The Motel Web Site
I guess there are a lot of people who are feeling pretty miserable at the moment. What with the bad weather and constant rain it is hard to get excited. I am even at the stage where I have to park my car in the neighbour’s paddock, behind my house, and climb the fence to get home because my front paddocks and driveway have become a lake. I am a firm believer though that there is a silver lining to every cloud and I figure now I have a lakeside property the value of it must have gone up. The other thing which has kept me from becoming miserable was attending the MANZ conference. As usual I came away with ideas and plans to implement which has renewed the excitement and enthusiasm for my work.
We had a great variety of speakers showering us with information including valuations, personality traits, stress management, interior and exterior design and analyzing yourself and your business just to name a few. Lawrence Smith form Cabbage Tree Creations was the speaker who most affected me with presentation on the internet and the rise of the social media.
The first part of the presentation was on the basics of a web site. There are three phases when a customer is interacting with your web site.
Phase One: Inspiration stage. This is where a customer is searching the internet looking for a place to go and your site should provide the inspiration for them to come to your area.
Why would they stay with you by looking at your web site?
Phase Two: Information phase. Here the customer is looking for details. How will they get to this area? Where will they stay? Where will they eat? Things to do? What’s on? How to get around?
Does your web site provide all this information?
Phase Three: Transaction phase: Once a decision has been made the customer wants to be able to complete the transaction right then and there.
Do you have on line confirmed bookings or do you still need to e-mail back to confirm?
Your web site needs to have focus and commitment. Have a look at your website does it do all the above things. I am just building a new web site for approx $1500. How much does this compare to print medium and which gives you the biggest return? How much would you need to spend to upgrade your current website? Is that a better advertising spend than where you currently allocate your advertising spend? Where do you get most of your bookings from? All very thought provocative but that is what business is about continually reviewing what you are currently doing.
The web is like anything in business. You must continually review research and change with the trends. There is a saying that “if you continue to do what you have always done you will continue to get what you have always got”. This saying itself has been reviewed with time and has now been modified to say “If you continue to do what you have always done you will get less than what you used to get.”
August 09 2008 | Articles for current moteliers and Changes in Motel Trends | No Comments »