The introduction of 3D Secure payment technology and the advantages it can provide to retail websites has been much discussed in the world of ecommerce. This technology also holds great benefits for the hotel industry, with its introduction to proprietary hotel websites helping to further build trust in purchasing a room booking online.

3D Secure payment technology requires the guest to register their credit/debit card online with their card issuer, by answering a series of questions and then setting up a password which will be used for every card transaction carried out online. The thinking behind it is that once a guest has registered as a 3D Secure user, even if someone obtains their card or their card details they will be unable to make fraudulent purchases unless they also know your personal password.

Like ecommerce websites, hoteliers must ensure that they keep 100% of visitors trust in order to be successful and increase online bookings with the hotel. It is crucial that visitor’s feel safe to book with your hotel site and not shop around. There are a few simple methods that can build trust:

• Detailed About Us section – the more people know about the hotel and it’s history, the greater the affinity they will have with it

• Testimonials – having real comments from people who have stayed in the hotel will ensure visitors to the website think you are honest and are not afraid of publishing what guests have said about the hotel

• Visible SSL certificate – so the user can see a small gold padlock in their browser and know your website is secure.

• Easy access to all legal information appertaining to the hotel

These simple methods will assist a hotel’s own proprietary website to generate around 5 times as many bookings as third party sites.

As 3D Secure technology becomes a more regular process when buying products online (it is predicted to be the industry standard by the end of the year) visitors booking with your website will expect to see this level of security.

If you’d like to find out more about 3D Secure technology and how you can integrate to your online booking process, contact our hotel team who will be only too happy to talk you through it.

As we have discussed in a previous blog, the potential of Web 2.0 in the hotel industry is huge. In particular, online video tours of the hotel are a fantastic opportunity to ‘sell’ your hotel to visitors to your website.

Online videos are an ideal marketing tool for hotels. Potential visitors browsing online continue to expect more from hotel sites and in order to beat the competition it is essential that these expectations are met.

A high quality video that users can easily stream from your home page featuring beautiful imagery of your hotel will be more effective than just still images alone. As well as generating bookings for accommodation, these videos can also generate interest in conference and business facilities at your hotel.

Along with attracting visitors to the hotel, the presence of an online video on your site will improve the overall image of your hotel brand to web users.

The more engaging content you have on your site, the longer visitors will spend browsing and the higher the chance of repeat visits will be. Thus resulting in an increased number of bookings with the hotel.

To see the video tour we have recently implemented into the sites of one of hotel clients, No Ordinary Hotels, visit:

http://www.coombeabbey.com/

http://www.lumleycastle.com/