In today’s digital age, being visible online is the number one priority. Creating the right website for your hotel has become the most essential task in marketing strategy. Before you can be online, you will need to choose a technology solution partner that provides vital and efficient tools. It is not only important for your website to look nice, but it also should provide a smooth and pleasant guest experience. You need to have a user-friendly booking engine to draw your website visitors into the booking funnel, online payment systems integrations to easily and securely receive payment, a promotion engine to upsell, and perhaps a couple more tools to complete your booking system. There should be zero hassle when a person is trying to book a room, as there should be no hassle in finding your hotel’s website too. This is why it’s quite important to be discoverable and appear on search and metasearch engines. Missing one of these points can really negatively impact your ability to capture and maintain guests.
Below are the 5 key elements you should look for when creating your website.
1. Website Builder
A website builder is a tool that helps create and bring your website to life. It helps define the look and feel of your website. You simply use a drag-and-drop editor to build your website by editing a template, adding content, and creating new pages. Once ready, customers will be able to book directly from your website, so it is important that your website is able to be integrated with a booking engine. HotelRunner’s website builder offers an easy solution to set up your website and integrate your Booking Engine right away and start receiving bookings.
2. Booking Engine
A booking engine is a widget on a hotel’s website that allows guests to make bookings online securely. With most guests booking their stays online, hoteliers rely on OTA’s (Online Travel Agencies) to sell their rooms. But for each booking made, a commission fee has to be paid to a third party. This is why an online hotel booking engine is your best friend for commission-free direct bookings, which will help increase your revenues immediately.
3. Promotion Engine
Promotion Engine is a useful tool that will help you engage with your guests by providing incentives, coupons, extras, and rewards. You can capture new guests with attractive promotions, and discounts or upsell to travelers who are already willing to book and benefit more. Whether it’s an early or last minute booking, for a long or short stay, HotelRunner makes every marketing campaign possible with its powerful deal and promotion engine.
4. Online Payment System
Online payment systems are your gateway to receive online payments, fast and securely.
With correct online payment systems integrations, you will be able to receive payments from all over the world with any method you like. It is important that the system supports multiple currencies and gives you the opportunity to offer market-based options. HotelRunner offers integrations with real-time and reliable payment collection methods (like Stripe) and allows you to accept credit cards and PayPal payments.
5. Metasearch Visibility
Now that you have everything set up and ready to go, it is time to get your hotel some exposure. With millions of searches being done on Google every day, it is key that your property is easily accessible through search engines. Google Hotel Ads provides your property with global visibility on Google and Google Maps. This means anyone anywhere is able to see your property and is able to directly make a booking. Being an official worldwide Google Hotel Ads Commission Program partner, HotelRunner allows you to be seen and accept bookings from Google in other words from all over the world.
All this starts by finding the right technology solution partner both for your hotel and your potential guests. Defining your expectations and needs is the first step on your agenda. This will provide you clarity and allow you to progress in the correct direction. The right tech partners will put effort into analyzing and understanding your business, your specific needs, and the problems you are trying to solve. In the end, you will not only have a stellar website that will capture demand and generate revenue but also a partner that will help you skyrocket your sales and marketing.
