Slow hotel websites, outdated booking engines, and misused analytics are among the top brand revenue killers, according to Vikram Singh, a hospitality and travel asset optimization specialist. Singh shares advice on how hoteliers can build direct revenue and achieve profitable growth.
Speed things up. Forty percent of people abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load, an Akamai study shows. “Spend all the money you have and get faster Internet,” Singh says. “Ninety percent of your problems on TripAdvisor will go away.”
Own your digital assets. While many tech vendors view open source software as a security risk, Singh doesn’t buy into that mentality. “Nothing is safe. If it’s online, it can be hacked,” he explains. Whether it’s a hotel website, booking engine, or PMS, he recommends running what you can on open source technology, because it’s constantly being updated.
Don’t waste prime real estate. Make sure your property’s homepage is clean, simple, and easy to read—and customers know how to find you. “If you don’t have a phone number or address on your homepage, you’re done,” Singh says. “I can’t book with you.”
Prevent web marketing cannibalization. Unless you want customers to get sucked into the black hole of the Internet, avoid posting social media icons on the footer of your hotel’s homepage, Singh advises. “The purpose of your site is to get people in, and now you’re sending them away.”
Don’t misuse the power of analytics. “There is a right way and wrong way of using analytics, Singh stresses. “You can’t let it undermine your marketing and revenue.”
Get to the top of search engine results. Ensure your hotel shows up at the top of the page by investing in paid search. “If I Google you by name and you’re not there, you might as well take a break and shut down the hotel, and come back when you’re ready to spend some money on Google,” Singh says.
Stop running ranking reports. Investing money to rank for a keyword is not worth it anymore, Singh says. “Today, you’re much better off taking that money and investing it somewhere else, on some other channel.”
Focus on distribution. Pay attention to how the revenue is flowing in and where people are searching and booking. “You’re not going to make any money until you control your distribution, no matter how much you throw on marketing.”
