Your hotel’s website should be your most profitable channel and the first point of contact for your business, however, more often than not, online travel agencies (OTA’s) are the most profitable channels when it comes to customers booking a hotel room. OTA’s are a helpful way of getting your travel accommodation on multiple platforms, but they come at a price. Hefty commission fees are the main disadvantage, but also customers will often miss out on exclusive direct promotions or reward points.

Below, we share some of our top tips to help increase traffic to your hotel’s website, so you don’t have to rely heavily on OTA’s.

1. Keep each web page clutter-free, including your homepage

This makes information more digestible, instead of being bombarded with information or flashy gimmicks.

2. Provide relevant and up to date information

When retaining a user’s interest, you want to ensure they are engaged on all pages of your website. Use high-quality images or videos to sell your hotel and add text that can help further aid your visual assets. No one wants to read a wall of text, so ensure the text provided is straight to the point and most importantly up to date.

3. Integrate a booking engine like StayBooked on your website

Your website is there to sell your hotel, so ensuring they can book and pay for a room online is crucial. StayBooked is our commission-free booking engine, which displays your rooms and rates ready for customers to make a booking at their convenience. The system also works in unison with the acomos PMS, so when a room is booked it will be automatically updated on your StayBooked website and your property management system.

4. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly

According to Hospitality Technology, 84% of Gen Z and Gen Y respondents have booked and paid for a trip on mobile versus only 40% of the over 55s. With the percentage of mobile bookings rising steadily each year a mobile optimised website should be a high priority for hoteliers.

5. Promote your hotel on social media

One of the easiest and cheapest ways to reach a large audience is by using social media. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram can help you raise brand awareness, engage with customers online and send more traffic to your hotel website. The key to social media is to not sell sell sell, instead, share interesting content that your followers can engage with or learn from and on occasion, promote your hotel’s special offers.

6. Drive more website visitors with search engine optimisation (SEO)

SEO can help drive more traffic from search engines such as Google and Bing to your website. Once you understand what keywords people are searching for, you can then add keyword rich content to your website. You can find a number of different tools to help you monitor keywords relevant to your industry, such as Sem Rush. You may find one month there are a lot of Google searches for hotels in your local area, therefore updating your website to include local guides such as popular places to visit, will help increase your rank on search engine results.

Your hotel’s website is the first impression a user will have, so it’s important your website reflects your property accordingly and enables users to easily find what they are looking for in just a few clicks. Once your website is optimised, use SEO and social media to drive more traffic to your hotel’s website.