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Definitely Doug 11/17/23: The Hotel TV Dilemma
Posted: 11/17/2023

In case you missed the memo, people no longer watch television the way that they did ten years ago. Not at home, and not at hotels. Nielsen reported that streaming services cornered 34.8% of TV screen time in July 2022, when they overtook cable for the first time.

Property management systems (PMSs) fundamentally have changed very little since the 1980s. And many hotels still use systems that were built in the eighties, nineties, or aughts. Since then, massive technology changes have occurred: the mobile revolution, cloud computing, distributed ledgers, AI-based large language models, Web 3.0, and other innovations have fundamentally changed both the technological capabilities of software, the way it is designed and built, and expectations for user experience.

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Definitely Doug 10/20/23: Gluing It All Together
Posted: 10/20/2023

Hardly a day goes by that hotels do not express frustration about the inability to tie together key data sources and technology systems. This is not a new problem; it has been around for decades. Progress has been made on many fronts to be sure, but digitalization has created new issues much faster than solutions.

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What’s the Buzz Among Today’s Hoteliers?
Posted: 10/17/2023

What’s on the minds of hoteliers? What’s keeping them up at night? And what makes travelers happy and eager to return? Some of the best places to have these candid discussions are at the industry’s conferences and events, and this year’s lineup has not disappointed. From AAHOACON and BITAC, to HITEC and The Hospitality Show, I’ve been traveling steadily, attending 13 events since January.

Technology has become an indispensable part of the guest experience. As travelers increasingly expect tech-enabled convenience, hospitality businesses must continue innovating to meet these demands. While WiFi was once the primary tech offering for hotels, today's guests want more. Integrated proptech solutions are becoming the new standard.

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A Website Audit Could Boost Visits and Bookings – And They Are Free!

10/04/2016

by Nimesh Dinubhai

In my last few articles, I have stressed the importance of hotels branching out and creating a custom website that offers guests a brighter picture of their properties and what they offer. But what happens if after your site is up, you are still not able to see the grand results you were expecting? All is not lost!

Top 3 Hospitality Must-haves to be in the Techy Trend
Direct Website Traffic Equals More Online Bookings
Quality Over Quantity

For those of you who were smart enough to hire a company and have a professional site designed, congrats! You’re halfway there. That’s right, that’s what I said, halfway there. Having the site is just the first step: The most important part is utilizing all the features and advances in technology that your site should be implemented with in order to attract guests.

A site is only as good as its features, dropdowns and the information that it is being delivered to your customers. If you are underutilizing your site, then performing an audit is the next step for you.

A website audit by a specialized web design company will help you to see whether you are using all of the feature-rich options that a professional hospitality website should have. It will not only let you know what is working, but most importantly, it will let you know what is not working and what might need to be fixed or updated. You do not want a site with features that you are paying for but are dead weight.

So what is an audit, where do you get one, and what will it really tell you?

I’ll do my best to outline these answers here to help you make a better decision on whether a site audit is a good decision for you. The first step is to search on Google for web design companies and find a company that is confident enough with its services that it is able to offer you a free website audit. Next comes the understanding that an audit is not and should not be a high-expense gimmick to have someone tell you everything that is going wrong. An audit should provide information to help you use your site to the greatest advantage, so that you are maximizing the number of visits and giving guests the proper tools to book in the most efficient way possible. A well-planned website should do that for you already.

An effective audit should:

Evaluate whether the navigation tools are effortless for guests.
Ensure that the onsite booking process is fast and efficient.
Confirm that your website is simple, yet designed with a modern and contemporary feel.
Evaluate dead-weight content or pages that distract guests from what they really need.
Determine that the social media links are effectively placed and used.

There is so much more that can be found in an audit depending on how your site was designed. Take the time to at least look into an audit. It’s free and could mean the difference between guests booking or flying on to the next hotel website. If you are reading this and wondering why your site is not attracting guests, then pick up the phone, open the yellow pages, or search Google for a web design company to do your site audit now. You have nothing to lose and it is important to be informed. Good luck!

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.