A best practices guide for hotel websites. Discover how to optimise your hotel website with Swell's tips.

1. HOTEL WEBSITE
BEST PRACTICES

2. SWELL AGENCY MARKETING STRATEGY 2
YOUR WEBSITE AS AN ECOMMERCE PLATFORM
DESIGN AND NAVIGATION
BOOKING SYSTEM
CALL-TO-ACTIONS
-
USER EXPERIENCE TECHNICAL ASPECTS CREDIBILITY
LOADING TIME
MOBILE OPTIMIZATION
SEO
REVIEWS
BEST PRICE GUARANTEED
SECURITY

3. SWELL AGENCY MARKETING STRATEGY 3
THE LAYOUT
THE FORMULA FOR SUCCESS: CLEAN, SIMPLE USER-ORIENTED DESIGN
THE USER EXPERIENCE (UX)
Users prefer websites that are easy to use and understand, simple and intuitive
site navigation, easy-to-read copy and a smooth online booking process.
NAVIGATION
Make it simple! If the user wants to navigate to other key pages on your hotel
website, make it easy and make navigation choices obvious. The guest should be
able to find relevant information in just a few mouse clicks.
CLEAR CALL-TO-ACTION (CTA)
Make sure that you have a bold, colourful CTA on every page of your website.
CTAs like ‘Book now’, ‘Book’, and ‘Reservations’ work the best. Make it obvious to
the user what you want them to do. In a hotels case it is booking rooms, so
make sure the booking calendar visible and is in contrast to the rest of the page
to get a users attention.

4. SWELL AGENCY MARKETING STRATEGY 4
WEBSITE LOOK AND FEEL
THE FORMULA FOR SUCCESS: FLAT AND SEMI-FLAT DESIGN, LARGE
IMAGES, CLEAR TYPOGRAPHY AND LOTS OF CLEAN SPACE
BE VISUALLY ATTRACTIVE
Guests decide whether they like your property within 5 seconds of
arriving on it.
HERO IMAGES
Big images work well with simple, clean designs. Use professional
photos of your business rather than stock photography. It’s important
to use sharp, high-quality images when photos are displayed so
prominently
ENGAGING IMAGES LEAD TO INCREASE IN TIME SPENT ON WEBSITES
AND CONVERSIONS.
If you also notice the most popular social networks have images as
one of their main components. These images should include photos
of rooms, including product photos increases chances of conversion.

5. SWELL AGENCY MARKETING STRATEGY 5
THE BOOKING ENGINE
SIMPLE BOOKING SYSTEM
Have an intuitive booking system with maximum 3 steps.
Only collect details from guest which is absolutely essential to
process the booking.
EASY T0 MODIFY
The booking engine should also allow easy modification and
cancellation process.
INCLUDE A CURRENCY CONVERTOR
Currency conversion tool to check the total cost of stay to
guests preferred currency.

6. 6SWELL AGENCY STRATEGIE MARKETING 2017
BOOKING WIDGET EXAMPLES

7. 7SWELL AGENCY STRATEGIE MARKETING 2017
BOOKING WIDGET EXAMPLES

8. 8SWELL AGENCY STRATEGIE MARKETING 2017
BOOKING WIDGET EXAMPLES

9. 9SWELL AGENCY STRATEGIE MARKETING 2017
BOOKING ENGINE: CREATE THE SENSE OF URGENCY
LIMITED TIME DEALS
By creating exclusive promotions and offers with specific end dates,
customers are motivated into making a purchase by only having a
limited window to benefit from a special rate.
LIMITED AVAILABILITY
The limited availability makes a product more desirable.
Letting customers know that the thing they want is dwindling in
availability can motivate them into purchasing quickly before the
availability runs out.
LOSS AVERSION
“You missed it” and “last chance!” leave customers in no doubt as to
the risky nature of delaying their decision.
A good flash sale tool is offered by Hotel
Champ:
https://www.hotelchamp.com/product/tools/

10. 10SWELL AGENCY STRATEGIE MARKETING 2017
BOOKING ENGINE: PRICE COMPARISON
50% 66% 33%
2/3 of the online customers
would rather use the
hotel's website booking
system.
1/3 of OTAs users visit other
websites for comparison purposes
but will end up making the
booking on the hotel official
website.
Half of the customers
believe price is the most
relevant information.

11. 11SWELL AGENCY STRATEGIE MARKETING 2017
BOOKING ENGINE: PRICE COMPARISON
SHOW COMPARATIVE PRICES
Make sure that you are showing comparative
prices, in order to reassure the customers to
book directly. This will definitely help increasing
your online booking volume.
A good price comparison tool is offered by Hotel
Price Explorer:
https://about.hotelpricexplorer.com/en/page/h
otel-price-explorer-classic.2.html

12. 12SWELL AGENCY MARKETING STRATEGY
REASSURE CUSTOMERS THAT THEY ARE MAKING THE BEST CHOICE
66% of OTA’s customers visit your website before making a booking in order to
see better pictures, more information and to check the price.
This is the moment to get a direct booking!
INCREASE DIRECT BOOKINGS BY LISTING THE ADVANTAGES
Offer free Wi-Fi, upgrades, vouchers, coupons, free spa or free breakfast.
SPECIAL DEALS
Highlight the current offers and promotions on the designated area on the
website and also on the booking pages.

13. 13SWELL AGENCY STRATEGIE MARKETING 2017
ENCOURAGE AND REWARD GUESTS TO BOOK DIRECTLY

14. SWELL AGENCY MARKETING STRATEGY 14
GET SOCIAL
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Integrate the social media badges and like buttons on the website
e.g.: Facebook like button, Twitter follow button, Google+ and Trip
advisor badges
NEWSLETTER
Include a newsletter subscription form. Send newsletters regularly
to the subscribed user list featuring new contents on website,
current promotion on hotels, food festivals in restaurants etc.
FEATURE CUSTOMER REVIEWS
88% of customers look at reviews before they make a purchase.

15. SWELL AGENCY MARKETING STRATEGY 15
LET’S GET TECHNICAL
FAST LOADING TIME
40% of online shoppers abandon a page if it loads more than 40
seconds. 1 second delay in page response can result in a 7%
reduction in conversions.
RESPONSIVE DESIGN
Mobile is king! The statistics show that 35% of all bookings will be
made on mobile devices by 2018!
In today’s world non-mobile optimized sites, and booking engines,
are hurting your business. One study found about 30% of the visitors
will move to your competitors because of this. 76% of consumers
won’t even bother trying to use a website, if it is not optimized for
mobile.

16. SWELL AGENCY MARKETING STRATEGY 16
WEBSITE CMS
It is better to choose a CMS ( content management
system) for the hotel website over the traditional
static html pages.
Content management systems allows the hotel staffs
to publish new articles / pages, delete, modify
existing contents without the need of any technical
skills.

17. SWELL AGENCY MARKETING STRATEGY 17
OTHER TECH TIPS
WEBSITE RANKING
In order to generate direct bookings from hotel website your hotel must have a good ranking on
major search engines and the website pages to be indexed properly without any issues.
TIP: Check your website index status on Google by entering site: www.yourhotelwebsitename.com
ANALYSE YOUR TRAFFIC
Use Google analytics and measure which page attract the visitors the most.
Setup Google Webmaster and Bing webmaster tools account and take appropriate actions to all
notifications, warnings, index status etc.
AVOID FLASH AND JAVA
Using flash and java on the navigation and home pages would make it difficult for the search
engine to read it and might also lower your page rankings.
LOCATION AND CONTACT
Display the hotels locations using interactive maps e.g.: Google, MSN maps.
Correct contact details and full address of the hotel should also be displayed.

18. SWELL AGENCY MARKETING STRATEGY 18
SEO & CONTENT
SEO
The content management system which you have choose for
your hotel website should allow to add SEO tags like ‘Meta
description’, ‘Meta keywords’, <H1> , Title tags etc.
Create good backlinks for your website using free hotel
directory sites eg: lodginglists.com
CONTENT
Publish new content at-least two times in a week. Always
publish unique contents to increase direct online bookings.
Do not scrape / copy contents from other competitor website
and re publish the same on your site, this will have a very bad
effect on your website in terms of SEO and also a punishable
offence in some part of the world.
More than 80% of your website visitors come via
Google search. So you must have a good visibility
on Google search.
Recent studies indicate that more than 75 % of all
hotel searches are done online and around 40% of
these searches convert into bookings.

19. SWELL AGENCY MARKETING STRATEGY
ADD A BLOG
Example of a Successful Hotel Blog. Source Kimpton Hotels in USA.
They are not afraid to share their insights and happenings on their
hotel.
INCREASE TRAFFIC ONTO WEBSITE
IMPROVE SEO RANKING
BECOME A SOURCE OF INFO IN YOUR AREA
UNLIKE OUTBOUND MARKETING, BLOGGING COSTS 60%
LESS AND CAN BRING IN TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE.

20. SWELL AGENCY MARKETING STRATEGY 20
BLOG BEST PRACTICES
SHARE STORIES ABOUT YOUR STAFF
(CHEF’S PICKS)
LOCALISE YOUR CONTENT
(BEST PLACES TO HAVE LUNCH IN BALI)
HAVE A CALL TO ACTION
(BOOK NOW)

21. SWELL AGENCY MARKETING STRATEGY 21
CREDIBILITY TRANSLATED INTO CONVERSIONS
BEST PRICE GUARANTEED
Make sure that the best price guaranteed is the first thing that
your customers see.
SECURITY
Prominently display your SSL certificate and display security
icons on your checkout page.

22. SWELL AGENCY MARKETING STRATEGY 22
ADDITIONAL USEFUL TOOLS
ABANDONED BOOKING TOOL
Did your visitor start a booking but didn't finish? Send them a
reminder by email and give them the opportunity to easily book
direct!
EXIT TOOL
Convince your leaving visitors with one last persuasive message.
The exit message will appear when visitors attempt to leave your
website by hovering their mouse to the browser tab.
ONLINE SUPPORT CHAT
Enhance the proximity with your customers and encourage them
to contact your hotel.
To find out more about these tool visit:
https://www.hotelchamp.com/product/tools/

23. CONTACT
+62 (0) 819 16 64 24 88
contact@swell-agency.com
facebook.com/SwellMediaAgency/
www.Swell-agency.com
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