Keep your hotel in your guest’s pocket
This is the era of smartphones. Whether you have an iPhone, Blackberry or Android, you often use your mobile for interacting with friends, making purchases, booking hotel rooms (Read: Game Changer: Mobile Booking Applications) or acquiring any kind of information.
Nowadays, companies have started customizing their websites for better user experience and mobility. Many web retailers, e-commerce sites, travel sites, hotel sites etc are using mobile devices as mobiles are the fastest growing source of bookings (Read: Hoteliers can Enjoy Mobile Access with Cloud Based Hotel Management System). Travelers, mainly, use their mobile devices to research about trips and book hotel rooms.
Harris Interactive, a market research firm, predicts “13% of all last-minute hotel bookings come from mobile devices, and they predict this number will rise to 37% this year. Guests increasingly use their mobile devices to research trips and book hotel rooms.”
Google predicts, “61% of users will quickly move on to another website if they visit a website that is not mobile friendly. Not only are potential customers being turned away, they’re going straight into the open arms of your competitors who have mobile optimized websites.”
Take a look at the benefits of mobile microsite
Save yourself and your guest’s time: People, nowadays, opt for quick answers, easy access to information than calling hotels or going online to check for details. Having a mobile site, your guests can access hotel information easily and this technique will work great for your guest as the information will be easily accessible and will be made available to them without taking any efforts.
Promote your services: When guests look for information, they are keener to browse through the products and services that are offered by the hotels. By listing special offers, promotions, discounts on mobile microsites, you can definitely increase revenue and fill real-time bookings/cancellations for hotel services.
Mobile Apps: Mobile cloud computing is the fastest growing trend that will give you a wider platform to potential customers with minimum cost, time and management resources. By adding an app to your mobile strategy, you will see quick results as this is the easiest, cheapest and most focused way to have a mobile presence.
Mobile communication should not be one sided: Your guests should not feel that they are not being acknowledged. Communication plays a pivotal role here and by communicating with your customers, you can gather their intellect and provide higher service levels. You can send mobile communications to guests by providing room-vacancy updates or promotions. You can also use polls, votes, quizzes etc to get interactive with your guests.
Personalized touch: Providing information and services via the mobile web and text messaging means your hotel’s information is within reach and practically in your guest’s pockets. Since mobile microsites are on demand, you have a good opportunity to engage your guests 24/7 to your website, no matter where they are.
Easy navigation: When designing your hotel’s website, keep in mind the limited space and design a microsite with easy and simple navigation so that the mobile user does not face any kind of issues during the booking.
According to HeBS Digital, “Mobile bookings increased by 84% and revenue increased by a staggering 121% over the past year. The large upswings in mobile demand really highlight the need to create a mobile optimized website for an ideal user experience.
Mobile microsites are frenzy these days and every sector of business is making sure to provide their guests with information at any time they want, through mobile microsites. Be a part of this new revolution and see how it works for your hotel.