Tech Talk

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Definitely Doug 6/9/23: Hotels Fighting Trafficking: The Role of Technology
Posted: 06/09/2023

This week I want to address an important issue for the hospitality industry, albeit one that technologists have not historically had on their radar. They can potentially play a significant role in addressing the issue, which is human trafficking, and more specifically sex trafficking.

In my last column, I reviewed some key trends in autonomous mobile robotics for hotels, and dove into three categories of delivery robots in more detail – room delivery, food delivery, and heavy-lift robots. This week I will round out the topic with several other robot types and applications, as well as general guidance for evaluating, acquiring, and adopting mobile autonomous robotics. If you have not yet read part one, I recommend going back and doing so before continuing below, as some of the introductory material is important background to what follows.

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Best Practices for Hotel & Resort Operators in Pool Season 2023
Posted: 05/25/2023

With the arrival of warmer weather and summer fast approaching, hospitality operators are gearing up for another pool season. This year, technology is at the forefront of driving booking revenue and taking operational efficiency to the next level. Modern technology platforms (such as hospitality’s newest technology category – the Property Experience Management System or PXMS) are providing brand new capabilities that unlock new strategies and approaches to filling the pool with satisfied guests.

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The Growing Role Technology Plays in Hotels and Restaurants
Posted: 05/25/2023

In the past few years, hotels and restaurants have grown into hubs for entertainment, leisure, and human connection. In an effort to best serve their guests, operators have begun rethinking their technological investments and working to adapt to recent shifts in consumer preference and operations. To ensure that guests have the best on-site experience possible, brands are increasingly looking to new technologies to make their experiences more convenient and comfortable. Advanced property management systems (PMS) and point-of-sale (POS) systems can increase operational and staff efficiency, while also meeting changing customer expectations for a high-value but relatively low-touch experience.

This week I will return to a topic I have covered before, because it has, within the last 12 to 18 months, become one of the hottest-growth categories in hospitality technology. That topic is autonomous mobile robots – specifically, ones that can move around the facility as well as perform specific tasks. Many of these products were launched pre-Covid but were often seen at the time as more of a marketing gimmick than a legitimate operational solution.

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Is Your Website Optimized to Drive Online Bookings?

05/24/2017

by Nimesh Dinubhai

This year the 2017 AAHOA Convention was a huge success; not just for the thousands of hoteliers that attended, but also for the hundreds of venders that participated in the trade show. While conventions such as these are supremely famous for bringing together hoteliers and management companies from around the nation together in one platform, the primary focus of the AAHOA Convention is to educate on the newest hotel trends and offer classes that teach how to get the best out of various marketing tools. One of the biggest questions that came up at the convention from hoteliers this year was about their website and how to get the best out of it as a major marketing tool. Now that hotels have finally made the push to create private non-branded websites, hoteliers are left not knowing how to get the best out of them to drive the online bookings as was expected.

One of the major reasons your website may not be driving online bookings is the way it was designed. It’s not enough to just create a website, but it must be custom designed for each individual property and the services they provide. The core purpose of a hospitality website is to first visually, then through the content, showcase the reasons why your hotel is THE hotel to stay at. After all, that is what marketing is all about and this is not the place to cut costs in your marketing budget. When created the right way, your website can and will be your number one marketing tool! Here is a quick and easy checklist of must have items for your website that will help drive more bookings for your hotel.

Memorable Web Address – this one is the simplest of course. Create a URL for your website that customers can easily remember. An easy to remember website is probably the first stop for a repeat customer as opposed to a site you must do research on to find because of how long or complicated the wording is. Repeat business is always a core revenue source.
The term SEO (optimizing your site for search engines) seems to confuse people, but really it’s quite simple. When you google something like Hotels in San Francisco, a list of hotels in San Francisco will pop up. Now the goal is to get your hotel in the top ranking on that list so customers see you first without scrolling through a long list. This is where a lot of hotel websites fail; they do not have strong keywords that search engines use to find your site. Make sure you have strong keywords on each page of your site that will direct customers to you. The other and equally important way to get customers to find you in search engines, is to have strong backlinks on your site that direct customers to you. For example, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram allow you to create an account and post your backlink there.
Having clear and easy to find dropdowns with informational pages that showcase your hotel is paramount. Customers want to know what amenities you have in an easy-to-find place. If your hotel is in a tourist area, then guests will want to know what to do in town and where to eat. Have a separate drop down for that. Do not lump all your information in one dropdown. Think about what you look for when you are booking a hotel, especially when you are on a weekend getaway or vacation.
Photos, photos, photos!!! Post lots of pretty photos of your property, of breakfast, of lobby décor, of the palm trees out front, of anything that will attract customers to your property. We love photos that draw us in. More important than anything else, make sure your site is mobile friendly so that customers can see vibrant photos from their cell phone, as we know, that is where our millennials are booking.
Updated content – Create a website that has content that is regularly updated. Update with weather status, with events in town, with updates to your hotel, with updates on new additions and renovations, or even with new pictures/videos of you and your staff and guests. Post video testimonials that are updated on a regular basis so that customers can see, hear and feel recent happy guest experiences. Be current!

To me, these are the main things that I think rank highest on how to make your site work for you. Other obvious things are promotional discounts and social media engagement. These are staples of any website. Find a web designer that will regularly maintain your site and update with changes as needed. Your site can and will be a marketing tool if you just take the steps to audit your site for the main things customers are looking for and expecting from a customer’s perspective.

About The Author

Nimesh Dinubhai
President
Websrefresh

Nimesh Dinubhai completed his studies in 2003 and launched Websrefresh to help businesses grow their ROI. He also owns two Arizona hotels, one of which earned the Historical Hotel Award in 2014.