The goal of customer segmentation is to better understand your web site visitor and to use that knowledge to enhance your web site's ROI. An effective segmentation strategy drives revenue growth by increasing your ability to meet your site visitor's demands. Segmentation's greatest impact is on the top line, increasing the number of site visitors and your look to book ratio and increasing the lifetime value and loyalty of your customer. This article examines customer segmentation in the online hospitality sector and how to structure your web site to maximize the value of your most important web site visitors. READ MORE

Studies that go as far back as 2000 confirm that shopping cart abandonment continues to be one of the most pressing problems for web site marketers. Reports from Andersen Consulting and Forrester Research both confirm shopping cart abandonment rates of 25%. Jupiter Communications reports a shopping cart abandonment rate of 27%. eMarketer reports 32%. NetEffect and Greenfield Online report a rate of 67%. Hospitality web site's "look to book" ratio is a benchmark that can be directly compared and related to shopping cart abandonment. There is no real difference between making buying something online and making an online reservation. Both require the use of a credit card and a commitment to make a purchase. READ MORE

Think about it - feedback from your web site is an unbelievable source of information that should be one of the most valuable weapons in your entire marketing arsenal - especially when it comes to building customer loyalty and enhancing customer satisfaction. I said should be, because web site owners must first be able to collect and interpret that feedback so they can turn it into action. Do you have a plan for collecting and responding to customer feedback? A note of caution - soliciting customer feedback without the proper tools and plan of action is even more dangerous than doing nothing at all. It's like asking a guest if they enjoyed their stay and leaving before they can respond. READ MORE

Whether you have $5,000, $50,000 or $500,000 to invest in creating a promotional web site, the one factor that remains the same is that most likely, the goal of the site is to support a promotion that increases your brand awareness and drives traffic to your main web site to increase online reservations. If you do undertake to create a promotional web site, it is imperative that you establish metrics to monitor, gauge and evaluate the success of that site. Without that vital information, you might as well be throwing your promotional dollars out the window because you will never really know whether your investment in the online promotional web site met, fell short or exceeded your objectives. Let's look at the kind of real time information you need to be able to capture and measure once you've created a promotional web site... READ MORE

"If you build it, they will come" may have been a successful call to action in the movies, and in the early ninety's rush to "get wired", but in the sober reality of doing business post 9/11, following that mantra is a one way ticket to failure when it comes to building your web site. In the hospitality sector, if you build it, and you have a mega marketing budget to promote it and advertise it, you may attract visitors to your site once. You may even get them to return again. But unless you understand the key drivers of loyalty and what makes users want to return, the challenge of building a loyal online audience segment will be just that - an ongoing challenge. In this feature I will provide you with some thoughts and insights into what we believe are key loyalty drivers in the online hospitality sector. Our information is gleaned from feedback obtained from over 50,000 visitors to some of the most recognized hospitality related web sites in North America and Europe including those of Six Continents Hotels, Omni Hotels, and The Savoy Group. READ MORE

In the hospitality sector specifically, a web site can be one of the most valuable weapons in your marketing arsenal for listening to, understanding, and responding to the needs and wants of your customers, both online and offline. I said can, because in order to be able to respond to the needs and wants of users, web site owners must first be able to collect and interpret user feedback in order to really hear and understand what their users are saying. Your site could and should encourage feedback from your users. It makes sense to hear what people have to say. The more you listen, the sooner you can create a user experience that really connects. READ MORE

According to Forrester Research, online hotel bookings will double in four years from $6.9 billion this year to $14.7 billion, making travel the number one activity for Internet lookers and bookers. If you want to be part of this picture, you have to sit down and take stock of your web site. Increasing your site's "look-to-book" ratio and converting browsers to buyers begins long before your web design team puts their first ideas down on paper. It really begins with the realization that to be successful your site must foster lifetime loyalty and true value with your web users. READ MORE

Creating a user-friendly web site starts long before you award a development contract or put out an RFP seeking interest from interactive agencies or web design consultants. It begins with your organization developing clear and very defined objectives that spell out what you hope to achieve with your site - and a word to the wise, "build a web site" is not an acceptable objective. A web site in most cases can be a useful, cost-effective tool for achieving your objectives, but it is not an objective in and of itself. READ MORE

Imagine a business traveler who has never stayed at your hotel arrives at 3:00 AM. There is no one to help him with his bags and direct him to the front desk. The night staff cannot find his reservation on their computer. After fifteen minutes spent searching their reservations system, the night staff are finally able to check the guest in. There is very little signage directing him to the elevators and after several attempts to find his room, he has to return to the front desk and ask for directions. When he gets to his room, he finds that it is a smoking room, which of course he did not want. READ MORE

In order to provide a rewarding and meaningful web site experience for site visitors and to also insure your web site delivers a respectable ROI, it is imperative that you understand what makes your web site visitor tick - you must access their "Consumer DNA". Companies that develop a learning dialogue with their customers and access that "Consumer DNA" create a competitive advantage that is defendable, unique and permanent. Your web site is a channel ideally suited to open, nurture and sustain that dialogue. To create this dialogue, you must use whatever tools are available to watch and truly listen to what your web site visitors have to say. It has been our experience that many site owners believe that simply "watching" or tracking "hits" and following click-streams is sufficient to understand what is going on in the minds of their users. READ MORE

Many hotel executives also don't realize that a big benefit of a hotel Web site is in cross-selling and up-selling. A well designed site can suggest a larger room, an additional meal or a booking with a business partner. It may also offer exclusive entertainment packages for events or attractions which require a specified hotel stay, thereby pulling in the traveler by selling a bigger experience. But here again, the look and feel of the Web site will determine your success. One simple way to approach Web site usability is to follow the same standards you uphold throughout your hotel: your rooms are clean and inviting; your desk clerks are trained and efficient. Both elements help reinforce your brand. Similarly on a Web site, the design should be clean, inviting, helpful and intuitive. That means balancing graphics with text. READ MORE

If you are like most hotel marketers, you spend a good deal of time thinking about what consumers are doing in the days and months leading up to booking a hotel stay or vacation package. With PhoCusWright Research forecasting that 28 percent (or $28 billion) of all U.S. hotel bookings in 2007 expected to occur online, and an additional 50 percent of bookings to be influenced by visits to online travel sites, it's no wonder that hotel marketers are spending significant time evaluating online consumer behavior. To maximize results and ensure an optimal return on investment, many hotel marketers are looking to better understand how consumer decisions influence searches, site visits and engagement metrics. READ MORE

There are two trends in leisure group travel that represent a substantial opportunity to hotels. These trends are not so much new to this travel season as they are a continuation of important travel industry developments. The first trend is the increasing size of the Baby Boomers as a percentage of total travel consumers. Baby Boomer households are defined as having a head of household age 41-64. This consumer segment has high levels of disposable income, and according to the Travel Industry Association this age group accounts for more total annual trips than any other age group. The second trend I will address is the increasing popularity of friends getaways. READ MORE

Hotels chains are doing a better job these days of creating a consistent look and feel throughout their Web sites and providing information about locations, rates and availability. Aside from information about your hotel, it's important to think about adding incremental value to customers via your site. One area that is ripe for improvement is the delivery of personalized content to your customers. Hotels have only scratched the surface of offering virtual concierge services that give customers a vague notion of what they can do and see while in town. READ MORE

An effective web site design and effective an on-line distribution strategy require expertise. The average hotel professional is bombarded with many ideas and is left wondering which approach to take. Therefore, if relying on expert advice, it is important to have a goal to accomplish specific short-term goals, as well as ensure that the web site is well positioned for future technological advances and for advancements with the search engines, in order to minimize financial risks. In order to achieve the most from your web sites, it is important for owners and managers to re-think and evaluate the following key areas before and during their web site development and implementation: READ MORE