Category: Website Launch
Source: Austin’s Blog I talked to the Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels this morning. Looks like Shawn and his film crew will be coming down to the BSR to film a hog/turkey/varmint hunt for his hunting show, Macmillan River Adventures. I look forward to visiting and hunting with him. Shawn and I ran in two different [...]
Hey guys, sorry for the lack of updates here on SteveAustinWeb.com. I am super busy on my other website projects (SwampPeopleNews.com, Joshua-Ledet.net, + my personal website & portfolio) and dealing with things offline. On a happier note, I am working on a BRAND NEW layout & design, which will be a more news-based website until [...]
HeBS Digital is pleased to announce the launch of the Casa Moderna Miami Hotel & Spa website: http://www.casamodernamiami.com/.
Casa Moderna Miami, formerly Tempo Miami, is the hottest new hotel on the Miami scene, offering a modern new destination with views of Biscayne Bay. Casa Moderna Miami is a must-stay spot for Miami business and leisure travelers, featuring deluxe luxury accommodations, comfortable amenities, and a location convenient to the best of Miami. HeBS Digital’s award-winning team designed the Casa Moderna Miami website with CMS Premium, assuring a website that is both user-and search engine-friendly. Boasting cutting edge design with vivid imagery, the new website’s tiered navigation allows easy access to the site’s contents. Notable feature also include a calendar of events and RFP functionality.
Features of the Casa Moderna Miami website include:
- User-friendly and consistent tiered navigation
- Integration with social media
- Website analytics and tracking
- Rich visual content
- Special offers
- Stay connected
- Search engine optimized text for superior search results placement
- RFP for meetings and groups
HeBS Digital is currently working on ongoing marketing management for Casa Moderna Miami.
View the brand new Casa Moderna Miami website here.
By Max Starkov & Lauren DeGeorge
In 2012, hoteliers face more challenges than ever. From resolving to concentrate on “SoLoMo” (social, local, mobile marketing), to navigating “new” distribution channels, to implementing a Google+ strategy, to improving local search rankings via citations, it is near-impossible for a hotelier to distinguish viable strategies from trendy or temporary opportunities without a dedicated digital marketing partner.
With so many new “don’ts,” it is easy to confuse or let slide the “do’s” of hotel distribution. In 2011, 26% of total bookings for the top hotel brands came from the Internet, with 18% from Brand.com and 8% from OTAs (PhoCusWright, STR, HSMAI Foundation). For non-branded hotels, the situation is more troubling, with 42 percent of bookings from the Internet – 32 percent from OTAs and just 10 percent from hotel websites. In light of these recent findings, hoteliers must focus on their own websites; increase direct online revenues via SEO, SEM, email marketing, packaging, etc.; and utilize the OTAs in the most strategic ways.
Below are HeBS Digital’s 2012 Do’s and Don’ts of Hotel Distribution. We welcome feedback from our colleagues in the industry. What are your property’s do’s and don’ts?”
2012 Do’s of Hotel Distribution:
1. Focus on the Direct Online Channel: Your Hotel’s Website
First and foremost, your website must be “in good health” in order to follow and comply with best practices in hotel distribution. Make sure your current website adheres to industry’s best practices for design, site architecture and SEO. Most importantly, make sure it is compatible with the recent Google Panda and Freshness algorithm updates.
Be sure that all site content is engaging, unique and branded. Create dedicated pages as well as specials and packages that appeal to key customer segments such as business travelers, extended stay guests, weekend travelers (“girlfriend getaways,” couples celebrating anniversaries), etc.
Once your website is in tip-top shape, use search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), email marketing and other digital marketing efforts to drive traffic to the hotel’s website and encourage direct reservations.
Bring SoLoMo (social, local and mobile) initiatives to the forefront of your hotel’s targeted digital marketing strategy. The convergence of these three content and marketing platforms allows the hotel to deliver more personalized, relevant content to existing guests and customers in real-time like never before.
Though most hoteliers understand the importance of being ever-present across local listings and maps as well as social media such as Facebook and Twitter, the power of mobile marketing must not be underestimated. Five percent of all hotel bookings are made via mobile devices, and 51% of business travelers use mobile devices to get travel information (Google), more than double the rate of two years ago. Mobile is a must, and it starts with a mobile website, mobile and tablet SEM campaigns and SMS/MMS information capture strategy.
In the end, perhaps the most convincing reason to focus on the direct online channel is Google’s “Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)” phenomenon: After visiting countless websites and sources, consumers tend to migrate back to their computers to book reservations. By focusing on content and design quality, and powerful brand and marketing messages, you will ensure consumers migrate back to your hotel’s website. Once in place, the next and ongoing steps are “test, test, test” to determine effectiveness and return on investment (ROI), and benchmark and analyze to make smarter use of analytics technology to increase returns.
2. Maintain Rate Parity
A principle once considered elementary now merits a reminder: All hotels must maintain their best available rates and last-room availability on their own websites!
According to RateGain, from December 2011-February 2012:
- 60-87% of 3-star hotels were cheaper on OTA sites
- 75-93% of 4-star hotels were cheaper on OTA sites
- 69-86% of 5-star hotels were cheaper on OTA sites
A thorough rate parity strategy, including a Best Rate Guarantee and complementary claim form, will encourage consumers to book direct for logical reasons:
- All changes to reservations must be made through the hotel
- All special requests (such as ADA rooms) go through the hotel
- The hotel provides superior customer service, not the OTA or other outside booking channel
- The hotel guarantees the reservation
Hoteliers, remind your friends (not your competitors): All publically available rates, including 24-hour sales with OTAs and flash sales, must be available on the hotel website and within its online booking engine. The mobile channel is not exempt either, and must be treated as an official rate parity gatekeeper.
3. Market to International Visitors
Analyze foreign tourist arrivals in your hotel’s destination, the property’s guest data and its website data to determine the top international feeder and demand markets for the hotel. Then, implement five- to ten-page optimized foreign language translations for the markets with the most potential and existing demand for the hotel’s destination and product. (Be sure to translate your booking engine, too!)
These translated pages will serve as the home base for all marketing to international customers. First, implement foreign language SEM campaigns on Google and Yahoo/Bing that land on your translated site. Then, implement listings on worldwide travel directories and increase your hotel’s visibility across other hubs for international travelers.
Finally, consider complementing the hotel’s direct efforts using OTAs with high market shares in foreign countries (e.g. Booking.com, Expedia).
4. Use the OTA Channel Correctly
Though no stone should be left unturned when it comes to supporting the hotel’s direct online channel, HeBS Digital recommends the opposite approach in relation to your OTA strategy: Focus on the “big players,” e.g. Expedia, Priceline, Booking.com, Travelocity and Orbitz. Smaller OTAs do not provide additional reach; rather, they require more work.
From day one, include in all contracts that neither the OTAs nor their affiliates may bid on branded keywords in SEM campaigns, i.e. the hotel’s official name-related keywords.
Use strict rate parity when using OTAs, and monitor their attempts to sell “lower” rates for your property by reducing their commission/markup, or using math gimmicks when calculating the overall taxes and fees.
Use OTAs for need periods: weekends, group cancelations, low season, etc., and not as a replacement for or alternative to the direct online channel. Additionally, any sale or promotion via an OTA should be used only as a last resource and should equally be promoted via the hotel website and support marketing (SEM, email, mobile, social).
Benchmark your property’s OTA contribution against industry results. For example, most hotel chains mandate that OTA contribution to franchisees be lower than seven to eight percent. And always remember that the more you focus on your hotel’s website, the less you will depend on the 800-pound gorillas.
5. Tailor Strategies to Competitors’ Strengths & Weaknesses
In any business, everyone who does what you do is a rival. Hotels are no different, and therefore must consider multiple and varied groups of competitors. Your hotel should not only have a product-related competitive set (other boutique, business or full-service hotels in the area) to which you compare your own property, but also geographic (downtown, Union Square, Quincy Market), digital (who’s doing what you do – or more – online) and aspirational competitive sets. As Michelle Davis of HVMG recently said in HotelNewsNow, “My number one competitor might be Hotel X for a certain weekday and during the weekend my number one competitor might be Hotel C. It’s the same thing and the same thought process. Who I compete with online might not be the same person I compete with at the front desk.”
2012 Don’ts of Hotel Distribution
1. Don’t Participate in Flash Sales/Social Buying Sites
While flash sales may address the hotel’s immediate needs – occupancy – they do considerably more damage than good in the long run.
With heavily discounted rates out in the open, flash sales have inherently flawed business models, causing your hotel to rebuke the principles of rate parity (one of the do’s of hotel distribution!), to breach existing agreements with corporate accounts and OTAs, to diminish its brand integrity and to create the perception that rooms are always on sale!
The most powerful reason to forget flash sales and social buying sites is “The Law of Unintended Channel Share Loss”: Any booking via the most discounted channel (i.e. flash sale sites like Groupon or Living Social or BloomSpot or OTAs) is one fewer booking for the same hotel via its own website, call center or GDS. These sites also lead to the cannibalization of the hotel’s existing loyal consumer base as 65% of daily deal buyers are already frequent (38%) or infrequent (27%) customers of that business (ForeSee, 6/11).
During urgent need periods, consider the following options:
- Launch a limited-time offer and promote it via:
- The hotel website with a promotional slide on the Home page or a highly visible tile
- Dedicated SEM campaigns on Google and Yahoo/Bing
- An email newsletter to the hotel’s opt-in list
- The hotel’s Facebook, Twitter, Google+ pages
- Online or email sponsorships to main feeder markets
- Blog posts on the hotel’s blog
- Launch a 24-hour sale on an OTA while simultaneously promoting it on the hotel’s website as described above
- Do an opaque OTA promotion on Priceline or HotWire.
2. Don’t Do Last-Minute Discounts via OTAs or Mobile Discounters
Both hotels and airlines manage perishable inventory, so rather than launching a last-minute Groupon or sale with HotelTonight, why not take a cue from the airline industry? The closer to the date of departure or check-in at the hotel, the higher the rate – not the other way around.
Mobile is by nature a last-minute distribution channel. Most hotel mobile bookings are for the same or following night; therefore, these bookings will occur in any case without discounting. Use mobile SEM and SMS marketing for last-minute reservations, but market your true best available rates and avoid the temptation to discount.
For additional same-day bookings and last-minute sales, opaque sites such as Priceline and HotWire are preferable to flash sale sites as they maintain brand integrity until the booking is completed.
3. Don’t Use Social Media as a Distribution Channel
Social media is not a distribution channel, and it was not designed as a sales platform to sell rooms. Use social media instead for customer engagement, customer service, customer relationship management (CRM), branding, awareness, etc.
Social media is best managed at the property level and needs to be monitored 24/7/365. Establish onsite champions who will speak with a consistent brand voice, provide exemplary customer service and serve as models of the hotel’s product.
Use a full-service digital marketing agency for training, auditing, recommendations and technical design and build-out for custom tabs, backgrounds, widgets, sweepstakes, etc.
Post, tweet, respond and repeat!
4. Don’t Manage Promotions via the OTAs in Isolation
When 24- or 48-hour sales on OTAs are “necessary” to increase occupancy immediately, do not neglect the hotel’s own website. Though Expedia will not allow you to promote the same offer on Priceline, its “rate police” will not stop you from opening the same rate or package on your own site.
Sales on OTAs should be cross-promoted on your website and within the following direct marketing campaigns:
- Dedicated SEM campaigns on Google and Yahoo/Bing
- An email newsletter to the hotel’s opt-in list
- The hotel’s Facebook, Twitter, Google+ pages
- Online or email sponsorships to main feeder markets
- Blog posts on the hotel’s blog
When looking to immediately increase profits, forgetting the most profitable channel is the hotelier’s biggest downfall. To be informed is to be empowered!
5. Don’t Pin High Hopes on the New “Anti-OTA” Players
Don’t put all your hotel’s eggs into fancy new baskets. New hotel meta-search sites such as RoomKey.com, MyBestHotelRate.com and GlobalHotelExchange.com will have a very difficult time gaining traction with travel consumers in this highly competitive online travel marketplace; therefore, they won’t become the “big players” that deserve your revenue manager’s time. Though perceived as industry-friendly, these new sites provide no unique value proposition to the travel consumer. Additionally, it is prohibitively expensive to establish a new travel consumer brand. The last two major travel brands to be established were Orbitz (2003) and Kayak.com (2004).
Conclusion
While the do’s of hotel distribution are largely self-explanatory, the don’ts have more critical implications. Not all that glitters is gold, and “new” doesn’t always mean improved, particularly in the case of the latest anti-OTA players.
In this dynamic industry, it is important to stay on top of quickly moving trends, prioritize initiatives that generate direct online bookings and be flexible enough to continuously adjust digital marketing campaigns for optimal, time-sensitive results. As always, count on the basics and stick to proven methods to drive exponential ROIs.
Partner with digital marketing experts who will prioritize driving direct online revenues for your hotel, and who will keep you up-to-date on best practices and proactively bring forth ideas to generate the highest website revenues and ROIs.
Work with a team of savvy digital marketers who will show you new ways to recoup lost opportunities, teach you how to stay on top of changes in the industry, and provide your hotel and team with real value, not just a service.
About the Authors and HeBS Digital
Max Starkov is President & CEO, and Lauren DeGeorge is Manager, Digital Marketing. HeBS Digital (Hospitality eBusiness Strategies), the hospitality industry’s leading full-service digital marketing and direct online channel strategy firm, is based in New York City (www.HeBSdigital.com).
HeBS Digital has pioneered many of the best practices in hotel Internet marketing, social and mobile marketing, and direct online channel distribution. The firm has won more than 180 prestigious industry awards for its digital marketing and website design services, including numerous Adrian Awards, Davey Awards, W3 Awards, WebAwards, Magellan Awards, Summit International Awards, Interactive Media Awards, IAC Awards, etc.
A diverse client portfolio of top-tier major hotel brands, luxury and boutique hotel brands, resorts and casinos, hotel management companies, franchisees and independents, and CVBs are benefiting from HeBS Digital’s direct online channel strategy and digital marketing expertise. Contact HeBS Digital’s consultants at (212) 752-8186 or success@hebsdigital.com.
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The following article is Max Starkov’s latest contribution to the “Successful eMarketing” blog on HOTELS magazine’s website.
Background
On January 11, 2012 six of the top hotel brands in the world launched RoomKey.com, a “hotel search engine website that facilitates booking on better terms than most online travel agencies.” RoomKey.com offers “meta search” for 23,000 properties spread among the six brands. The founding hotel chains include: Choice Hotels, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Marriott and Wyndham, which are equal shareholders in the new venture. Later in the week Best Western announced that their 4,000 properties will be joining RoomKey.com. More hotel chains are expected to join in the future.
The “direct connect” technology platform, similar to Jack Rabbit Systems, was acquired from Hotelicopter.com in an asset deal that closed last year.
“The intent all along was to drive down the cost of distribution and provide consumers with a better experience,” said John Davis III, RoomKey.com CEO. “Allowing them to book directly and become a direct guest of the hotel is a game-changer.”
RoomKey.com is Not the Only New Kid on the Block
In late 2011, several other organizations and entities announced the launch of hotel meta-search and direct booking sites meant to circumvent the OTAs:
www.mybesthotelrate.com – Launched by the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), an organization which has over 10,000 members owning 20,000 hotels. The CRS is powered by Citibreak, a reservation technology vendor focused on destinations. The site’s proclaimed objective is to help lessen its member hotels’ dependency on the OTAs. The site will charge participating hotels an undisclosed commission for every booking.
www.globalhotelexchange.com – Launched by Magnuson Hotels, “the world’s largest independent hotel group” with 2000 member hotels. The site will charge a small pass-through fee to the consumer, in the range of , to “underwrite the marketing and technology necessary to market and sell rooms without charging hotels a fee. There’s no commission fee charged to the hotel.”
What Would It Take For the New “Anti-OTA” Sites to Become Viable Industry Players
Last year over 30% of Internet bookings for the top hotel brands came from OTAs. Overall, 40% of all hotel bookings in North America came from the OTAs. STR estimated that the industry has lost over .5 billion in OTA commissions last year alone.
I have been the most outspoken direct online channel advocate for 16 plus years now. I can only applaud these and any new “direct connect” initiatives by the major hotel brands and other hotel organizations to circumvent the OTA channel and lessen their franchisees’ and members’ dependence on the OTAs. I am rooting wholeheartedly for their success. And yet, I have serious questions and concerns about the viability of these new “anti-OTA” players.
What would it take for the new “anti-OTA” players like RoomKey.com to become viable industry players? In my view there are three main challenges new travel consumer sites like RoomKey.com have to overcome in order to secure sustainability and become real players in the industry:
1. Establishing a Unique Value Proposition in the Marketplace
Let’s talk about the unique value proposition provided by these new anti-OTA players like RoomKey.com. I can clearly see what the value is from hotelier’s perspective: direct connect to the member hotels’ own booking engines at a comparatively “palatable” success fee (commission).
For these anti-OTA players to survive, they have to offer a powerful value proposition from a travel consumer perspective. Obviously, due to contractual obligations with the OTAs for rate parity and the best rate guarantees on the major brand websites, the value proposition cannot come in the form of lower or unique rates.
So what it is the value proposition that RoomKey.com or MyBestHotelRate.com can offer to the traveling public that is above and beyond a typical OTA site?
- Last Room Availability: HotelChatter reported earlier this week that while RoomKey.com and Expedia offered the same rates (rate parity), RoomKey.com showed availability for some hotels which were not available on Expedia. With rising travel demand, this could turn into a serious advantage as long as it is not in breach of existing contracts with the OTAs.
- Earning Reward Points: Currently merchant reservations via the OTAs do not qualify travel bookers to earn points from the major hotel brands. Since booking through RoomKey.com is booking via the major hotel chain’s CRS, travel consumers will be earning reward points, which is another serious advantage.
- Usability: RoomKey.com counts on its easy-to-use search functionality and a clean & elegant look. In addition, the site plans to have independent customer reviews, and the ability to compare, plan and share with friends and family. Would that be sufficient? Travel planning is a very complex process. Hotel bookers need more than hotel location, availability and rate, and peer reviews. Hotels are an integral part of the destination experience hence any hotel booking site needs to offer rich destination information, local activities, events, mapping, etc. In other words it is questionable whether the “clean and elegant” look of these new players will win travelers over the information-rich OTA sites.
- Social Media and WOM: Any new travel consumer site needs to appeal to today’s hyper-interactive travel consumers. Is RoomKey.com or MyBestHotelRate.com ready for these new breed of travel consumers? Only time will tell.
- Lots of Luck: Any new industry player in the current economic environment needs a ton of “economic luck” in the form of good timing, a business model that is in tune with the times, quick adoption by consumers, ability to take advantage of social media and word-of-mouth (WOM), etc.
2. Securing Serious Ongoing Revenues Needed to Establish a New Travel Consumer Brand
It is prohibitively expensive to establish a new travel consumer brand. The last two major travel brands to be successfully established were Orbitz (2003) and Kayak.com (2004). In addition to the initial investments for technology, website design and architecture, hosting and analytics, there is a serious need for ongoing operational and promotional expenses.
I doubt any RoomKey.com founding member is going to promote RoomKey.com on their own since this site features 5 of their biggest competitors. No AAHOA member hotel will promote MyBestHotelRate.com wholeheartedly, since this site features concrete competitors to the member’s own properties.
RoomKey.com and the other “anti-OTA” players need to promote themselves – in other words, they need to generate revenue in the form of commissions or “success fees” in order to pay for the sites’ operational expenses, advertising, etc.
How much of a commission would suffice? RoomKey.com earns a commission from the booking, which as described by the company “is at a more supplier-friendly rate than what third party OTAs are offering, as it redirects users to the hotel company’s website for a direct booking.” Magnuson’s Global Hotel Exchange will be offered “at no cost to hotels struggling with economic instability” and will charge travel consumers a small “pass-through fee in the range of .”
In my view, any commission below 10%-15% would generate too small of a revenue stream for a site that is making baby steps and is trying to divert bookings from well-entrenched OTAs.
3. Overcoming the Reaction and Legal Challenges by the OTAs
If history is any indicator (remember Orbitz?) as to how the OTAs would react to the launch of RoomKey.com and similar industry sites, I believe the OTAs will ask the Justice Dept to look into these new services because they “smell of collusion” by and among major industry players.
A Word About MyBestHotelRate.com Initiative by AAHOA
I am fully aware of what AAHOA stands for as an organization and respect AAHOA’s objective to help lessen its member hotels’ dependency on the OTAs. In my humble opinion, creating a new AAHOA consumer brand website does not solve the main underlying issue: lack of understanding among AAHOA member hoteliers about how to take full advantage of the direct online channel, what are the best practices, and ROI-centric initiatives. How to make sense of this very convoluted online travel marketplace? Is Google Hotel Finder good or bad for me? Are flash sales sites like Groupon and Living Social good or bad for my hotel? Why is it detrimental for my hotel to use open-discount last-minute sales sites like HotelTonight.com? What is the correct use of social media – is it a distribution channel or a customer engagement channel? How to take advantage of Google Places?
This is where AAHOA can play a crucial role by educating its members on direct online channel strategies, vanity website best practices, SEO, SEM, social and mobile marketing, online media and re-targeting, email marketing, etc.
Diverting online travel consumers from the OTAs to a new consumer website MyBestHotelRate.com is not only prohibitively expensive, but it does not help AAHOA members help themselves fight their addiction to the OTA distribution channel. Instead, AAHOA should spend its organizational funds to develop robust educational and professional development programs for its member hotels, focused on the direct online channel, hotel digital marketing, and industry best practices and notable trends.
Click here to read the entire blog article on HOTELSMag.com, as well as a full selection of Max Starkov’s blog articles on hot industry topics and latest trends in the online channel in hospitality.
About the Author:
Max Starkov is President & CEO of HeBS Digital (Hospitality eBusiness Strategies), the hospitality industry’s leading direct online channel strategy, full-service digital marketing and website design firm (www.HeBSdigital.com)
By Erica Garza
By Erica Garza
I recently sat down with Tim Skylarov, Creative Director and Vladimir Sobolev, Senior Web Developer – Special Projects to examine the latest best practices in website design and digital marketing technologies. We discussed the need for hoteliers to re-evaluate their website re-design strategies and budget for website re-design and optimization overhaul in 2012.
At HeBS Digital, we believe that hotel Internet marketing starts and ends with the hotel website. The firm has won over 175 prestigious industry awards for its digital marketing and website design services, including numerous Adrian Awards, Davey Awards, W3 Awards, WebAwards, Magellan Awards, Summit International Awards, Interactive Media Awards and IAC Awards.
Many hotel websites are not designed to handle today’s hyper-interactive consumer and read like a stagnant online brochure, offering stale textual and visual content. There are no interactive features engaging the travel consumer and soliciting his/her participation and input. This is contrary to the mere nature of today’s hyper-interactive travel consumer, as well as against the mandates of the recent Google Panda and Freshness updates.
Today’s hotel website carries the responsibility of generating the bulk of bookings for the property and relies on ambitious and creative website designers and digital technology developers to produce new, engaging and ROI-producing sites on a consistent basis. The hotel website is by far the most cost-effective distribution channel and provides hoteliers with excellent ROIs, immediate results, and long-term competitive advantages.
How does web design and development today compare to when you first started?
Tim: Web design has changed quite a bit over the years. Since the beginning of my professional career it has gone from one level to a completely new one that simply cannot compare. Technology evolved and web/ux design evolved with it. Websites became more interactive and easy to use. Back in the day, we used static HTML and small pictures – now we use cutting-edge CMS, HQ pictures and even videos to build the best user experience. Design trends evolved because of the quick evolution of technology/techniques that are required to make new design trends possible to be built out. Displays also got bigger and this changed the way we experience media on websites. Designers received a lot more real estate to play with and as a result we now have large, wide-format beautiful photography as well as rich-textured backgrounds featured on our websites.
Vladimir: We have made noticeable progress. A lot has been improved and raised up to the new level. At the moment there are no limits in complexity of development.
As far as design, how does print differ from web?
Tim: Those are pretty much different things. Media types are different, colors are different; targets, layouts, technology, and even audiences are different.
In a recent article titled “The Future of Web Design” Courtney Boyd Meyers claimed, “OpenType fonts liberated web designers” in 2011. Do you agree with this statement and why?
Tim: I could not agree more. Back in the day we only had a dozen cross-platform fonts (e.g. Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana) that we were able to use for website design. This was something that was seriously limiting our creativity. It might seem that fonts don’t have that much impact on the website design, but this is not true – fonts are a very significant part of the design experience.
What major products or innovations have contributed to today’s web design and development?
Tim: Fast evolution of web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript libraries etc. I try to evangelize industry-leading design best practices, speaking to those standards within the company. I’m continually looking for new technologies that will give us an opportunity to enhance and improve our websites.
Vladimir: I agree. HTML5, another global HTML revision, is designed to fundamentally change the way designers and developers create websites, as well as how visitors interact with them.
How has the increase in mobile devices and tablets influenced web design and development?
Tim: Well, with the increase of mobile devices we have to keep in mind different form factors, screen sizes, resolutions, platform capabilities etc. while designing websites. We now have to spend a lot more time on the drawing board.
Vladimir: To keep up with rapid mobile devices, more attention to development is required. We have to consider the specific limitations Tim mentioned to optimize graphics, content and revise the interface.
What is responsive web design and how has it affected your creative choices?
Tim: Responsive Web Design (RWD) is a concept/technique that combines regular “desktop” website layout with a layout for mobile devices. It’s one solution to rule them all. In theory, RWD will make your website work for every screen size and every device. There are a lot of pros to this concept, but there are also some very serious cons that you need to consider – design and production times are getting longer, therefore we have to do more researching, testing, and design more mockups and layouts. We need a lot more time for development and a lot more time for QA.
What are some of your biggest and most daring achievements in web design at the company?
Tim: Fluid wide-format next-gen websites we introduced in 2011. Think http://www.hotelzaza.com/ and http://chamberlainwesthollywood.com. And also http://www.shellhospitality.com/Black_Friday/.
Vladimir: The creation of the AJAX engine for our out-of-the-box design level websites. All new out-of-the-box websites are running on this engine. AJAX technology has existed for quite a while already, but the right projects and resources to implement across the entire site appeared just recently.
What inspires you?
Tim: Everything around me. I keep my eyes wide open – people, cities, books, movies, music.
Vladimir: Any task or problem can inspire and encourage me to create something new. Harder and more complex tasks are the most exciting for me. Today developers are provided with a huge number of features; many services offer their API and SDK for third-party applications development and it allows us to create some totally awesome things.
What do you envision for the future of web design and development?
Tim: The future is mobile. Websites will become more flexible to accommodate different devices, from cellphones and tablets to laptops, desktops TVs, gaming consoles and that microwave oven.
Vladimir: The future is in semantics and a lot of that is now provided by HTML5.
Developers and designers can use “cleaner,” easier and consistent coding. HTML5 helps to get rid of restrictions which require usage of third-party plug-ins like Abobe Flash and it’s only getting better.
How does HeBS Digital help our hotel clients?
Tim: HeBS Digital has solutions that fit every hotel client’s needs and objectives: we offer standard, premium and out-of-the box hotel designs. We recommend our Standard Designs Package for small and select service hotels, ex. Branded: http://www.doubletreehotelburlington.com/, Non-branded: http://www.executivehotel-panama.com/. For full-service hotels, luxury and boutique hotels, resorts and casinos we recommend our Premium Design Package, ex. http://www.newyorkpalace.com/ and http://www.brushcreekranch.com/
For high-end luxury and boutique hotels we recommend our Out-of-the-Box Design Package, ex. http://www.thejouledallas.com/ and http://www.therogernewyork.com/#index
Vladimir: Equally important to the website design is what sits on the back end of the website. For example the recent The Google Panda Update made most hotel websites obsolete. Bare, sparse copy stuffed with keywords can no longer sustain a respectable SERP ranking. The latest Freshness Update created the need to add fresh content to the website on an ongoing basis.
A Note about HeBS Digital’s Website Design Services
In 2011 HeBS Digital created the latest version of its proprietary website content management system (HeBS Digital CMS Premium), which was specifically conceptualized and built to accommodate the stringent Google Panda and “Freshness” updates by allowing hotel marketers to maintain fresh content on the hotel website in the form of:
- Promotional landing pages for timely specials and packages (e.g. a March Madness package as opposed to an Advanced Purchase package valid for all of 2012)
- Event landing pages for events and happenings at the property and in the destination
- Promo tiles and banners on the website for featured specials and events
- Marketing and sales messages in the main image window on every page focusing on various aspects of the hotel product: room and dining promotions, complete meeting packages, wedding promotions, etc.
- New content pages on various topics: from seasonal and sports events, to local festivals and customer segment-specific content (family travel, seniors, weekend travel, romantic getaways, etc.)
Each local promotion or event page has “micro-formats” applied to it, which are rich snippets of data that signify to a search engine that these events are in fact stand-alone, current events, with exact starting and ending times associated. These ensure that all of our events are viewed as “current” rather than repetitive or stagnant.
Schemas codes are also incorporated on all time-sensitive landing pages: local promotions, special offers or events at the property and in the destination, as well as on a variety of pages site-wide: dining, accommodations, hotel services and amenities, etc.
The result? A typical single-property website has 40-60 pages of content indexed by Google. The HeBS Digital CMS allows clients to build a multitude of new landing pages and fresh content over time, and typically has over 2,500 -4,500 pages of relevant and deep content indexed by the search engines.
About HeBS Digital
HeBS Digital is the industry’s leading full-service hotel digital marketing, website design and direct online channel strategy firm based in New York City (www.HeBS Digital.com).
HeBS Digital has pioneered many of the “best practices” in hotel digital marketing, social and mobile marketing, and direct online channel distribution. The firm specializes in helping hoteliers build their direct Internet marketing and distribution strategy, boost the hotel’s Internet marketing presence, establish interactive relationships with their customers, and significantly increase direct online bookings and ROIs.
A diverse client portfolio of top tier major hotel brands, luxury and boutique hotel brands, resorts and casinos, hotel management companies, franchisees and independents, and CVBs are taking advantage of the hotel digital marketing and direct online channel expertise offered by HeBS Digital. Contact HeBS Digital consultants at (212) 752-8186 or success@hebsdigital.com.
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A thought leader in the hospitality industry, HeBS Digital recently kicked off the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite customer blog series with a post entitled, “Recovering Reservations from Visitors Who Abandon the Hotel Reservation Process.”
HeBS Digital uses the Adobe® Digital Marketing Suite to measure not only the results of digital marketing campaigns but also user behavior on hotel websites. This information helps us to improve the conversion process, generating more revenue for our clients. A high volume of visitors to hotel websites initiate bookings but do not complete one. This supports the notion that visitors check rates and availability and leave the site to compare rates with other booking means, as well as check reviews, chat with friends, etc. By analyzing the funnel and pathing reports on SiteCatalyst®, HeBS Digital has developed the HeBS Digital Reservation Recovery Strategy, allowing hotels to stay in touch with their customers after a booking is abandoned.
The Reservation Recovery Strategy works as follows. Because email addresses and names are required on hotel websites to initiate bookings, a branded emailer is sent after a booking is abandoned with a message thanking the guest for visiting the website. Included also in the emailer is a phone number and chat functionality (if applicable) that connects to the hotel’s reservations, as well as an important deep link that will return the shopper back to the point of purchase, allowing the shopper to pick up where left off. In a case study by HeBS Digital, the emailer was sent to deliver within two hours of abandonment and did not offer an incentive or sales message to book—just a simple thank you.
The Reservation Recovery Case Study results were as follows. Out of abandoned bookings, 17% were of reachable quality, having provided an email address prior to exiting. Out of 6,793 reachable bookers, 838 returned, and 192 of those converted, recovering 0,871 in revenue. This conversion rate of 2.8% is consistent with the overall conversion rates for the industry (around 2%), but it cannot be disputed that an additional 2.8% conversion rate amounts to sizeable revenues. If these numbers were to continue, the brand should expect to generate approximately 0,000 by the end of the year from this initiative, with a return on investment of 7800%.
Contact HeBS Digital to learn more about the Reservation Recovery Strategy.
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