Open Rooms Lite Making the Most of Your Online Presence As we move into another year filled with uncertainties, there are still some things we can be sure of.
The consumer will continue to seek value for money for their business or short break accommodation A professional online presence will increasingly be the most cost effective marketing tool at the disposal of all hospitality providers. 2012 will see continued growth in the number of rooms booked online with accommodation providers in Scotland
It is therefore of critical importance that even the smallest of accommodation providers have a professional website presence that offers the online browser the opportunity to experience what your property has to offer and then book it.
Manage Your Website More Effectively The small hotelier, Guest House, B&B or self-catering owner is bombarded with website options and phenomena such as Twitter, Facebook, online travel agents, flash sales sites or Blogging understanding the best move is increasingly difficult. However, as we move through a challenging period we’ve been very closely looking at what is needed by the hospitality operator online. What are the requirements for Content Managed sites? Can hotel website be “overdesigned”? How much can I benefit from online reservations? How can I promote my special offers? How do I know if my site’s performing? What is social media and am I large enough to be able to use it? We’ve been asked all of these questions and a hundred more over the years. It is a minefield and leads quite often to a scenario where the hospitality operator starts off on one route only to be wooed by some wonderful offer to their problems and they start all over again. We believe that straightforward explanations are the key and an understanding of what is required by both parties to make an internet strategy work is critical. An audit of your requirements is our first step. If you need online reservations we’ll give you it. If you need Facebook set up let’s go for it. If you have time to manage social websites then let’s look at a blog. However, for many it is a website that’s the primary requirement and one that achieves three key objectives
It must be attractive enough to hold the attention of the visitor It must be able to be found by the search engines It must be able to easily convert enquiries to booking.
Open Rooms Lite Profile The smaller independent operator who has limited experience of Content Management and online reservations but knows that they need to have a professional and easily managed presence online. They may have a website such as VisitScotland's Web in a Box, or have had a static website designed three or four years ago and now need to improve the ease of use and take control of the content on a more regular basis.
Our entry level package, Open Rooms Lite, offers the independent accommodation provider all of the flexibility required. Start with what is needed and then add on as required and with our purpose built hospitality database, The Claymore Project, you can control as much of your website as you wish. Manage and update your content, add image galleries even integrate your social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter and offer integrated online room availability.