Important features for a typical hotel website.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Important features for a typical hotel website.

The web is very much made for hotel business & service promotion as
well as every other business. The point then is to make the right
decision on choosing the tools and hands to build your Hotel website
on. A website, for any business, is like a virtual employee ready to
work tirelessly for the boss, depending on how well equiped 'he' is.

Considering the nature of your hotel business & services, a typical
Hotel website should possess certain features to work effectively for
your business. Here are some essential features of a typical Hotel
website.
1. Online booking forms
This would enable old and new customers to register bookings for
rooms, conference, hall reservations on your website for
lodging,corporate functions,weddings and other events. The customers
would provide their contact information such as email, phone number
and contact address along with booking date,number of rooms and date
to check in. With that you can keep in touch with these virtual
customers while still respecting their privacies.
2. Photo gallery
Collection of photos of your hotel facilities, functions, structures
and environs.
3. Online branding
A unique design & background show-casing the spirit of your hotel as an entity.
4. Career board
Advertise job vacancy positions in your hotel, and even other hotels,
on your website. Collect CVs and applications online. No need then to
spend money on recruitment advert.
5. Tell a friend button
Your visitors who find your website and services satisfactory can
invite their friends and family members to the site with a click of
the mouse. This will bring in word-of-mouth marketing to your business
by the best marketers of all time-your customers.
6. Customers' feedback and comments
Nothing can interest customers than giving them the opportunity to
express themselves and be part of the business make-up. This feature
will empower your customers to share their hotel and vacation
experiences with others online. Some comments and suggestions from
them will also be helpful. This kind of environment creates a
community around your website.
7. Newsletter subscription and publishing.
Let your site visitors register their email and contacts on your
website for weekly or monthly hotel/travel news. It becomes, then,
your duty to keep your end of agreement by delivering timely
informations to your current and potential customers. This is a very
powerful way to build long term business relationships.
8. Customers survey and polls.
This is an exercise you can perform on your website at intervals to
take surveys on your customers opinion on personal or general issues.
It just depends on what you want to do with this tool and feature.
Depending on your entire hotel business plan, there are yet more
useful site marketing tools and features to give your hotel website a
quick jump. You can share some below on comment.