In order to achieve online success with their proprietary websites, hoteliers should have their own blog and update it on a regular basis. Even the big brand hotel chains now have their own blog and in the case of Marriott hotels it is actually the CEO who blogs on behalf of the organisation, highlighting the credibility of this new Web 2.0 aspect of the Internet.

Having your own blog gives the hotel the opportunity to get its own opinion across to potential guests and with the ability for guests to make their own contributions and respond to your blog posts it works to develop a closer relationship with your guests.

Trading online obviously means that you lose that one to one contact with guests that you achieve in the hotel itself – having a blog is one way that you can recreate this relationship over the internet.

Unlike the rest of the website which needs to remain mostly formal and project the right image of the hotel brand, a blog is a much less regimented area where you can speak on a level with guests and use more colloquial language.

The blog will provide guests somewhere they can ask questions and make suggestions for any improvements they think you can make to the hotel.

Although the idea of guests being free to say what they want about your hotel on your website is a slightly scary prospect, it is better to have people posting about this on your blog where you can respond quickly and effectively than on another website where you will not know that a negative comment has been made and therefore unable to respond. Unlike the rest of the site a blog can be updated very quickly meaning you can respond to any comments almost immediately this has already proved an invaluable capability for many big brand names.

If you’d like to find out more about the benefits of blogging for your hotel feel free to contact our HotelTeam

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/