of using the Web as an interactive brochure are long gone. Hotels need to do much more to assure they turn online lookers into bookers. In addition, now that the competition is just a click away, customers will not hesitate to leave your site (and your brand) if they do not get quick resolution to their problems. READ MORE

According to recent Group Travel Research conducted by PhoCusWright, the total groups and meetings market is projected to be $175 billion in gross bookings by 2008, of which hotels can expect $34.3 billion. Among the baby boomer generation, leisure travel alone has increased by 25 percent since 2003, according to a report in USA Today. Generation X, though smaller in numbers, is making up the dollars spent difference by spending more per trip than wealthier baby boomers. In 2004, Xers, the 60 million Americans aged 25-40, spent an estimated $2,140 per capita on travel involving a hotels stay, versus the boomers' $2,016, according to travel research firm D.K. Shifflet & Associates. This generation of savvy, well-funded travelers is also more likely to go online to research and book their group getaways. After all, this is a generation used to booking their individual travel on websites such as Travelocity and Orbitz or hotel and airline websites. It's highly unlikely that those weaned on online travel sites will change gears when it comes to researching and booking their group travel. READ MORE

Don't let the title of this article mislead you - what hoteliers need to do to sell hotel rooms online is no secret. It's all about better merchandising with content that inspires and motivates shoppers to book. More than just rates, inventory and driving traffic to a booking engine, selling hotel rooms online involves making engaging, detailed visual and written content available to travel shoppers on all the digital channels they use throughout the shopping journey. READ MORE

Many independent hotel managers are unhappy with the amount of business generated by their websites. This should come as no surprise as many of these websites have been designed as "online brochures" and lack the features to incent visitors to book. Creating a sales-focused website is not trivial: there are many important details that must be taken into account. Some high-end marketing agencies have focused on delivering custom solutions to four and five-star hotels; smaller, independent hotels have traditionally relied on freelance web designers and developers to keep costs under control. Now, a few vendors provide integrated solutions that enable a high-end web presence that is focused on maximizing the number of online bookings on a small hotel budget. READ MORE

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" So my boss in the banking world used to keep telling me. But what if it is broke? Or, even worse, what if you don't know whether or not it is "broke"? Maybe your website is performing well enough now, but some changes could bump your results to stellar? These are the quandaries many hoteliers face when it comes to changing their websites. READ MORE

Online travelers generally abandon Web sites when faced with pricing or technical support issues. In the past, hotels felt they could address these concerns by providing prospective customers with self-service tools, such as an "About Us" page or FAQs. However, due to the complex nature of some transactions, whether making hotel reservations or booking special travel packages, companies are recognizing that they need to be more effective at securing, supporting, and retaining their online customers. Here, I offer five effective methods designed to help hotels increase revenue and secure online transactions, even in these shifting economic times. READ MORE

With tax season behind us and streamlined budgets on the mind, it is time for hoteliers to undergo an audit of their online marketing strategies as well. In this article, I will give readers an inside look at an actual nline strategy audit for a top tier hotelier. We will review their paid earch, SEO and consumer shopping feed strategy as well as determine what was working well for them and where they needed to improve. Learn the secrets of brand versus non-brand search campaigns, landing page optimization and keyword bidding strategies to keep your campaigns lean, mean and profitable. READ MORE

As the current recession impacts the travel industry, it is more vital than ever to focus on gaining incremental customers and retaining your market share. Online campaigns must quickly capture customers' attention and create undeniable incentive to visit your site and transact once they arrive. Read the insights of Blake Suggs and Teri Utley, of Range Online Media, and learn the top 10 tips for optimizing your online campaigns in today's tough economic conditions. From new ways to capitalize on travel's seasonal advantages and highlighting your property's unique features to campaign re-design and geo-targeting, you will learn the secrets of the online trade that will help you succeed. READ MORE

Hotel groups are moving an increased share of their advertising dollars to online venues for a few key reasons: Online advertising is trackable, the message can be changed quickly, and most importantly, it is in a medium where the majority of unmanaged business and leisure travel bookings take place. The biggest benefactors are of course, the large (general) search engines: Google, Yahoo and MSN. Hitwise announced recently that Google accounted for 65.13 percent of all US searches in the four weeks ending May 26, 2007. READ MORE

Today, hoteliers with varying Internet experience may certainly attempt to dabble in SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing) on their own to increase bookings, but both have costs associated with them. The former does not have a participation cost, but there is still a labor cost associated with the marketing executive hired to manage the program. SEM, on the other hand, can be an expensive and risky venture, and one best managed by an individual well-versed in the metrics and methods. This person should also devote several hours a week - if not daily - on the management of purchasing the keywords from companies such as Yahoo!, MSN, and Google. A positive ROI must be maintained to keep a program like this ongoing. Costs can outweigh benefits if the marketer is not careful. READ MORE

Many independent hoteliers confess they know that doing a better job generating and managing online reservations is the single greatest source of untapped revenue. Yet creating an online site that actually simplifies bookings and transactions seems woefully out of reach for most in-house independent managers who don't have the luxury of an online staff. Here are some key questions to ask when you are sitting down with an online reservation technology vendor who is keen to secure your business, or meeting with your current partner to plan your 2008 online priorities. READ MORE

The paramount importance of the web as a sales channel for hotel brands has been amply proven in recent years. As such, optimizing the online booking process has become the Holy Grail for marketers and the subject of much analysis and punditry. All can agree that the goal is to weed out any potential sources of dissatisfaction and to give the booker a clear, streamlined, and unimpeded path to checkout, armed with all the information he or she needs to feel comfortable and satisfied with his or her decision to reserve online with your brand. READ MORE

So, you're using analytics. But how are you really doing? Have you set your own benchmarks? Are you improving against them? Do you know how you're performing against your industry? Is your "search function" a worthwhile feature on the site? Is your home page take too long to load? Is your reservation process too confusing and time consuming? Obtaining a better understanding of how, when and why your visitors interact with your web site will provide you with a wealth of information to increase revenue, enhance your brand image and increase profitability. READ MORE

When it comes to updating your web site, the first and most obvious question your web team must ask themselves is - "did the site meet, surpass or fall short of the objectives that were set out last year?" In order to answer that question, you must have previously established clear, quantifiable objectives. You would be surprised to learn that there are still quite a few relatively sophisticated site development teams out there that fail to quantify their objectives into terms that can be measured and benchmarked. And as the saying goes, you can't manage what you can't measure and when it comes to the web, it is imperative that you are able to quantify your site's performance against objectives and benchmarks. READ MORE

As an industry that combines hands-on services with bricks and mortar "product," hospitality is generally at the trailing edge of the technology adoption curve. Like many industries, hospitality did not anticipate the rapid emergence of the Internet, which created an opportunity for nimble upstarts such as Expedia, Travelocity and Hotels.com to exploit the growth and consumer interest in on-line travel services. Thanks in large part to first-mover advantage, those intermediaries have not only gained remarkable penetration, but - like many Web players - have changed the operating paradigm by disconnecting the supplier from the customer (disintermediation) and driving down room rates by effectively commoditizing the hotel product. Until now the answer has been to attempt to beat these new-breed competitors at their own game. One example is the popular "best rate guarantee" that has been implemented by virtually all major brands. While the basis is sound - encourage travelers to book via the chain's direct channel to ensure that they will get the best price - in reality, it merely reinforces the focus on price as the sole determining factor and serves to push us further down this slippery slope toward commoditization. READ MORE

After the much ballyhooed success of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in some of the other areas of the travel supply and value chains - including airlines, casinos and even credit card companies - it's been prophesized that CRM will be the panacea to cure many of the hotel industry's current ailments. And considering that our industry, while traditionally late to the game, does eventually play "follow the leader" on a wide variety of technologies and services, it's not surprising that so many pundits have expected us to jump on the CRM bandwagon. Unfortunately, CRM as it's being described (and in some instances being deployed) appears destined to be just yet another futile treasure hunt - the heir to TQM, ERP, Six Sigma and the rest of yesterday's magic cures. Not to say that CRM offers no value - quite the opposite. The issue, however, is that to be truly valuable to the hospitality industry, CRM needs to be dramatically altered from its traditional view as a transactional technology into a more beneficial operational service that has a meaningful impact not just on the marketing department, but on our guests themselves during their visit. READ MORE

Today's travelers are more tech savvy than ever. This means that when a consumer turns to your Web site he or she expects an engaging and rewarding experience, as sophisticated as any other online shopping experience. Advancements in Web technology are paving the way for the ultimate online customer experience. This creates a catch-22 for hotels, since it creates both a challenge and an opportunity. The Web gives travelers easy access to information not only about your hotel, but also your competitors' properties. The challenge here is to never give your guests a reason to abandon your Web site. The opportunity is that if you can keep them coming back for more visits, you can captivate new visitors and ensure their satisfaction so they become repeat and profitable customers. Below, I offer ten strategic secrets to help improve the customer experience for visitors to your Web site, and thus grow online bookings and increase your ability to strengthen longer term customer loyalty. READ MORE

Hotel managers and sales directors seem to forget that while they see their beautiful hotel or resort everyday, the rest of the world doesn't. The idea eludes them that before vacationers make reservations at an expensive resort, they want to see the property. And there's a "disconnect" between the website and their other advertising and marketing tools. Its always puzzled me why hotels keep their Virtual Tour a "secret." Some don't put a link to the tour on their website main navigation menu and don't guide callers to the tour over the phone. Using other advertising and marketing media to drive traffic to your website (hotel or franchise) just makes sense. READ MORE

The call to the Sales Department comes in, "Hello, I'd like some information about having a wedding reception for 200 people at your hotel." Now you have to convince the bride-to-be your hotel is "thee" place to hold her reception, before she asks you to mail her one of your banquet menu/info packages and moves on calling her list of your competitors for their banquet menu/info packages. There wouldn't be a problem if you could magically transport one of your brochures over the telephone or if they were visiting your property. Sales or Reservations would just take them on a Property Tour. The good news is, it is possible to send your brochure over phone lines and take a potential customer on a long distance property tour. All it takes is a well-planned website and a Virtual Tour. READ MORE

I plan to be in Crete for a conference this spring. My husband and I love Greece, so we are thinking of bringing our children along, and stopping in Athens for a couple of days on our way to Crete. Not knowing where to stay, I started with a Google search for "hotels Athens". Google returned 1,510,000 results. Gee, that narrows it down. So what will make me decide which results to click on? Obviously, results on the first page, or first couple of pages, are the most likely to get looked at, so search engine optimization of your site and/or search engine advertising are crucial. But let's assume for a moment that you've done that successfully, and landed on the first page of results. Here's what I had to choose from... READ MORE

Potential Guests want to see your rooms, (you know, the place they're going spend a lot of time in), your fine dining restaurant (where a couple can have a romantic dinner), recreation facilities like the pool (where their kids want to spend as much time as possible) and the ballroom (where the bride-to-be may be having her wedding reception). They want to see everything! Everything that might convince them to stay at your hotel instead of your competition. You want them to see the hotel, too. Don't you? The new plasma-screen TVs and work desks in the rooms, even the small flat-screen on the wall in the suite bathrooms. The upgraded bedspreads, linen and furniture too? You want to show off after spending thousands, even millions of dollars, to upgrade and update your rooms, don't you? And the views too, like the mountains, the lake, a city skyline, the ocean, a desert sunset, etc. Again, you want them to see everything that might convince them to stay at your hotel instead of your competition, don't you? READ MORE

In the current economy, hospitality providers are increasingly seeking ways to boost productivity and streamline operations. At the same time, they are trying to become more environmentally responsible. A document management system can help hotels achieve all of these goals and more. Best of all, most hotels that implement a document management solution realize a fast return on investment due to both direct and indirect cost savings. If you're still using a traditional paper-based filing system, it's time to consider the transition to electronic document management. Following are six top reasons to implement a paperless solution at your property. READ MORE

No one would dispute that OTA's and Hotel Suppliers are irrevocably tied together, but over the years the love-hate relationship has gone through several evolutions, each of which has borne out a valuable lesson. Obviously the ultimate goal for a supplier would be to have every booking come through its .com. This hasn't happened, and it most likely won't ever happen. The primary reason? Today's travel buyers like to shop and see what's out there. With the economy as it is, more than ever, the ones that are making travel plans are taking every step necessary to shop for a rate that will allow them to stretch their dollar as far as they can. When there are fewer travelers, which is happening now, the tension escalates even more because the Online Travel Agency and the Hotel Supplier are fighting even harder for that dollar. READ MORE

The overriding goal is a satisfying user experience. However, any hotel or hotel chain must first ensure that the booking engine not only reflects the proper image of the property but allows the property to manage their revenue management strategy as well. Then of course there is the issue of usability. If the engine is too confusing or dysfunctional no amount of wonderful images or descriptive text will help... READ MORE

You know from experience that there's more to creating that wonderful hotel environment than just a good looking lobby. You need staff who greet guests well, facilities in good repair, comfortable beds, clean bathrooms, and so on. The same goes for your website: the best-looking website in the world might still not generate more bookings for you if you commit one or more of these common hotel website errors: READ MORE

This year, experts predict that business travel will rebound to pre-9/11 levels for the first time. The National Business Travelers Association says there will be 219 million domestic business trips in 2005, up from 210.5 million in 2003 and awfully close to the 220 million made in 2000. This is good news for travel aggregators and suppliers alike - great news, really. But how do travel marketing executives leverage this upswing in terms of online marketing? Well, luckily there is even more good news: There are still plenty of stones left unturned in the online marketing arena, especially in the search engine marketing space (which I must say is the darling of the online marketing world). READ MORE

When was the last time your company made major changes to its web site? I'm not just talking about adding new specials or changing pricing; I mean some significant redesign. If you haven't done so within the past year or two, it is time. Recent research on hotel websites shows that consumer expectations of hotel sites are rising. So even if your site has not changed it may be starting to look bad versus the competition. And in the web world, you've got a lot of competition. READ MORE

The explosion of the "merchant model" after 9/11 caught the hospitality industry by surprise. Over the last 4 years many hoteliers have been struggling to decrease their dependence on the online merchants and to develop direct online distribution strategies of their own. Hoteliers are also trying to find answers to several critical questions: does the cost of doing business with online merchants outweigh the cost of not doing business with them? What will be those crucial developments in the online hospitality marketplace over the next five years and what can hoteliers do to prepare for and take advantage of them now? This paper provokes thoughts that may help shape executive decisions under the current circumstances. READ MORE

With more and more revenues in hospitality being generated from the Internet, predictions over the next three years from now will see the Internet contributing over 20% of all hotel bookings and convincingly surpassing total GDS bookings. With such an industrial shift toward the web, hoteliers need intelligence tools to measure performance against its competitive set on direct and indirect channels outside of the GDS. Hoteliers are in search of Internet intelligence reports that make sense. Here's what sales & marketing, and revenue managers should be asking in order to competently formulate their online pricing and inventory control strategy... READ MORE

A little over a year ago I published the article "Brand Erosion or How Not to Market Your Hotel on the Web", which created a lot of commentaries and, we hope, made at least some hoteliers re-examine their online distribution strategies. Since 9/11, in times of unprecedented crisis and continued economic downturn, the Web allowed Internet-savvy and proactive suppliers and intermediaries to establish rewarding interactive relationships with their customers, move inventory and stay ahead of the competition. At the same time it punished those suppliers who had no clear Internet strategy and understanding how the Web and online distribution work. What has changed since then? READ MORE

Direct-to-consumer online distribution should become the foundation, the main focus of any hotelier's online distribution strategy. In the offline world, hoteliers are the best direct salesmen with an estimated 75% of all reservations sold directly to consumers. Online, the industry direct sales average 52% (PhoCusWright, 2002) with many hoteliers reporting less than 5%. As a result, many hoteliers cede control of their inventory and pricing property to online intermediaries, at an enormous cost financially and to brand integrity. Website optimization is the first step toward building a robust direct online distribution strategy. READ MORE

A closer look at the Total Online Distribution Channel Strategy. 9/11 created a major shift in how consumers book travel. The crisis created a dramatic drop in demand, which forced travel suppliers to introduce unprecedented discounts. Airlines, hotels and all other travel suppliers struggled to sell seats, rooms, car rentals to a significantly shrunk leisure and business travel market. The Internet allowed for smart and proactive suppliers to connect with their customers, move inventory and stay ahead of the competition. There has never been a better time to embrace the Internet and online distribution in particular. But you have to know that the Web can be either your best ally or your worst enemy. READ MORE

Billions of pages going to trillions. Most of the information available online is replicated again and again, then twisted, corrupted and re-entered. When one search question retrieves one million answers, the system fails -- results have little or no value. Now that the titans of e-commerce have been identified, search engines are leading the way for consumers online. At the same time, serious questions are emerging related to the efficacy of these search engines, among them "When will the search engines collide?" and, "How soon and why could this happen?" If search engines are the principal devices for business access, then today's search results, which often include a great deal of irrelevant information, are a serious problem. Imagine looking at a stock ticker tape, where you get lottery numbers, weather reports, and airline schedules nicely arranged in matching fonts, along with the stock prices. How long would such a product last? Not one second. READ MORE

Consumers are consistently turning to the Internet to book their travel accommodations, so now more than ever it is critical to create a seamless experience for them. Over the years, the Web has grown to be one of the greatest resources for travelers looking to compare options, explore potential destinations and research accommodations. Yet because booking on the Web is so easy and there are so many competitive sites available, hotels and resorts must ensure their Web sites provide customers with a memorable experience not only to gain their business, but also to keep them coming back for more. READ MORE

It's no secret that hotels, like all businesses, are in deep competition as the world economy struggles. Fewer people are taking trips, and those in the travel and leisure industry are forced to compete for declining business. With the Web serving as an extension of the hotel brand, delivering a positive experience online can make the difference between a browser and a booker. How can hotels maximize this opportunity to establish a brand affinity through their Web presence? In this article, I've listed five best tactics for just that. READ MORE

In today's tempestuous economy, with demand and hotel occupancies declining, hoteliers are looking for strategies to drive demand for their hotel. Many use discounting as their sole strategy for maintaining occupancy. What they find, however, is that cutting prices alone does not drive new demand; it only diminishes the return on existing demand. What they should be focused on is capturing more of the demand that is already there-that is, gaining market share from the competition. Price is part, but not all, of a winning strategy. READ MORE

There has been an increasing level of interest over the past several years in virtual tours as a way to generate the interest of prospective hospitality guests. Virtual tours are a specialty type of photography that allows the viewer to experience everything surrounding the camera. Virtual tours provide a great tool for online or offline marketing to prospective private or business hotel guests who want to know exactly what features and amenities are offered at a particular property. While two-dimensional photos can simply highlight areas of your properties online, virtual tours bring your potential guests into the center of a scene where they can interactively scan entire areas within one image. Studies have shown that interactivity on websites increases satisfaction and keeps visitors on your site longer. Virtual tours have proven to facilitate property promotion and reflect a more professional and sophisticated brand. Once created, a virtual tour serves as an evergreen online presentation of the best your facilities have to offer. The atmosphere and style of travel accommodations are a major determining factor, in addition to price, location and availability. Further, a virtual tour can better communicate the value and feel of a property than a written description or a two-dimensional photography. READ MORE

After some consideration, it's now time for you to capture a virtual tour. Perhaps your competitors are marketing their properties using virtual tours, showing off their high-quality accommodations for business and leisure. Or perhaps you have had a professional virtual tour photographer call on you, pointing out the potential return on investment of virtual tour photography on your web site, in-lobby kiosk, or off-line CDROM marketing piece. Or perhaps you want your in-house marketing department to utilize new approaches to creating demand for your companies' hospitality services. No matter what the reason, once you have decided to capture a virtual tour, you will invariably wonder which type of virtual tour photography to use. Like many technical specialties, there are many options and "speeds and feeds" related to panoramic photography. Considerations go beyond the simple quantification of total cost. Yes, at the end of it, cost will be the most tangible consideration. But for approximately the same cost, you will have a wide range of options available. How do you decide which is best for your need? READ MORE

Some companies in the hospitality industry consider a simple online presence to be all they need in order to compete. For these companies, one or two pages with a company logo, a street address, contact information, and a couple of photographs is more than enough to represent the business to those searching online locally. As a requirement for doing business in the Internet age, it is often difficult to quantify the return on investment of this type of basic Web presence. Intuitively, it is easy to see the damage a lack of a simple Internet presence can have on even the smallest bed & breakfast. Conversely, the marginal cost of developing a one or two page website is comparable to a days' utility bill or less. Clearly, the vast majority of the hospitality industry has embraced the power of online content. The question is: have we all harnessed its full revenue-generating potential? READ MORE

Showcasing hotel property through photography is a complicated process in this modern digital age. Today, photography is no longer used simply for print materials such as brochures or other promotional pieces. The contemporary business and leisure traveler often expects to be able to experience a prospective property online. Increasingly, potential visitors also want to visually explore the full range of services offered at a facility including rooms, health club, pool, restaurants, conference rooms and concierge lounge. Virtual tour photography is a natural for this type of presentation. Although the idea of photographing a property or properties might seem like a no-brainer, the actual project from thought to product can be a daunting task. In any type of photography project, there needs to be a strong organizational aspect and numerous decisions should be made in advance to avoid excessive waste of time and money. READ MORE

Companies are getting smarter about Web visitors, and are taking aggressive steps to optimize every visit in order to maximize sales conversion, increase customer loyalty and reduce website abandonment. Click to call provides the ability to track online sessions, detect trends and provide a dynamically placed assist if a prospect has lingered on a single page for a specified amount of time, or exhibited signs of website abandonment. This data garnered from a customer's online browsing can be viewed on its own, or integrated with existing data sources for a complete view of the customer and a seamless, online transaction experience. READ MORE

The challenge put before the hotelier is how to run a profitable and vibrant online channel in a tremendously price-sensitive environment. This article will explore cost sensitivity by various important and high value visitor segments during the first quarter of 2008. I'll be referencing data collected from our Voice of Customer surveys, which currently run on the websites of 29 major hospitality brands. Combined, these studies comprise the voices of over 100,000 actual website visitors. READ MORE

It's a pretty well-known fact that baby boomers currently dominate a huge sector of the consumer market. They have the numbers; they have the influence; they have the money. Born between 1946 and 1964, baby boomers represent more than a quarter of the total population, and they generally appreciate the good things in life. And with more than $2.1 trillion in spending power, they can afford them. Needless to say, baby boomers are vitally important to the travel industry. As such, it's imperative that we note the nuances of this market segment. After all, any category that includes the Clintons, Bush, Madonna, Donald Trump, and John Travolta, among many others, is bound to have its issues. READ MORE

Competing in the hospitality environment has never been more challenging. The number of vendors and products is overwhelming. Competitors are constantly looking for a marketing advantage. And hotels within your competitive set are likely to be utilizing business intelligence more than ever before. In this environment, hotels that succeed must do more than merely 'keep up' with the competition. They must be able to identify guest trends, recognize problem areas and develop strategies that increase profitability. They also must be able to react to market changes quickly and efficiently. Sounds good, but how do you make it happen? With 'data analytics,' which uses guest and operational information to predict future trends and stay a step ahead of the competition. READ MORE

With the Internet now considered a public utility for a large cross-section of the population, customer behavior is changing radically. Whereas in previous years customers were content merely researching products online and making purchases offline because they were too intimidated to share personal and financial information over the Web, consumers now spend more time online searching for the best bargains. However, price alone does not influence many consumers. A recent survey by Nielsen Online found that convenience, not price, has the greatest impact on online purchasing behavior. READ MORE

It is almost impossible to pick up a trade journal or newspaper today and not read something about web site analytics. Google is giving it away free and experts are saying you can't run a web site without it. So what are analytics really all about? Let's begin by first looking at the need for analytics. For a web site to perform well and deliver an acceptable ROI, it has to be perfect or as near to perfect on many levels and in many areas before it can achieve business success. To do this you need to understand how the various components of your site are performing. And to do this you need access to metrics or analytics that will allow you to measure and benchmark your customer's experience and overall satisfaction with your web site. You need to understand what makes your web site visitor tick. READ MORE

The goal of customer segmentation is to better understand your web site visitor and to use that knowledge to enhance your web site's ROI. An effective segmentation strategy drives revenue growth by increasing your ability to meet your site visitor's demands. Segmentation's greatest impact is on the top line, increasing the number of site visitors and your look to book ratio and increasing the lifetime value and loyalty of your customer. This article examines customer segmentation in the online hospitality sector and how to structure your web site to maximize the value of your most important web site visitors. READ MORE

Studies that go as far back as 2000 confirm that shopping cart abandonment continues to be one of the most pressing problems for web site marketers. Reports from Andersen Consulting and Forrester Research both confirm shopping cart abandonment rates of 25%. Jupiter Communications reports a shopping cart abandonment rate of 27%. eMarketer reports 32%. NetEffect and Greenfield Online report a rate of 67%. Hospitality web site's "look to book" ratio is a benchmark that can be directly compared and related to shopping cart abandonment. There is no real difference between making buying something online and making an online reservation. Both require the use of a credit card and a commitment to make a purchase. READ MORE

Think about it - feedback from your web site is an unbelievable source of information that should be one of the most valuable weapons in your entire marketing arsenal - especially when it comes to building customer loyalty and enhancing customer satisfaction. I said should be, because web site owners must first be able to collect and interpret that feedback so they can turn it into action. Do you have a plan for collecting and responding to customer feedback? A note of caution - soliciting customer feedback without the proper tools and plan of action is even more dangerous than doing nothing at all. It's like asking a guest if they enjoyed their stay and leaving before they can respond. READ MORE

Whether you have $5,000, $50,000 or $500,000 to invest in creating a promotional web site, the one factor that remains the same is that most likely, the goal of the site is to support a promotion that increases your brand awareness and drives traffic to your main web site to increase online reservations. If you do undertake to create a promotional web site, it is imperative that you establish metrics to monitor, gauge and evaluate the success of that site. Without that vital information, you might as well be throwing your promotional dollars out the window because you will never really know whether your investment in the online promotional web site met, fell short or exceeded your objectives. Let's look at the kind of real time information you need to be able to capture and measure once you've created a promotional web site... READ MORE

"If you build it, they will come" may have been a successful call to action in the movies, and in the early ninety's rush to "get wired", but in the sober reality of doing business post 9/11, following that mantra is a one way ticket to failure when it comes to building your web site. In the hospitality sector, if you build it, and you have a mega marketing budget to promote it and advertise it, you may attract visitors to your site once. You may even get them to return again. But unless you understand the key drivers of loyalty and what makes users want to return, the challenge of building a loyal online audience segment will be just that - an ongoing challenge. In this feature I will provide you with some thoughts and insights into what we believe are key loyalty drivers in the online hospitality sector. Our information is gleaned from feedback obtained from over 50,000 visitors to some of the most recognized hospitality related web sites in North America and Europe including those of Six Continents Hotels, Omni Hotels, and The Savoy Group. READ MORE

In the hospitality sector specifically, a web site can be one of the most valuable weapons in your marketing arsenal for listening to, understanding, and responding to the needs and wants of your customers, both online and offline. I said can, because in order to be able to respond to the needs and wants of users, web site owners must first be able to collect and interpret user feedback in order to really hear and understand what their users are saying. Your site could and should encourage feedback from your users. It makes sense to hear what people have to say. The more you listen, the sooner you can create a user experience that really connects. READ MORE

According to Forrester Research, online hotel bookings will double in four years from $6.9 billion this year to $14.7 billion, making travel the number one activity for Internet lookers and bookers. If you want to be part of this picture, you have to sit down and take stock of your web site. Increasing your site's "look-to-book" ratio and converting browsers to buyers begins long before your web design team puts their first ideas down on paper. It really begins with the realization that to be successful your site must foster lifetime loyalty and true value with your web users. READ MORE

Creating a user-friendly web site starts long before you award a development contract or put out an RFP seeking interest from interactive agencies or web design consultants. It begins with your organization developing clear and very defined objectives that spell out what you hope to achieve with your site - and a word to the wise, "build a web site" is not an acceptable objective. A web site in most cases can be a useful, cost-effective tool for achieving your objectives, but it is not an objective in and of itself. READ MORE

Imagine a business traveler who has never stayed at your hotel arrives at 3:00 AM. There is no one to help him with his bags and direct him to the front desk. The night staff cannot find his reservation on their computer. After fifteen minutes spent searching their reservations system, the night staff are finally able to check the guest in. There is very little signage directing him to the elevators and after several attempts to find his room, he has to return to the front desk and ask for directions. When he gets to his room, he finds that it is a smoking room, which of course he did not want. READ MORE

In order to provide a rewarding and meaningful web site experience for site visitors and to also insure your web site delivers a respectable ROI, it is imperative that you understand what makes your web site visitor tick - you must access their "Consumer DNA". Companies that develop a learning dialogue with their customers and access that "Consumer DNA" create a competitive advantage that is defendable, unique and permanent. Your web site is a channel ideally suited to open, nurture and sustain that dialogue. To create this dialogue, you must use whatever tools are available to watch and truly listen to what your web site visitors have to say. It has been our experience that many site owners believe that simply "watching" or tracking "hits" and following click-streams is sufficient to understand what is going on in the minds of their users. READ MORE

Many hotel executives also don't realize that a big benefit of a hotel Web site is in cross-selling and up-selling. A well designed site can suggest a larger room, an additional meal or a booking with a business partner. It may also offer exclusive entertainment packages for events or attractions which require a specified hotel stay, thereby pulling in the traveler by selling a bigger experience. But here again, the look and feel of the Web site will determine your success. One simple way to approach Web site usability is to follow the same standards you uphold throughout your hotel: your rooms are clean and inviting; your desk clerks are trained and efficient. Both elements help reinforce your brand. Similarly on a Web site, the design should be clean, inviting, helpful and intuitive. That means balancing graphics with text. READ MORE

If you are like most hotel marketers, you spend a good deal of time thinking about what consumers are doing in the days and months leading up to booking a hotel stay or vacation package. With PhoCusWright Research forecasting that 28 percent (or $28 billion) of all U.S. hotel bookings in 2007 expected to occur online, and an additional 50 percent of bookings to be influenced by visits to online travel sites, it's no wonder that hotel marketers are spending significant time evaluating online consumer behavior. To maximize results and ensure an optimal return on investment, many hotel marketers are looking to better understand how consumer decisions influence searches, site visits and engagement metrics. READ MORE

There are two trends in leisure group travel that represent a substantial opportunity to hotels. These trends are not so much new to this travel season as they are a continuation of important travel industry developments. The first trend is the increasing size of the Baby Boomers as a percentage of total travel consumers. Baby Boomer households are defined as having a head of household age 41-64. This consumer segment has high levels of disposable income, and according to the Travel Industry Association this age group accounts for more total annual trips than any other age group. The second trend I will address is the increasing popularity of friends getaways. READ MORE

Hotels chains are doing a better job these days of creating a consistent look and feel throughout their Web sites and providing information about locations, rates and availability. Aside from information about your hotel, it's important to think about adding incremental value to customers via your site. One area that is ripe for improvement is the delivery of personalized content to your customers. Hotels have only scratched the surface of offering virtual concierge services that give customers a vague notion of what they can do and see while in town. READ MORE

An effective web site design and effective an on-line distribution strategy require expertise. The average hotel professional is bombarded with many ideas and is left wondering which approach to take. Therefore, if relying on expert advice, it is important to have a goal to accomplish specific short-term goals, as well as ensure that the web site is well positioned for future technological advances and for advancements with the search engines, in order to minimize financial risks. In order to achieve the most from your web sites, it is important for owners and managers to re-think and evaluate the following key areas before and during their web site development and implementation: READ MORE

Computers with 17 and 19" monitors have almost become STANDARD. New 108" Plasma Screen TVs (that's 9 feet diagonal) are the rage. Even the screens on cell phones are growing. The mantra of electronic viewing is "bigger is better." Scratch that, "Huge is Better." 360^0 Virtual Tours are just beginning to follow the trend. Virtual Images started out at the postage stamp size of 160 x 120 pixels. As Dial-Up modem speeds increased from 9600bps to 56.6Kbps and computers got more powerful processors like the Pentium "ONE", they grew to 320 x 240 pixels. This is where they've remained for a few years as a few other changes in the Internet came along. It's been worth the wait! The results are stunning! READ MORE

Marketing to unmanaged group travelers presents several challenges, but the opportunity presented far outweighs the barriers. The fact that group travel includes many disparate customer types means it is important to understand to which customers your property or properties is likely to appeal. A team of 13-year-old softball players along with their coach and parents needs something different in a hotel than a group of 5 to 10 corporate executives. An effective marketing program targeted at group travelers requires several key elements, some of which are technical and some of which are simply conceptual or philosophical. First, I would like to address the types of travelers that comprise the group travel market. Second, I will discuss ways to effectively reach these customers. READ MORE

Recent "commoditization" of the hospitality industry has encouraged companies to compete on price, and achieving differentiation through service has required higher investment (higher quality, shorter operation cycles), reducing overall profitability. Every year, surveys are conducted that clearly outline companies' need to reduce costs and increase operational efficiencies. Many companies have already made great headway in accomplishing this goal by reducing complexity, implementing best practices and leveraging best-of-breed technologies. While the hotel industry has experienced strong revenue growth over the past few years, however, bottom-line performance has eroded since 2000, due to escalating expenses, including "non-controllable" costs such as utilities, insurance and government regulation. These costs - along with "controllable" costs such as payroll, staffing and marketing - are expected to only increase in the years to come. READ MORE

The Internet has caused massive change in the hotel industry-new technologies, new competitors and newly-empowered customers have fundamentally altered the face of our business. But massive change can also bring opportunity. Much has been written about how the Internet-and the rise of online travel sites-has been a boon to the consumer, but what about the impact to the hotelier? It really boils down to two things: complexity and control. READ MORE

It may seem counter-intuitive, but just because hotel occupancy rates are up, does not necessarily mean that profits are. Increasing the bottom line may require a new way of thinking. Many hospitality industry executives instinctively feel that technology is both a blessing and a curse. Yes, technology increases productivity and enables new ways of communicating with customers, but it also creates new challenges as distribution channels emerge, and new headaches when the technology doesn't work the way it's supposed to - which seems to happen all too frequently. READ MORE

To truly affect the bottom line, leading hotels are examining every link in their supply chains to find the best ways to implement cost controls that offer long-term financial benefits without sacrificing the quality of the guest experience. Many hotel operators are surprised to learn that during the purchasing, receiving, and inventory management process, profits can erode despite their best efforts to negotiate the best price and control costs. READ MORE

You have put together an excellent Web site that's sleek, functional, answers customer queries and allows online customers to easily complete transactions. You've solved the e-commerce problem, right? Well...maybe not. You may have overlooked a key area of the sales process...cross-selling and up-selling. With nearly four out of 10 travel bookers researching online but booking offline, you're probably happy to get the sales you do get online without worrying about how you can up-sell and cross-sell wary customers. READ MORE

One of the easiest ways to promote your hotel to non-locals is with search engine advertising. But what happens when they click on the ad and go to your site? All too often, what they see is not what they expected, so they just click back to the search engine, wasting you money and losing potential business. How can you minimize wasted click-throughs and maximize search-inspired bookings? One key is to think carefully about your "landing pages". Jargon Alert: A landing page is the page people land on when clicking your ad. READ MORE

Today, there are hundreds of once highly protected famous name brands, which were backed by multi-million dollar promotional budgets, now commonly used in daily lingo as generic names, as it was their huge popularity that made them lose their trademark protection. So why is the use of famous trademarked names as 'verbs' in our daily language feared by the attorneys representing that mark? Now this calls for a closer look. READ MORE

Picture a virtual universe (known in the business as "metaverses") where millions of real, adult consumers may spend hours a day. While there, they spend real money to stay at your virtual resort while they play golf, shop, dine, meet one another and sightsee. They live your brand. This is no fantasy; it's already happening, and some of the world's biggest brands - though very few in the world of travel and tourism - are taking full advantage. And, why not? Where else can you grab the attention of potentially your most valuable customers, for hours instead of seconds? How else can you reach consumers where they really want to be, in real time, while they're doing what they want to do? A newspaper advertisement glanced at quickly and thrown away? A tagline on the radio? A television commercial that is TIVOed away? READ MORE

Have you ever stood outside a restaurant looking at its menu, trying to decide whether to choose it or one of the half-dozen other restaurants on the same street? How would you react if the maitre d' suddenly came out and asked you how many seats you needed? A little affronted, perhaps? You might feel that he's coming on a bit strong. What about if instead he came out and covered up the prices on the menu, telling you that you have to come inside and sit down before you could see the prices? Seems ridiculous, doesn't it. Yet that's exactly what a surprising number of hotel sites still do online, insisting that prospects register in order to fully explore the hotel's offerings and prices. Nothing turns away potential customers faster. READ MORE

Today's travel and hospitality marketing environment is driven by a dynamic flow of information that grows more diverse and complex by the day. With interactive and Web-based tools delivering more power to guests in the reservation process than ever before, expectations around responsiveness and personalized service continue to increase. As a result, marketers face numerous operational challenges as they try to manage an unprecedented number of guest touch points and interactions. Complicating matters, most of these marketers have large numbers of guests and every guest presents different and dynamic needs. READ MORE

Recent statistics from the hospitality industry are grim. Occupancy declines range from a low of 9.8% in Europe to a high of 14.4% in Asia Pacific, average daily rate (ADR) declines range from 3.0% in the Middle East to 17.9% in Asia Pacific, and revenue per available room (RevPAR) declines range from 14.9% in the Middle East to 29.7% in Asia Pacific. What can your hotel do to buck this trend and recover-sooner rather than later? READ MORE

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has continued to become more and more important in hotels marketing initiatives. However, the SEO process is complex and difficult to understand for many executives. This article outlines the SEO process, the basics of an SEO plan and how to measure your efforts and subsequent success. Not all SEO companies are alike. In today's competitive marketplace an SEO plan is not merely a suggestion it's a requirement READ MORE

Marketing is experiencing a profound shift as customers bring demands to organizations. Customers are in control of where and how they engage and they expect an intelligent, real-time conversation with resorts, destinations and travel planners. A 360-degree view of customers means unprecedented levels of personalization, timing, relevance, cost-efficiency, and accountability. Read on to learn about interactive relationship marketing and how you and your customers can benefit from it. READ MORE

Your distribution strategy needs to be understood by who will be selling it, available on the designated distribution channels, easily understandable by the purchaser and not a teaser that is too difficult to really buy. Plus protect your brand with that strategy. Do not degrade your brand or try to sell into a market you do not service well. READ MORE

We're used to thinking of web design as a subjective matter. I like this, he likes that, etc., and of course, to a certain degree it is. But more than that, design does have a clear effect on people's behavior online. No one takes the science of measuring this more seriously than Google, a company that meticulously performs A/B testing on all new design ideas to measure which alternative yields the highest desired outcome. You can do the same and this article outlines some important metrics that tell the truth of your current and next website design. READ MORE

Hoteliers that want to prosper in today's economic environment are increasingly turning to business intelligence applications that enable them to assess risks and make more informed decisions. Business intelligence solutions help you to gather, analyze and leverage a wide variety of data in order to gain a competitive edge and increase your visibility in a crowded market. In my article, I outline the top 10 benefits of incorporating a business intelligence solution into your daily operations. READ MORE

The lodging industry is always evolving and many new concepts have emerged to meet new market demands. In the last ten years the model of the Condo Hotel has gained worldwide popularity, especially during the last real estate boom. Condo hotels are typically categorized as a property where condo ownership and traditional hotel amenities are combined. There is also the older, more traditional condo rental community, where an onsite or offsite rental company manages a large number of units and rents them for their owners. This article tries to pin point some of the challenges and the best practices related to the booking of rental units owned by a 3rd party online. READ MORE

Many independent hotel managers are unhappy with the amount of business generated by their websites. This should come as no surprise, as increasingly sophisticated consumers are looking for easy ways to decide and book, but many times official websites have confusing displays and lack competitive pricing and special offers. The last article of the series on how to pursue a structured online strategy lists six simple tips to ensure best success for offers on your website. These tips coupled with creativity and discipline to manage rate parity will allow you to create an offer strategy that ensures e-commerce success for your official website. READ MORE

Since using video to market hotels online is a concept that the industry as a whole has been slow to adopt, hotel marketers are demanding guidance on how to get the most value from their investment in online video. They buy into the value, but don't know where to start when adding video to their eBusiness strategies. There are no hard and fast rules for hotel video that guarantees the greatest conversions because there are a number of factors that come into play - hotel location, type, seasonality, just to name a few. There are, however, steps any hotel can take to get started with video. READ MORE

Occupancies have stabilized and are recovering around the world. It's time for ADRs to make the same recovery. No more hibernating with the bears. For those regions still in hibernation, the time to act is now. At best, consumers will accept a 5% increase in rate annually. While that might not seem much, it's better than a 5% move in the opposite direction. For hoteliers, every day in the foreseeable future should be a run with the bulls—with the same sense of urgency and confidence. Viva San Fermin! READ MORE

Over the course of the past few years, I have been approached by hotels that want to attract more international traffic to their websites. They were looking for the easiest way to optimize their sites for each country. Some may think it is simply a matter of translating the site and traffic will come. International SEO is not that easy. Here are a few challenges that companies with an international Web presence face, and some tips for creating an optimal Web presence that can perform well in international search engines. READ MORE

Smart hoteliers go above and beyond what's required to provide their guests with an exceptional, personalized experience that leaves travelers feeling welcome and important. Yet, hotel executives often miss the mark by not extending this best-in-class experience throughout all of their communications channels, including the booking process. By providing a cohesive, easy and pleasant encounter from start to finish, you can arm your guests with unforgettable memories that will build customer loyalty and word-of-mouth exposure that likely cannot be replicated by a marketing campaign. READ MORE

It's no secret that today's consumers are more demanding and selective than ever. Not only does yesterday's approach of one-off direct mail pieces and random emails no longer work, it can be enough to turn off your customer or prospect for good. With today's economic climate showing limited signs of improvement, it is critical that travel organizations and destinations leverage "intelligent," triggered communications approaches. So how do you utilize choreography to break through that clutter? Marketers are turning to four key elements that enable them to deliver automated, highly-customized marketing campaigns that respond to customers in a way that increases the bottom line. READ MORE

How much does it cost you to take a reservation by phone? How does that compare to the costs if your guest does the booking entirely online? If you consider the staff time involved in the first case, I'll bet that you save a lot of money by having your guests book themselves completely online. So it is in your interest to make that process as easy as possible. Next question: How many people visit your site, explore it a bit, but don't end up booking a stay with you? Any idea why they don't? Obviously some of them will conclude that your hotel isn't right for them. But there's a good chance that a significant number of them are giving up because they found the process of booking online frustrating. Often those frustrations don't hit until they are in the middle of filling out the needed forms to book their stay. What sorts of things upset them, and how can you prevent those irritants? READ MORE