The hotel industry has a fascination to old-school methods which are sometimes unusually fantastic for guest experience, but with all the rage in the industry with regards to the technological advancements is making hotels stay more upbeat and customer centric. Nowadays, the internet is the best place to check for hotels, compare prices and make reservations. Bookings are done seamlessly online and it is considered to involve the least amount of hassle for the guests.
While Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) seem to be quick to respond to the growing needs of the guests who search for hotels online, it appears that hotels have been slow to resonate to the demands of the guests when it comes to booking. This is one of the reasons why OTAs are preferred over actual hotel websites when guests book online. Let us look at some of the important aspects of a booking engine that should be available on the hotel website to ensure that guests make their booking through the hotel website directly.
Call to Action: When you have a Reserve button which is easy to locate and the booking widget is easily accessible to your customer, then you will be able to convert potential customers quickly. A booking engine should be designed in a manner that it does not go out of the customer’s sight. When customers go through your website and have made their mind up, they shouldn’t find it difficult to complete the process of reservation.
The Minimalistic Approach: When your guests feels that he is being flooded with too much of information, he is likely to delay the reservation and think it over, before he books the room. Use a minimalistic approach when choosing a booking engine. If guests need to know more they will call, but do not give them the option to call on the booking page. It may feel that your booking engine is inadequate to handle the reservation so you have a number where the guests can reach a hotel staff and make the booking. Very often, guests can feel overwhelmed with the number of options they have to choose from and it can lead to an action-paralysis. This is why you must declutter your booking engine and keep it simple.
Features: Choose a booking engine that has the right number of features that will help you increase your guest experience. When your guests will be able to use an engine which has an effective calendar, a user friendly interface and an seamless integration with social media and review sites, then they will be able to make the booking quickly and easily.
When a well-designed booking engine is combined with a functional system, it creates a customer experience that will ensure that your website visitors will be converted. The ease of use along with an attractive design can make a booking engine good or bad. When choosing a booking engine, keep the design and functions in mind so that you get the mostout of the two from your booking engine.
