5 key elements to consider when creating your hotel website

In today’s digital age, being visible online is the number one priority. Creating the right website for your hotel has become the most essential task of marketing strategy. Before you can go online, you will need to choose a technology solution partner who provides vital and effective tools. Not only is it important that your website looks good, it should also provide a smooth and enjoyable customer experience.

You must have a user-friendly booking engine to drive your website visitors into the booking funnel, online payment system integrations to receive payment easily and securely, a promotion engine for upselling and maybe a few more tools to complement your reservation system. There shouldn’t be any problem when someone tries to book a room, as there shouldn’t be a problem finding your hotel’s website. This is why it is very important to be detectable and to appear on search and metasearch engines. Missing any of these points can really negatively impact your ability to capture and retain guests.

Below are the 5 key things you should look for when building your website.

1. Website builder

A website builder is a tool that helps build and bring your website to life. It helps define the look of your website. You just use a drag and drop editor to build your website by editing a template, adding content, and creating new pages. Once ready, customers will be able to book directly from your website, so it’s important that your website can be integrated with a booking engine. HotelRunner’s website builder offers a simple solution to set up your website and immediately integrate your booking engine and start receiving bookings.

2. Booking engine

A booking engine is a widget on a hotel’s website that allows customers to securely make reservations online. With most customers booking their stays online, hoteliers rely on online travel agencies (OTAs) to sell their rooms. But for each reservation made, a commission must be paid to a third party. That’s why an online hotel booking engine is your best friend for direct, commission-free bookings, which will help you increase your revenue immediately.

3. Promotion engine

The Promotion Engine is a useful tool that will help you engage with your guests by offering them incentives, coupons, extras, and rewards. You can attract new customers with attractive promotions, discounts or upsells to travelers who are already ready to book and enjoy more. Whether it is an early or last minute booking, for a long or short stay, HotelRunner makes all marketing campaigns possible thanks to its powerful engine of offers and promotions.

4. Online payment system

Online payment systems are your gateway to receiving payments online, quickly and securely.

With correct integrations of online payment systems, you will be able to receive payments from all over the world with the method of your choice. It is important that the system supports multiple currencies and gives you the ability to offer options based on the market. HotelRunner offers integrations with real-time and reliable payment collection methods (like Stripe) and allows you to accept credit cards and PayPal payments.

5. Visibility of meta-searches

Now that you’ve got everything set up and ready to go, it’s time to market your hotel. With millions of searches performed on Google every day, it is essential that your property is easily accessible through search engines. Google Hotel Ads gives your establishment global visibility on Google and Google Maps. This means anyone, anywhere, can view your property and make a reservation directly. As an official global partner of the Google Hotel Ads commission program, HotelRunner allows you to be seen and accept bookings from Google – that is, from around the world.

It all starts with finding the right technology solution partner for both your hotel and your potential customers. Defining your expectations and needs is the first step in your agenda. This will give you clarity and allow you to move in the right direction. The right technology partners will strive to analyze and understand your business, your specific needs, and the problems you are trying to solve. In the end, you will not only have an exceptional website that captures demand and generates income, but also a partner who will help you skyrocket your sales and marketing.

About HotelRunner

HotelRunner is a B2B distribution platform and network for accommodation and travel agencies to find, contract, connect and transact online. HotelRunner has over 41,000 accommodation partners and over 150 travel agency partners from 193 countries. HotelRunner is a Preferred Partner of Booking.com, Expedia Elite Connectivity Partner, Airbnb Software Partner, Innovative Provider Agoda, Oracle Gold, Hotelbeds and Google Hotel Ads Partner.

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