The hotel industry has always been among the first to get the most out of new technologies. Customers are persistently looking for fresh sources of information to aid them to make decisions before purchasing services. In simple words, E-commerce means as “the process of buying and selling of services and products to businesses and consumers over the Internet.” With hotel e-commerce, the site of the hospitality industry is changed forever. Online sales are a significant fragment of the business. The online marketing of the hotels has been transformed with the power of the e-commerce. The emergent significance of e-commerce in the modern hospitality sector has created an exigent need for simple solutions to accomplish companies’ online presence.

Oodles of hotels all over the world are proposing online hotel reservation/booking to their visitors and travelers look forward to the simplest method to book hotels/rooms from the four walls of their homes. Now that every hotel is involved in e-commerce, why is hotel e-commerce so important today?

The Internet is the cost-effective hotel-booking channel:

• Maximum travelers explore options of hotel reservations on the Internet
• Involvement of Social media and online hotel reviews are a progressively chief decision factor

Smart hoteliers always keep a sharp focus on the essential shift in techniques customers are looking for information and networks that drive maximum return on investment. Here is a list of the elementary e-commerce tactics that will benefit to get the best from the Internet world.

• Stylish landing page with high definition images

Hotel website landing page should be very attractive, so that customer is engrossed to your website. It should consist of high definition images of rooms on landing page as well as on other pages, so that customer gets a picture-perfect idea about your hotel rooms. The design of the website should be in such a way that whenever the customer visits your website, they end up in reserving their rooms with you.

• Site Download Speed

It is one of the utmost vital ranking factors in organic search. Search engines want users to have a good and friendly experience. A good experience deciphers into a site that has relevant and captivating content, and is compatible across all browsers. Heavy graphics files, animation and flash demos cause the website to perform slowly. Sites that are built keeping these procedures in mind will deliver better user experiences, will perform well on search engines, and eventually drive higher ROI.

• Email notification

Customer will always want to book the rooms/hotels from the website through which they can have prompt email notification for every single scenario. For example, a confirmation email of the hotel booking and much more.

• Multiple rooms/hotels booking in single order

Assume there are guests who have already made some plans regarding their trip and they want to book various rooms/hotels in single order to save their time. It will be beneficial for your business if you provide this incredible functionality to customers.

• Structured Content

With the growing size of data that hoteliers are trying to provide travelers, it is important for hotels to an emphasis on usability. Hotels tend to keep adding promotions, banners to endorse offers and exceptional deals. They often forget that the human brain can only consume limited information. It is essential to take a holistic approach and prioritize information. Good website design and structured content improve site usability and its effectiveness when used with search engines. Mantra is “Keep it simple, keep it short”.

• Additional Features

With search engines initiation real-time indexing, it has become critical to treat their site as an information platform for fresh content. The addition of real-time search functionality to the website, capability to generate user reviews, Maps, photo galleries, videos and press releases are creative ways to distribute content on different channels.

• Responsive Website

Nowadays, people are using mobile devices to perform searches, as well as share videos, information, connect with friends and browse the web. Google has lately announced that the responsive website design is their priority. There is a steady growth in traffic coming from mobile phones and smartphones. Hotels can leverage the mobile market by enhancing their site for mobile phones, improving the download speed of their site by avoiding heavy graphics and flash, making certain their site is mobile compatible.

• Integrated payment method

Various payment methods should be integrated like pay via credit card/ debit card, bank easily. It should accept both international as well as domestic cards and should be a most importantly secure method.

Hoteliers need to ensure that they are using the full features of the Internet. The web as we know it today has only evolved over the last 18 years, yet no other technology has wedged humanity so radically in our history. The best way to keep an edge is to continually learn and look for ways to connect the power of new developments and trends.

As it is rightly said in a proverb, “Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today,”.