Haley, Mark G. What Makes a Good Hotel Web Site Good?, Hospitality Upgrade, Spring 2007, 54 Available at http://www.hospitalityupgrade.com/_magazine/magazine_Detail.asp?ID=90
In this article, the author tries to convey what kind of functionalities a hotel website should include. He thinks that these functionalities are key factors for the revenue production of a particular hotel.
Other than that, he also points out the importance of search engine optimization for the hotel websites and gives us a list of recommendations for the optimization as follows:
• Give the search engines something to find and index.
• Include keywords that people should expect to find your hotel by searching on.
• Write page titles according to the content.
• Limit the use of Flash and other rich media to accents rather than foundations.
• Code the navigation elements (menu items) in HTML text (good) rather than in graphic images (bad)?
• Seek out inbound links, but be jealous with outbound ones.
• Use internal links embedded in the copy to help the search engines know what the linked-to pages are about.
I think this article is a good start for people who are not literate enough in web technologies. The author lists the key purposes of a hotel website as follows:
• To create incremental revenue through direct online booking or stimulating direct offline booking
• To project the hotel brand identity and value proposition to the traveling public and press on the Internet
• To provide information about the property to enhance the guest’s stay
• To provide a vehicle for a continued dialog with guests and potential guests
He also talks about what is needed for a good website in terms of functionality such as what to have's and what not to have's in the website. However, he doesnt depict how a websites' look and feel should be. I think that would be better even for people without web-development knowledge. If the aim is professionals, then a more detailed and technical article on the specifics of desing and database issues should be put on the table.
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3 comments:
Reading this article I found that the author tries to combine really interesting ideas. He writes about the impact of web site creating on hotel revenues increase, about importance of building hotel brand in the Internet. And at the same time the author consider the ways to make web site easy to find, read and navigate. So, that both the hotel and its customers will benefit from this. The author also stresses the importance of hotel website effectiveness evaluation. But actually, the material presented in general way; the author provides just a framework about how to make a good hotel web site and how to evaluate it. And here I fully agree with Kutay’s reflection that this article will be useful for those who are not familiar with web site creating and developing. But anyway, it is a good source of ideas about what to pay attention for while working on hotel web site. I strongly believe that this article would be really an important contribution to the industry after further analysis.
I think the points that you pointed out from this article were quite useful, thanks.
Website design and search engine optimization are increasingly important topics in the area of internet marking. The effective website design can contribute a lot to hotel business.
Online purchasing of travel has grown dramatically, and the growth is projected to continue. Jupiter Research estimates that 44 percent of all leisure and unmanaged business hotel purchases will be made through supplier-direct website in 2006. Jupiter estimates the direct share for hotels will grow gradually to 47 percent by 2010. According to the statistics of Travel Industry Association, seventy-nine million Americans (or 78 percent of US travelers) turned to the Internet in 2005 for travel or destination information, compared to only 65 percent in 2004. Forrest Research predicted that total online leisure spending is expected to grow at a 16 percent rate over the next five years, to reach $110.5 billion by 2009.
The statistics above shows that compared with the traditional methods, hotel website has become one of most popular distribution channels for marketing hotel brand, promoting products, and booking services. In this sense, this article is of great practical value and will give lights to website construction for hotels.
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