Travellers often compare on booking sites, then check the property's own website. It needs real photographs of each room type, booking that works on a phone, parking and arrival details, what is nearby, and a reason to book direct.

What the site is actually for

Few travellers find a small hotel or motel through its own website first. They find it on a booking site, a map or a search for places to stay, and compare it there with everything else.

Then a good share of them check the property's own site before deciding, looking for what the listing did not say and for reassurance that the place is what it appears to be.

So the site's job is not to be found first. It is to answer the questions the booking sites leave open, quickly, on a phone, and then make booking direct easy.

It is the middle of June, and the people asking those questions are planning this summer's road trips now.

What a traveller checks

The fourth is the one that decides bookings on a highway. A family driving late needs to know a room booked at six is still theirs at eleven, and how to get the key once the office closes.

Photographs of the actual rooms

Travellers have learned to distrust hotel photographs: the wide-angle lens, the one renovated suite, the pool photographed a decade ago.

What persuades is each room type as it is now, at eye level in daylight: the beds, the bathroom, the view from the window, even when the view is the parking lot.

Add the exterior at dusk with the sign lit, so a late arrival recognises the building, and the office entrance, so they know where to go.

Plain, current photographs match what guests find and what reviews describe, which is why they persuade.

Rates and booking on a phone

Small properties tend to have one of two problems here. The site says call for rates, or its booking engine opens in a separate window built for a desktop screen.

A traveller on a phone wants to enter dates and see what is available and what it costs in two or three taps, without pinching the screen.

The booking engine should share availability with whatever feeds the booking sites, so a room sold on one is not sold again on the other. Ask your provider how often they sync.

Without a booking engine, publish rates by season and a phone number that is answered. An email request answered tomorrow loses to a booking site that confirms in seconds.

Arriving, parking and checking in

The practical details deserve their own page, linked from every room page and from the confirmation email.

Check-in and check-out times, and what happens after the office closes: a lockbox, a night bell, a code sent by text. Parking: how many spaces, whether trucks and trailers fit, whether there are plug-ins in winter.

Pets and their fees, smoking rules, ground-floor rooms, step-free access, breakfast hours, laundry, kitchenettes. Each is a question the front desk answers by phone every week.

Write the answers as plain text, not in a PDF and not in photographs of a sign.

A worked example

A family-run motel with twenty rooms on the highway through a small Interior town had a website built years ago: photographs from before the last renovation, a phone number, and a form to request a booking.

Almost all its online bookings arrived through booking sites, at their commission. Travellers who checked its own site found nothing to book with, and nothing about where to park a boat trailer, the first question in a lake town.

The owners had every room type photographed as it is now, and added a booking engine connected to the same availability the booking sites draw on, tested on a phone.

A page on arriving covers the after-hours lockbox, trailer parking behind the building and the nearest restaurant open late.

And every room page states the reason to book direct: late check-out on request and a more flexible cancellation policy.

What is nearby, honestly

Location is half of what a traveller is choosing. Give distances and drive times to what guests come for: the lake, the trailheads, the ski hill, the arena, the hospital, the industrial park.

Be honest about the rest. If the motel is on the highway, say so and what it means: easy access, and some road noise in the front rooms.

Guests who know what to expect write fairer reviews, and reviews are what the next traveller reads.

A reason to book direct

Contracts with booking sites often restrict showing a lower price on your own website, so check yours before promising one.

The reason to book direct is usually something other than price: a better cancellation policy, a guaranteed room type, early check-in where possible, parking for a boat, or a direct line to the people who run the place.

Say it in one line near every booking button. A traveller who has to search for it books where they started.

The listing and the reviews

The Google My Business listing carries its own photographs, reviews and amenities, and a link to the website. Name, address, phone and check-in times should match the site exactly.

Google also shows prices from booking sites beside a hotel's listing; whether your own rate can appear there is a question for your booking engine's supplier.

Reply to reviews briefly and courteously, especially critical ones. The traveller reading them is judging how the place handles problems.

The counter-case

Booking sites are not the enemy. They reach travellers a small property never could, and for many motels they will stay the main source of bookings.

A bed and breakfast with three rooms may not need a full booking engine. Clear seasonal rates, current photographs and messages answered within the hour can do the job.

And a property full every night of the summer has less to gain in July than in the shoulder seasons.

The site still has to answer what the booking sites leave open, and make booking direct easy for those who want to.

What to build first

  1. Photograph every room type as it is now.
  2. Add booking that works on a phone.
  3. Write an arrival page with after-hours check-in.
  4. Spell out parking for trucks, trailers and boats.
  5. List what is nearby with honest drive times.
  6. State one reason to book direct.
  7. Make your Google listing match the site.

Step two is the one the others depend on. Everything else persuades a traveller to book with you; without a way to do it on a phone in a minute, they go back to the booking site to finish.

The same principles for a very different kind of booking are in what a swim school website needs.

Frequently asked questions

Why does a hotel need its own website?

Travellers often find a property on a booking site, then check its own site for what the listing left out. The site answers those questions and makes booking direct easy.

What photographs should the site show?

Each room type as it is now, at eye level in daylight, including the bathroom and the view, plus the exterior at dusk and the office entrance.

Does a small motel need a booking engine?

Usually, yes, connected to the same availability the booking sites draw on. A very small property can publish seasonal rates and answer the phone promptly instead.

What belongs on an arrival page?

Check-in and check-out times, after-hours arrangements, parking for trucks, trailers and boats, pets, accessibility and breakfast hours, written as plain text rather than a PDF.

Can I offer lower prices than booking sites?

Check your contracts first, since they often restrict that. The reason to book direct is usually something else, such as flexible cancellation or late check-out.

Should I reply to hotel reviews?

Yes, briefly and courteously, especially to critical ones. Travellers reading them are judging how the property handles problems, which matters as much as the complaint.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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