At The Crossroads
HOTELS’ survey reveals how hotel companies are optimizing branded Web sites and aggressively marketing to increase online conversion rates.
By Rebecca Oliva, Associate Editor -- HOTELS Magazine, 6/1/2004
|
The road to Internet bookings on hotels’ branded Web sites has not been easy. Initially overshadowed by third-party wholesalers and large conglomerate online travel agencies, hotels’ Web sites seemed lost. But as time went on, hoteliers grew smarter, taking matters into their own hands. Although the competition still is fierce, the environment has changed. Now, hotels are contending with rate wars, striving for higher search engine rankings and creating better Web sites—not only to win online business, but to keep it.
Such is the environment hoteliers found themselves in the beginning of 2004 when HOTELS conducted a survey of experts in hospitality technology. Results show that no matter what type of hotel or geographic region, hoteliers are getting aggressive when it comes to Web site optimization and Internet marketing. A resounding majority of hoteliers surveyed are formulating more sales-driven Web sites with quick and easy booking capabilities. More than half of them have revised their search engine strategies, become more proactive about driving traffic to their Web sites, and are expanding their business on the Web to include group and package sales. Armed with greater marketing budgets for online advertising, hoteliers are poised to conquer the road ahead.
|
Cutting Out The Obstacles
An overwhelming, 94% of respondents noted they are offering
better content on their Web sites to distinguish their
products. However, the manner in which they are achieving this is vastly
different than a few years ago. Respondents noted fewer clicks to book
and real-time booking features as the most common enhancements for making
their Web sites user-friendly, with rich media presentations and improved
download speeds at the bottom of the rankings. “We have cut
the number of pages you need to make a booking by actually keeping
the reservation booking engine open all the time,” says Greg
Johnston, director of e-commerce, Baymont Inns and Suites, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. “We also have moved from a static site to a much
more dynamic one with customized content controlled by the GMs.” Many
hotel companies are improving their sites with faster
booking, better navigation capabilities and eliminating flashy animation,
which can take longer to download. The goal here is to provide travelers
with a convenient and pain-free booking experience.
“We have an advantage over the intermediaries because consumers assume that suppliers have the most information,” says Del Ross, director of global e-commerce, InterContinental Hotels and Resorts. “Our philosophy is to make it convenient for the end-user.” Atlanta-based InterContinental focuses on being practical and giving consumers what they want by offering bulleted lists of property amenities, proximity to major attractions and airports and quality visual assets. Plus, the site has a fast download speed of 8.3 seconds. That, coupled with the ability to book in just four clicks, positions the site as extremely time efficient.
New technology has enabled other hotels to manage their Web site content more effectively. Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, Zurich, uses the same central database to update its Web site as it uses for CRS booking channels. By reducing the number of content entry points to one, its properties can maintain up-to-date and accurate information. “Since we implemented this process the quality of our content has strongly improved,” says Heiko Siebert, director of reservations and revenue management for Mövenpick.
To combat deeply discounted rates on wholesale Web sites, many large companies introduced a lowest rate guarantee (as did 52% of respondents.) InterContinental, one of the pioneers of lowest rate guarantee, realized an 80% increase in bookings year-over-year on its branded sites after its May 2002 launch. More recently in March 2004, Carlson Hotels Worldwide, Minneapolis, Minnesota, introduced its lowest rate guarantee and realized record-breaking bookings as well.
|
Smart Audiovisual
For the luxury and upscale segments, multimedia still
reigns high on the list of necessities on branded sites.
Slides, 360 degree photos, virtual tours and videos all excel at selling
locations and luxury amenities more than text ever could. Of the respondents,
54% noted they are using multimedia programs to enhance
their sites, noting both enriching content and driving revenue as motivating
factors to do so. “It always comes down to the consumer and the service
you are looking to market,” says Jens Thraenhart, director of
Internet strategy at Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Toronto. “Pictures
can tell most of the story. If you look at a property like Fairmont
Chateau Whistler, [BC, Canada,] having audiovisual will bring it to
life.” Fairmont uses seasonal photos to create relevancy for
visitors. Carlson’s recent relaunch of its Web site includes
dynamic mapping, added photos, destination-specific information and
features a booking panel on each page. “Items such as music
and flash experience is interrupting to the user experience,” says
Dawn Hepper, manager of brand Web site for Carlson. “We have
learned by what our customer is telling us. Essentially, they are
saying, ‘don’t make me sit through this, your competition
is just a click away.’”
Those sentiments are concerning to other companies who want to exploit their properties via photos. Some have found temporary solutions. Rather than large, colorful virtual tours, Jim Zito, director of interactive marketing and development, Affinia Hospitality, New York, says the company uses multimedia for floor plans. “Since we are a suite product, virtual tours are really conducive to selling our product, especially internationally,” Zito says. “It helps advertise the space.” The floor plans are small and shown in black and white.
Other large file features such as pop-up/under ads are used sparingly as 73% of respondents say they do not use them anymore. Furthermore, of those currently using pop-up ads, 29% plan to change this strategy. “Pop-up ads have proven to be a very efficient manner in which to advertise a promotion on a Web site, but at what cost?” Thraenhart says. “We are more involved in protecting our site so that consumers are not interrupted by the online advertising. The perception of pop-up ads is negative—and we don’t want to be associated with a negative image.” Mövenpick’s Siebart also disagrees with the use of pop-up ads. “During the development of our Web site, we concentrated on making the site easy to navigate for our customers,” he says. “Visitors to our site do not get uninvited pop-ups or banner ads since they can slow the site down.”
Expanded Offer
With more efforts going into driving traffic to branded
Web sites, hotels also have expanded the list of offerings.
Again, it is the upscale sector that is diligently offering dynamic packaging.
Fully, 42% of the respondents offer such features on
their branded sites. Car rentals, airfare and spa top the list of ancillary
products offered, and most hotels partner with outside Web sites to offer
air and car. Carlson’s partnership with Expedia allows the hotel
to benefit as a one-stop shop travel agency, without investing in
the complicated infrastructure to support other products. “We
offer total packages because that is what we see customers wanting,” Hepper
says.
“We don’t want them to end up at Expedia or Travelocity.”
|
Taking it a step further, Fairmont has devised a clever package strategy that has become the most visited section of the Web site. During the second step of the reservation process several packages are presented with the option to obtain more information without exiting the page. “From a revenue standpoint the growth is tremendous,” Thraenhart says. The luxury hotel company complemented this feature with its online help program, where a guest can call a toll-free number directly through the Internet and speak to a staff member at the central reservations office (CRO). The advanced technology determines at which Web page the visitor is looking and directs the call to the best-suited reservations staff. “Conversion ratios have gone through the roof when guests use this feature,” Thraenhart says. “We are looking to integrate our online and offline marketing tactics. In the end, it is important to build strong customer relationships—if a customer does his research through the Web site, the call time is reduced, and there is a better consumer experience.” Fairmont is not alone, in fact 78% of respondents say they are partnering and integrating their CRO services with their Web sites. The benefit is that it provides a more seamless reservation experience for guests, and it cuts costs of a CRO significantly.
Survey findings also show that hotels are increasing their meetings business via the Internet, with 48% offering Web-based tools for meetings and group business. Of those, 76% report that the tools result in higher volumes of RFP requests.
Richard Blamey, vice president of marketing, Conrad Hotels, London, says having meetings tools available online increased group bookings by 10%. To capitalize on this trend, Conrad introduced another Web site for meeting planners, Conradmeetings.com. Since meetings revenue accounts for 25% of revenue, Blamey says it just made sense to offer meeting planners a site where they could quickly retrieve detailed information such as floor plans that show online access and lighting. A comprehensive RFP process is available and planners are guaranteed a response within 24 hours.
Higher Rankings
Having an efficient Web site is only half the battle;
steering visitors to it is the other. Three-fourths
of respondents report they are increasing ad spending to direct traffic
to their Web sites, with a mean advertising budget increase of 43%. “We
are focusing our marketing dollars on what has worked: property-specific
keywords and search engines,” says Carlson’s Hepper. Carlson
operates a three-tier search engine marketing strategy, including
keywords, paid inclusion and meta-tags. Fairmont’s Jens Thraenhart
says he works closely with its search engine optimization company
to massage Fairmont’s Web content so it is written according
to how search engines are picking it up. In essence,
while the managers at each Fairmont property are constantly updating
their content, Thraenhart and his team are merchandising it to be
more customer-centric.
Keyword bidding is high on hoteliers’ list of Internet marketing priorities as 54% of respondents are involved with this kind of advertising. Respondents noted two search engines reigned higher than all others for this: Google Adwords and Overature with 93% and 85%, respectively. Mövenpick’s Siebert agrees with the findings and says Google remains the leading search engine that drives traffic to Mövenpick’s Web site. Still, Siebert is hesitant to invest heavily in search engine rankings. “Until we have a clear understanding of what exactly drives visitors to our site we refrain from buying listings or rankings,” he says. In the interim, Mövenpick tracks each and every referral and entry site of its Web visitors.
Due to the time-consuming nature of keyword bidding and search engine ranking strategies, many hotels have outsourced this job. “Search engine rules change almost daily,” says InterContinental’s Del Ross. “What hasn’t changed is having content that is relevant—especially for brand neutral marketing—because your ranking will be improved.”
Monitor And Protect
With the increased investment in Web sites, it is not
surprising that 67% of respondents monitor user satisfaction.
Most commonly, hotels are outsourcing this to third-party companies, which
gather feedback via e-mail or online guest surveys.
Baymont Inns & Suites
has built-in technology that allows hotel management to see exactly
what users are doing and if they encounter any problems—be it
rate resistance or navigational issues. “We record everything
that happens on the site and from that information we roll it into
specific reports,” says Baymont’s Johnston. “We
can actually look at an individual and see exactly
how much they are coming to the site and what effect we are having
on them. We have become very customer-centric so that, in essence,
the customer is dictating to us what we need to do to increase the
conversion rate.”
Mövenpick’s Siebart believes the increased ratio of bookings on the Web site is proof enough that visitors are satisfied. The company recorded record growth of 60% in 2003 and shows an increase of 50% in the first quarter 2004, year-over-year.
Fully, 81% of respondents say they are protecting their sites and brands against trademark infringement by third-party companies. Most respondents noted that 90% protect their domain name, followed by search engine manipulation at 68% and false advertising at 51%. The two most common steps taken are cease and desist letters, 68%, and contract clauses, 63%.
Round-Up
Of Internet Access Providers |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
As
hotels invest more effort into their Web sites, many of
them are investing also in new and improved in-room Internet
access. For wired access, hoteliers set their sights on
system providers that eliminate the need for a complicated
infrastructure and allow guests to log on without reconfiguring
their computers. For wireless access, hotels are installing
more hotspots on all guestroom floors, common areas and meeting spaces. Here is a list of Internet access providers.
This list is not considered complete.
|
About The Survey This survey was conducted by the research department of Reed Business Information and sponsored by MasterCard International. HOTELS would like to thank the HSMAI and HEDNA organizations for the use of their member databases to help conduct the research to learn about the hotel industry’s Internet marketing trends and Web site optimization strategies.
Of the completed surveys, 69% described e-commerce as their area of responsibility, 37% revenue management, 31% sales and marketing, 25% corporate executive management, 15% corporate operations management and 2% are general managers. Nearly all of the respondents (94%) work at a corporate office. Of those, 41% work at a company with less than 50 hotels; 18% with more than 1,000 hotels; 16% have 251-500 hotels; and 8% for companies with 51-100, 101-250, 501-1,000 hotels.
Fully, 29% of respondents work in upscale hotels, 27% in mid-market (full service), 21% in luxury, 17% in mid-market (limited service) and 6% in economy/budget hotels. Three-fourths of the hotels are based in North America, 17% in Europe, 6% in Asia and 2% in Latin America.
View All Blogs
