Choosing a CMS for your hotel website

Choosing a CMS for your hotel website

One of the benefits of being an independent hotel is the freedom to choose – in this case, the freedom to choose a content management system for your hotel’s website. With more than a handful of content management systems to choose from, making the right choice can be daunting. We’ve highlighted the things to consider when choosing a CMS for your hotel website.

Assess your needs

When selecting a content management system for your hotel website, assessing your needs is essential.

• Think about what integrations you might need to not only maintain, but to augment your income online. What content management systems support your booking software, live chat systems, etc. ?
• Who will manage the content of your website? How flexible does the publisher need to be?
• What level of analytical integration are you looking for your CMS?
• What additional features will you need in a content management system?

What separates design from art is that design is supposed to be … functional.“Cameron Moll

Calculate costs

There are many costs involved in building a hotel website, some initial and some permanent. Create a realistic budget that takes into account all facets of a hotel website redesign.

• Will the design be personalized or modeled?
• Will construction require a website developer?
• Will it need customizations?
• Will there be an ongoing hosting cost?
• Do I have to pay someone to update frequently?
• Will you need new photographs or videographies?

To weigh the pros and cons

We made it easy to choose a content management system by comparing three of the most popular website builders.

WordPress

Advantages

• User-friendly
• Plugins
  • WordPress offers the ability to modify or improve your website experience with over 50,000 plugins, many of which are free to install. Check out our list of the top ten WordPress plugins for hotels.
• Optimization

The inconvenients

• Performance
  • WordPress requires frequent updates and ongoing maintenance. If you don’t maintain the health of your CMS, performance will likely suffer. Additionally, out-of-the-box WordPress themes often rely on a horde of plugins and other unnecessary elements that can impact performance if not removed.
• Security and vulnerability
  • WordPress maintenance is manual compared to other hosted solutions that would automate these processes. Also, be careful of any plugins you add in an attempt to minimize vulnerabilities on your hotel website.

SpaceSquare

Advantages

• Simple but sophisticated
  • SquareSpace is quick and easy to set up, making it an advantageous choice for beginners, and offers a variety of visually stunning design templates.
• Direct pricing
  • SquareSpace is transparent in its all-in-one pricing model, which means you don’t need to pay to host your hotel’s website elsewhere.

The inconvenients

• Performance
  • In many cases, SquareSpace’s load times leave something to be desired due to bloated stylesheets and JavaScript that weigh down models.
• Unintuitive interface
  • SquareSpace might be easy to set up, but it’s not the simplest content management system out there. Keep this in mind once you’ve determined who will be responsible for changes to your hotel’s website.
• Cost
  • While SquareSpace’s pricing is clear, the costs may add up. Make sure you compare that to the ongoing costs of alternative hosted solutions.

Wix

Advantages

• We love sleek and efficient hotel website designs that keep their promises. Wix offers Artificial Design Intelligence – a unique system that provides personalized website design based on a quiz + your own personal design preferences. In a matter of minutes, Wix ADI creates a site tailored to your needs.
• Not only is it easy to get started, Wix is ​​also easy to use and maintain!

The inconvenients

• Although Wix does offer a free plan, it’s not ideal and we recommend upgrading to one of their paid plans. The free Wix plan limits access to online sales and analytics, includes on-site advertisements and minimal customer support.

Once you’ve selected a content management system that’s right for your needs and your hotel website is up and running, consider adding Clarity, Microsoft’s revolutionary user behavior analysis tool, to better understand online user behavior. This powerful tool can be used to help hoteliers find missed opportunities and ultimately generate revenue for your hotel.

If you are having trouble choosing a CMS for your new hotel website, TravelBoom can help. Contact us today to grow your business.

About TravelBoom Marketing

TravelBoom specializes in the development and execution of personalized, data-driven marketing solutions that drive direct bookings and growth for its customers. With over 25 years of experience in digital marketing for travel and hotels, TravelBoom leverages advanced data science and analytics to uncover insights and develop strategies that dramatically improve our customers’ bottom line and reduce dependence on third-party channels. TravelBoom is also the host of the world’s # 1 ranked hotel marketing podcast and its Quarterly Traveler Sentiment Survey, both available at www.travelboommarketing.com.

All logos, product and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

© 2021 Hotel News Resource