{"id":17514,"date":"2022-06-21T06:41:09","date_gmt":"2022-06-21T06:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umni.bg\/?p=17514"},"modified":"2023-03-28T05:55:40","modified_gmt":"2023-03-28T05:55:40","slug":"the-hotel-website-2023-a-dust-collector-or-a-money-machine-in-a-world-without-cookies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umni.bg\/en\/blog\/the-hotel-website-2023-a-dust-collector-or-a-money-machine-in-a-world-without-cookies\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hotel Website 2023: A Dust Collector or A Money Machine in A World Without Cookies?"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1649083261973{margin-top: 40px !important;margin-bottom: 40px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner]

\"\"The oldest operating hotel in the world according to Guinness World Records is 1300 years old – Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan Hotel in Japan. The hotel has been owned by the same family for 52 generations. Many people, from famous samurai to celebrities and politicians, have visited the hotel from the year 705 until today. Although it is famous for its world record, history, healing hot springs, delicate luxury, and proximity to Mount Fuji, the hotel has a website.<\/p>\n

This sounds so natural, which hotel doesn’t have a website in the 21st century. Without a website, you do not exist for customers who today are digitally oriented beings that are obsessed with their phones.<\/p>\n

But it is not enough just to have a website nowadays.<\/strong> There is a difference between just a website to be founded online and a good online sales machine. You do differentiate Oldsmobile from Bentley, right? Which of the two is your hotel site?<\/p>\n

A January ’22 survey by the hotel’s platform Site Minder showed that the boom in direct hotel sales worldwide last year put the hotel’s website in the top 3 sources of hotel reservations and revenue<\/strong> for most of the markets covered by the survey. The platform encourages a balanced approach between direct bookings and bookings via OTA or other channels, with particular emphasis on the hotel website.<\/p>\n

According to Site Minder, direct bookings are now <\/strong>one of the two biggest drivers of revenue<\/strong><\/a> for more than half (12) of the global markets that are surveyed – compared to 5 markets last year and 2 in 2019. This is happening because of the increasing investment in hotel websites<\/strong> – in reservation systems, payments, applications for communication, communication automation, and others. To be specific, from Australia to Germany, France, Italy, South Africa to Spain, and the UK – the hotel site is the second most important source of reservations after Booking.com.<\/p>\n

At the same time, 42%<\/strong><\/a> of users leave hotel and tourism websites after seeing only 1 page<\/strong>, and 54%<\/strong> leave a page after scrolling only half of it, according to this year’s Contentsquare study, 2022 Digital Experience Benchmark. There are lots of missed booking options for those hotel sites that are not well organized and do not take care of their technology, content, and customer experience.<\/p>\n

It seems it is time to re-evaluate the hotel site<\/strong> and dust it off. Whatever information or action (reservation, service request, question) your future and current guests are looking for on the site, provide it – easily accessible and available 24\/7. Make sure the information is up-to-date and of high quality – texts, data, images, and all buttons and links do work. Offer more interesting and exciting content than customers expect – not only about the hotel but also for the surroundings, entertainment, and facilities in the hotel area to give them more reasons to choose your hotel (and search engines will love your site because of this). Just as the hotel and restaurant\u2019 real stardom can be judged by the cleanliness and quality of the toilet of the place, the online adequacy<\/strong> check of the place is according to the website.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If all roads lead to Rome, all-digital paths should lead to the hotel’s website.<\/strong> The site is the center of the company’s digital ecosystem. Traffic from all digital activity and business presence such as platform accounts, social media, emails, messengers, and elsewhere, should be directed to the site as the place where direct online sales take place and data on customer behavior and interests are collected. If you do not purposefully collect data about your customers from all possible sources and do not analyze it, the best day to start doing it is today.<\/p>\n

Thus comes the topic of cookies<\/strong>, or rather their irreversible disappearance. When the Safari browser blocked them in 2017 and Firefox in 2019, this did not concern many businesses. It is very likely that you have not heard anything at all about the cookies problem. But after Google announced that it would no longer support third-party cookies from 2023, the world of digital marketing and sales has shaken – Google holds 64% of the market share of browsers. According to research from last year, 80% of marketers rely on third-party cookies to create and target audiences on various digital channels.<\/p>\n

If you are currently thinking about Grandma’s delicious cookies, I specify that these are those cookies with data about us and our behavior that accumulate while surfing on the Internet – nothing goes unnoticed and allows companies to pursue us with ads from site to site for a product or service that we reviewed earlier. There are companies for which this is their way of doing business, and they provide the information gathered about us to who needs it – we can think of such businesses immediately, right? Cookies from such third-party businesses are threatened with extinction.<\/p>\n

What does the hotel website have to do with all this drama? Everything!<\/strong> The allowed cookies and customer data collection will be first-party or zero-party<\/strong>, in other words, what the hotel as a business collects directly – on the website and in other ways, such as information about customer behavior, as well as data that users in the hotel digital ecosystem and hotel guests give voluntarily, online and offline – name, email, phone number contact and more. Hotel needs this data<\/strong> to know customers well, to be able to reach them by the marketing messages, to provide up-to-date high-quality services, support and content, to predict trends, to be more flexible, more competitive, and make smarter decisions.<\/p>\n

Here are some guidelines to help you prepare your business and site for data collection in the digital cookieless world and with a lot of competition.<\/p>\n

– Focus on creating content for your website<\/strong> – blog posts about interesting, useful, unknown, fun around your hotel and its surroundings, about traveling, working, tourism, and leisure in the area, information about upcoming events – festivals, concerts, and others. Customer behavior is changing, people today mix work with rest and have a much wider range of interests and needs when choosing where to stay.<\/p>\n

– When you accumulate more content, consider whether you can offer it in the form of an online directory<\/strong> on your site – with a download option when an email is provided.<\/p>\n

– Also make the content in the form of videos when possible<\/strong>. Video continues to be at the forefront of tools for educating and attracting customers.<\/p>\n

– Share all this content on social media<\/strong>. If you don’t have a strategy, build one. As with the hotel website, the hotel’s social media presence should not be without a goal and just “have it”. In the posts place links to more information, promotions, requests, or others on the website. All paths lead there.<\/p>\n

– In addition to the e-book for downloading and subscribing to a newsletter, think of other ways to collect your customers’ emails<\/strong> and keep them on the site: a service questionnaire, competition, game, or other activity that requires registration. To motivate participation, you can provide rewards – for example, once a month a randomly registered person can win a free night at your hotel. Make easy access to the competition for all hotel guests – with a QR code in the rooms or in the common areas.<\/p>\n

– Activate your loyalty program<\/strong><\/p>\n

– Add a tool for instant communication with customers<\/strong> on the site. Don’t count on them to write an email or call you when they haven’t found what they were searching for. Most users prefer to chat, and when they write their question – in a live chat or in a messenger, they expect an immediate answer. If you can’t provide an immediate response from your team through these live communication channels, replace the human force with an AI chatbot on the site.<\/p>\n

– If you do not have a CRM system<\/strong> or other platform with the same functionality, it’s time to think about one – to collect information for each client. You want more customers to return – they are cheaper to attract and retain than new ones, and they are easier and more enjoyable to service and support. They will appreciate the convenience and attention when the next time they visit your hotel and get their favorite room, coffee for breakfast as they like it on the table in the corner by the window with a great view and power outlet under it for their laptop \u2013 the place where the last time they felt comfortable. By the way, this is not just for 4- and 5-star hotels. We see such a personalized attitude more and more in the small family hotels and guest houses. I don’t mind receiving their newsletter and following their Facebook page, because I know I will be happy to come back to them and they will remember that I love herbal tea with honey.<\/p>\n

– Check your email lists<\/strong> and keep them clean, segment them if possible (families with children, spa lovers, leisure enthusiasts, gourmet lovers, traveling for business + leisure, and other categories relevant to your hotel). This will help you send them a lot of personalized emails and give you ideas of what content to offer on the website to provide them with interesting and useful information, and a reason to return to it (using a link in the email).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The purpose of all these actions and activities is to lead potential customers and guests to the website, to engage and keep them longer so that you can gather more information about them<\/strong>: what they are looking for, what they are looking at, what they are interested in, what they ask, what they complain about, and collect their emails. The more emails, the better \u2013 email marketing in the hotel industry is not dead.<\/p>\n

In this regard, the chatbot with conversational artificial intelligence<\/strong> is also rapidly moving out of the “it would be good” column and goes to the “must-have” column. This digital tool installed directly on the website belongs to the allowed first-party or zero-party data collection. The web-based AI chatbot acts as the first and immediate contact point for customers<\/strong>, answers frequently asked questions instantly, and collects inquiries from both potential and internal guests. There are platforms that provide pretrained hotel AI modules<\/strong>, which means the hotel AI chatbot is capable of recognizing customer questions from Day 1 installed on the hotel website and it keeps growing and getting smarter from every interaction with a hotel customer. For example, the Umni platform supports hotel AI chatbots<\/a> with such pretrained AI module<\/a> that is trained to over 760 hotel topics with over 10,400 guests\u2019 questions behind, means it covers most common guests\u2019 questions instantly and any time of the day. Everything that happens in the chatbot is accumulated and summarized in live statistics<\/strong> about customer behavior: what was searched the most, what was asked the most, at what time of the day, how many users came back again, and more. Built-in the chatbot request forms<\/strong> further help in the marketing and sales of hotel services. Each element of the chatbot has its own link and QR code<\/strong>, which allows customers to navigate to a specific page of the site with the specific element in the bot (information, file to download, form to fill out, etc.) with 1 click or 1 scan from anywhere – online and offline. For example, from the hotel room through a QR code – to a request form for a table reservation or a wakeup call, all in the chatbot. So as a technological solution, the AI chatbot is multifunctional and helps to serve hotel customers, promote services, and is an additional sales channel, saving time and resources<\/strong> (saving up to 12 minutes to the staff for conversation per client). It is therefore not surprising that in 2022 the introduction and supply of hotel chatbots is expected to increase by 53%<\/strong><\/a> (64%<\/strong> among independent hotels), according to a January ’22 study by the NYU Tisch Center of Hospitality and StayNTouch PMS.<\/p>\n

The bad news is that it all seems like a lot of work and investment. The good news is that once you plan a strategy where all of the above and what else comes to mind is structured and aligned, work together with a team, meaningfully build the processes that the hotel team will follow, and start implementing your plan, it will become a routine activity with huge benefits for the hotel, customers, and staff. The technologies behind are accessible today and mostly no-code, and they are evolving and getting better with each day that passes by. Let the power of a smart, interactive, and well-functioning site be with your hotel and your guests.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The article<\/a> was originally published in the section “Experts talk” on BGTourism.bg.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>[\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space][vc_raw_html]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[\/vc_raw_html][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The oldest operating hotel in the world according to Guinness World Records is 1300 years old – Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan Hotel in Japan. The hotel has been owned by the same family for 52 generations. Many people, from famous samurai to celebrities and politicians, have visited the hotel from the year 705 until today. Although it is famous for its world record, history, healing hot springs, delicate luxury, and proximity to Mount Fuji, the hotel has a website. This sounds so natural, which hotel doesn’t have a website in the 21st century. Without a website, you do not exist for customers who today are digitally oriented beings that are obsessed with their phones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":17520,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[258,296],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[259],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umni.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17514"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umni.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umni.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umni.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umni.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17514"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/umni.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19353,"href":"https:\/\/umni.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17514\/revisions\/19353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umni.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umni.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umni.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umni.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17514"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umni.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=17514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}