Hotels often experience something similar to this when their prospect guests visit their website but do not make any bookings. This aspect of hospitality businesses is measured as the “look-to-book ratio”.

Let’s understand this in more detail.

In today’s digital world, users always scrutinize every service and product they are likely to purchase. That is what travelers do while booking their accommodations. They surf through the internet, various hotel websites, and OTA platforms to find a perfect stay at an affordable price.

I bet you don’t want your hotel to be just a part of their surfing process. Rather you’d like the guests to stop by your website and find it a perfect fit to book.

However, earning an instant booking from your website visitors is not easy. You have to set up proper strategies to hold your guests’ attention and to even out your hotel’s look-to-book ratio effectively.

But worry not. In this blog, I am going to discuss it all step-by-step.

What Is the Look-To-Book Ratio?

As the name suggests, the look-to-book ratio (also known as the L2B ratio) is a comparison between the number of people who visited your website vs the number of people who made a booking.

This ratio is one of the key performance indicators for your hotel and its website. It gives a reality check of your website’s quality and tells you if it is effective enough to make good sales.

What is an ideal look-to-book ratio?

After understanding the look-to-book ratio, as a hotelier, you might want to achieve the best value of it. So, let’s address the real question now – “what is the value of an ideal look-to-book ratio for hotels”?

You might think it is 1:1 but it can happen only in hypothetical situations. It is clearly an unrealistic case where every person that visits your website ends up booking a stay.

To be honest there is not any particular value that hotels should run after. Instead, through constant efforts, they must try to improve their ratio day by day.

So, let's say your look-to-book ratio is 30:1. Meaning, out of 30 people visiting your website, only 1 is booking. Now your next goal can be 25:1 or 20:1. You can even aim to achieve 10:1 in the long term (though it is not a cakewalk).

Yes, it seems easy to write and read these values, but achieving them is a whole different game altogether. However, it is not impossible. And this is why I am here to guide you through perfect strategies to help you reach your goals.

How to Improve Your Hotel’s Look-To-Book Ratio?

To improve your hotel’s look-to-book ratio, the sole strategy is to make your online presence more appealing.

When your guests reach your website they should feel connected. If the website visitors can relate to your website, its content, and your property then you are halfway through.

In this section, I am discussing all the strategies you must note and follow to improve your L2B Ratio.

1. Make your website visible

If you want people to book your hotel, the primary step is to reach them. For that, your website should stand out from the pile of the internet ecosystem.

To do so, you must work on the content of your website. Research on the current customer behavior, how they search on the internet and other platforms, and what they are actually looking for.

In technical terms, note down the SEO keywords (search engine optimization) and include them in your website content.

By using effective SEO for hotels you will get acknowledgment in the search engine to become visible to the world. With time, you will start driving more customer visits to your website.

2. Track your target audience

Let’s just face the truth, you can’t please every visitor. What you can do is attract a particular niche. According to your hotel and its facilities, you must figure out what is an ideal guest persona for your hotel.

Once you track down your audience, you can use effective techniques to pull them in. You should know how to impress them on their first visit to your website.

As we know, hitchhikers and solo travelers will look out for a fun and carefree experience. Whereas families will look out for a whole package and comfortable stays.

So, to hold the attention of your ideal guest, your website should give them the particular vibe they desire. If they do not get excited about their stay just by looking at your website, then they will barely book you.

3. Keep your audience engaged

People do not always visit the hotel’s website to make a booking. Sometimes they just make future plans and casually lookout for travel and vacation spots. (To get that adrenaline boost:D)

In these cases, it is important to make an ever-lasting impression on your audience. They should have a strong image of your hotel so that whenever they plan to book, they will remember you.

To establish such an impact, you must connect with your audience personally besides the basic advertisements. For this, it is important to have your presence on social media sites. 
Recently, hotels are also using WhatsApp business tools to connect well with their guests.

Due to WhatsApp’s popularity among all segments of society, it helps in better reach. With its catalog tool, hotels are able to share their offerings with a single click. It helps build a strong pre-booking connection with guests, eventually resulting in an increased number of bookings.

Explore more benefits of WhatsApp Business 

4. Build an authentic and appealing website

One thing that users lookout in your hotel website is accurate information. While creating it, ensure you are not keeping the details vague and hidden. Always give out the full and right information to your visitors.

This unveils transparency and adds authenticity to your hotel’s image.

However, it does not come solely through the content, the design and color scheme of your website are also inclusive. These can seem to be the less important factors but the visuals do impact a lot on the conscious as well as the subconscious minds of your guests.

So, for bringing a genuine aura to your website, along with its content, you must build it with eye-pleasing and exciting visuals. 

An effective website builder software can help you do so. You can check out eZee Panorama, which helped many properties build their dream websites and improve their L2B ratio.

5. Keep the booking process smooth

Once you build an appealing website, ensure that it also functions smoothly. If there are a lot of hurdles while booking and getting its confirmation, then your website will instantly lose its charm.

The first thing you must look out for is an effective booking engine. It should be highly receptive and instant in terms of functioning. So that, your guest gets a wide range of platforms to connect with your hotel easily. Moreover, it should notify you immediately to track your bookings and assist your potential guests.

You can check out eZee’s Booking Engine which handles all these affairs ideally.

Besides this, the process of booking should be kept short and simple. Do not make your booking box a registration form for some entrance exam. Your guests may feel it is too extensive and may leave without booking.

6. Put up amazing offers

One of the prominent ways to improve your hotel’s look-to-book ratio is by offering great deals.

Your guests surf the internet just to find the best deals. So, if your website has reasonable prices and great offers for them then they will definitely book you.

This is why putting up different offers in festivals and seasons become important. Giving special offers on repeat bookings, discounts on group bookings, and great deals on packages – are some excellent ways to persuade your audience for booking.

7. Provide instant assistance

“Never keep your guests waiting!” This goes for pre-booking as well. The moment you put your guests on hold, you lose them, especially in the pre-booking phase.

Nowadays, people are reckless in terms of doing activities or taking decisions. Gone are the days when they used to have patience.

So, if they have any queries, you better guide them instantly, or else they will move on to your competitors in no time. It is important to be available for your guests whenever they contact you otherwise you lose a booking. This will eventually reflect on your L2B ratio.

8. Shield well from negative reviews

Reviews have become an important source for website visitors to check your hotel’s authenticity. Hence, it is necessary to manage them wisely.

If your prospective guest checks your website and reads a bad review then they become skeptical. It reduces your chances of earning a booking.

Therefore, keeping your website clean and sober in terms of reviews is a must. But it can get a little challenging too.

For making it easy, your hotel can use a reputation management system to deal with the reviews on your website. eZee also provides you with Free Review Response Templates so that you can respond to positive or negative reviews in an ideal and safe way.

9. Handle cancellations like a pro

One thing that can’t be overlooked here is when your guests confirm a booking with you and then cancel it.

Cancellations are the silliest way to lose your bookings. They snatch away your hopes for a better L2B ratio. However, it can be handled well.

If your booking terms are feasible and flexible to suit your guest’s requirements then there are fewer chances of cancellations.

Still, if it happens, you can earn it back by keeping the rescheduling window open for your guests. Or by asking about their genuine issues and trying to amend them.

The post Master the Aspect of the Look-To-Book Ratio for Your Hotel appeared first on eZee Absolute.

Guests check the website before booking any property. It is one of the vital aspects influencing their decision. 

There is nothing better for any hotel than having an attractive website. And for that, you can invest in a certain website design templates. But with that, it also needs to be business oriented.

The main purpose of a website in the hospitality industry is to increase revenue through channelising direct bookings. But for a better conversion rate, it is very essential to invest in hotel website optimisation.

In this blog, I’m going to guide you through various tricks for hotel website optimisation.

Before beginning, let’s understand:

What is the importance of having a website in the hospitality industry?

Websites play a major role in this era of digitalisation. Expecting a high volume of online bookings without a website is like, waiting for fruits without planting any tree. 

As per stats by sabrehospitality.com,

21% of guests prefer to book via the hotel's website.

This shows, if you don’t have an optimised brand website for your property, you’d tend to lose around 21% of your annual revenue. Needless to say, you can self-estimate the loss incurred.

Hence, to achieve a better inflow of business, you must invest in a brand website.

How to optimise hotel websites for more bookings?

Just having a brand website is not enough. You need to ensure that it achieves its purpose of providing you with maximum bookings. 

Here are 9 easy ways for hotel website optimisation to achieve the desired results.

1. Focus on your hotel website’s design

An unattractive and unorganised website will drive your guests away. Thus, you should check if your hotel website is:

• Visually appealing.
• Easy to use, understand and navigate through.
• Conveys the right message.

To make your website appealing, try to use contrasting elements and themes. It should be eye-catching so that the guests would spend more time on your webpages. 

Do not overfill it with details. Ensure that it is organised and has a sitemap to help guests find the specific information they are looking for. It’s advised to have a decluttered website for ease of understanding and navigation.

So, to increase hotel website conversion rate during optimisation, you should check for white spaces.

In simpler terms, see if your website conveys the right message to the visitors. Ensure you don’t leave them baffled with too much input, just stick to one motive; that is – “Book with us”.

2. Use visuals 

It’s a simple truth, that you believe what you see. So is with the guests. 

High-quality photos are recommended for capturing guests’ attention. Most hoteliers invest in professional photography for this.

If you don't want to burn a hole in your pocket, simply use - ‘Capturing and enhancing process’. 

All you have to do is click some pictures from your smartphone, and use any photo editor to enhance them. But don’t overdo it, just adjust for clarity, sharpness, lighting and contrast.

Here are some of our recommended apps: Adobe Photoshop Express, Google Snapseed and Adobe Lightroom.

You can also use videos describing your hotel and nearby places. Try creating some vlogs (video + blogs) on your hotel’s YouTube channel and get them embedded on your website. 

Due to COVID-19, many hotels are showcasing their safety measures. You can record some small clips such as hotel staff wearing masks and gloves, sanitization of each guest and room before check-in or check-out and so on. 

You can use that video on your website. This will boost visitors’ confidence and eventually turn them into potential guests. It’s recommended to create a separate page to address how your hotel is ensuring maximum safety for guests after pandemic.

Our free COVID-19 website templates might help you here.

Moreover, you can record some small clips such as hotel staff wearing masks and gloves, sanitization of each guest and room before check-in or check-out and so on. 

This will boost visitors’ confidence and eventually turn them into potential guests.

3. Make it mobile-friendly

Generally, people avoid using a laptop or tablet to search for anything in the middle of a journey. Let it be searching for a hotel to stay in, checking reviews, or navigating to the destination, people mostly use smartphones. 

It’s necessary for you to optimise your website for being mobile-friendly. A hotel website with a desktop-only view will not work smoothly on a smartphone.

It’ll have multiple glitches such as irregular display of content, missing action tabs, improper functioning and so on. This will put a negative impression on your guests and hamper your booking flow.

A website optimised for mobile will be convenient to use, easy to navigate through and achieve its purpose of contribution in direct reservation.

4. Integrate with booking engine

What’s the point of having a website that can’t assist you with the bookings? 

Let’s say a guest visits your website and is interested to make a reservation at your property. He searches for a “Book Now” widget but is unable to find one. 

So eventually, he’ll visit any OTA, search for your property, and book a room from there. You end up giving a huge TAC (Travel Agent Commission) from your room revenue. This could’ve been avoided. 

Installation of a booking engine is a MUST. It will help in channelising your revenue flow by increasing your hotel website’s conversion rate.

5. Enable review widget

A review widget is a beneficial tool for hotels. It helps them in showcasing their positive feedback to guests.

Rather than searching for them on other pages, guests will find them on your website itself. You know that reviews do impact guests’ booking decisions.

You can opt for the TripAdvisor review widget. Most hotels prefer going with that. 

Just one or two reviews won’t help, it’s important that you collect enough reviews to promote them correctly on all the channels.

Having a review widget without enough reviews is similar to owning a hotel with zero guests.

6. Use chatbots

What if a visitor on your website has any query? Obviously, he would try to connect with you. But, you might not be available at all times. So, for such scenarios having a chatbot facility available on your website can assist them round the clock. 

It’ll enable you to capture all such leads and assist your guests with their inquiries. Nowadays, artificial intelligence-based virtual assistance guides visitors to book the hotel from the website itself.

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas introduced to its guests “Rose – Digital Concierge”. It is an SMS chatbot developed by R/GA, a known technological firm based out in the USA. As per the testimonial shared by the President of ‘The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas’,

[Rose’s] playful personality has wooed hotel guests who booked directly into spending 37% more than guests who do not engage with her.

So you see, how having a chatbot installed can pave a way to boost hotel website conversion rate.

7. Develop quality content

Invest in better content. It could be anything from your hotel’s about us section to the description of rooms. Remember, if the content is not written well, it won’t have an essential impact on your guests.

Your content is not only responsible for convincing guests, but it also affects your SEO as it generates traffic for your website. 

Poor quality of content will have flaws such as lack of keywords, readability issues, unclear presentation of details and so on. Get your content written by any professional, as it provides better visibility which directly affects your revenue generation via the website.

Another thing you can do is:

Invest in blogs

I know, it may sound like a cliched thing, but yes blogs are a must-have on your website. I’m not asking you to go gaga over them. Just one blog per week would do good. 

There’s no such limitation to the topics. You can choose whatever subject you like such as local delicacies, famous sightseeings in your area or an event happening in your hotel and many more. 

Before publishing, check if it’s optimised for SEO. You can also put some images and if possible try interlinking them with your website.

8. Call to action on each page

In the hospitality industry, websites are a source of direct bookings. The ‘call to book’ option should always be available on the websites for this.

But having it just on a single page is not enough. Keep a check that all the pages highlighting your hotel’s facilities, room details and services should have this CTA (call to action) button enabled. 

Also, see if the landing page is accurately mapped with the link and is working properly. You never know what will trigger guests’ decision, be it any specific facility your hotel offers or the quality of room in the pictures. 

If focused on this aspect, it’ll help you to boost the hotel website conversion rate.

9. Optimise page loading speed

Nothing is as bad as a slow loading website. If your website’s page loading time is not up to the mark, it’ll not only hamper your guests’ experience but will also drop your search results ranking.

Google has certain algorithms for ranking web pages, and the loading speed is among them. Thus, do keep an eye on the loading speed of your page. If it’s not idle then consider this factor during the hotel website optimisation.

Conclusion

Having a website is not a big deal. But having a result-delivering website is important. For a hotel, it is responsible for making and breaking its image. 

It facilitates bookings as well as attracts your potential guests. It is better to opt for your hotel website optimisation for conversions. And if you’ve not started it doing it now, you know the repercussions.

The post 9 Tricks to Increase Direct Bookings Through Hotel Website Optimisation appeared first on eZee Absolute.