As a hotelier, you know that a website booking engine is more than just a tool… it generates commission-free revenues for your business by increasing direct bookings. It also provides your guests a platform to book without having to call, mail or go through a travel agent.
Your hotel’s website is incomplete without a booking engine just like a burger without cheese. There are multiple booking engine providers in the market but since a booking engine is an integral part of your website, you should make sure that the one you choose provides a flawless user-experience to your potential guest.
We highlight 8 must-haves in a website booking engine:
1. Minimal steps to book
“SaleCycle conducted a survey on 1000 consumers recently asking them reasons for abandonment of travel purchases. 13% of the people stated that they abandoned the booking process because the form was lengthy and time-consuming.”
Hotels should provide their guests with an easy-to-fill form that takes a minimum of 2-3 steps to finish the booking process. The form should not be complicated and unnecessary information (stayed with us before, how did you hear about us or would you like to recommend anybody?) can be avoided in the first stage. These details can be fetched later. The important features of a form are the travel dates (visual calendar preferably), number of occupants, membership details, packages, policies for booking and cancellation. Few steps and your visitor is now your guest. If the booking form is too cumbersome, chances are that your guest will abandon the process from the first page itself.
2. Seamless user experience
The worst kind of booking engine experience would be redirection to an external site (vendor’s interface) or one that opens in a new window after the form has been filled. The ideal booking engine should not take your user away from your website experience.
3. Mobile-optimized platform
According to Google, 40% of leisure travellers and 36% of business travellers book accommodation from their mobile phones. Statistics show higher search for hotels on tablets and smartphones, thus having a mobile optimized booking engine is not a choice anymore.
4. Secure payment process
A payment gateway increases the chances of getting confirmed reservations. If you don’t provide a payment gateway, chances are that your guests might change their mind and get swayed away to other hotels.
The payment gateway should display a secure symbol upfront to instil confidence in the booker. Hotels that don’t have a payment gateway must provide adequate fields to capture the card details for pre-authorization.
5. Option to upsell
If you have any special offerings to woo your guests like airport pickup/drop, discount on services in restaurants/spas or loyalty points for guests who book directly, display it upfront! Opt for a booking engine that allows personalization to sell your rooms with add-ons.
6. Image-friendly
We have come across booking engines that take forever to load images and are not very compatible with the interface simply because the booking engine is configured to showcase a gallery and not standalone images of rooms. It is advisable to have a booking engine that supports high-resolution images and loads instantly that can run on just a basic internet connection.
7. Multi-currency feature
A booking engine must accept payments in multiple currencies to appeal to the global audience. Few booking engines also offer the feature to convert currency.
8. Customizable and Pleasing to the Eye
A booking engine should offer hoteliers the feature to customize the font, color and more to match the look of the hotel’s website. A booking engine that looks slick definitely adds to the user-experience and prompts the user to go to the next stage.
“I was planning the launch of my hotel’s newly themed website and Hotelogix’s web booking engine turned out to be the perfect solution as it offered the option of changing the color, font and size, and suited our new design beautifully.” – Erin Cadigan, Owner, White Dove Rockotel, Woodstock.
– See more at: http://www.hotelogix.com/blog/2015/01/28/8-must-haves-in-a-hotel-web-booking-engine/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=aji-bhf&utm_campaign=ligrppost#sthash.Et6apcxX.dpuf
