Mr. Tarasofsky

Website / Online Mechandising / SEO

The Wired Hotel: Pleasing Your Higher Frequency Website Visitors

By Jerry Tarasofsky, CEO, iPerceptions Inc.

Your website should be a source of comfort for your die-hard, higher frequency visitors. Typically, the word comfort, when used in the context of a hospitality article, denotes soft beds, immaculate sheets, and epic-sized couches. But I'd like to propose that the idea of comfort should be carried over to the online channel, as well. If a hotel stay can excel in comfort, such that even the most jaded and weathered travelers feel that your rooms are like second homes, then shouldn't that same commitment be carried through in your web presence? It absolutely should.

The voices of real online visitors are clear and consistent on this point. By focusing only on the spectacular, the flashy, or the eye-catching, many hospitality websites are set up to under-perform. Maximizing the value of the online channel means first considering how well all this sound and fury will cater to the needs of repeat visitors. Time and again, we see lower visitor satisfaction, represented by lower-than-average iPerceptions Satisfaction Index scores, among brands that neglect the die-hards.

Findings gleaned from iPerceptions' Hospitality Industry Customer Satisfaction Report for Q2 2007, which includes data for visitors to 30 different hospitality sites, indicate that 56% of visitors had been onsite at least twice in the six months prior to their taking the survey. Further, 15% of visitors had been onsite at least six times during that period. A hotel website should therefore be set up to capitalize on this higher degree of acquaintance and familiarity. Visitors should not be forced to meander around the site, struggling to find content that they had previously accessed. Rather, they should find a quick path to what they are looking for, with the end game being the conversion of lookers to bookers.

An effective hospitality website needs to be positioned to cater to the die-hards. Putting aside the irrepressible bargain hunters, who are always checking hotel sites week after week to ascertain whether promotional rates are in play, our research consistently suggests that visit frequency is directly correlated with both booking intent, loyalty program membership, and with the number of nights in one of your hotels a visitor will spend each year.

Let's dig deeper into the data. Some insightful numbers emerge from a study run on the website of a major upscale brand for Q2 2007. We found that 34% of users who had visited this site at least six times in the six months prior to taking the survey indicated that they were onsite to book a reservation. Among users who had visited less than six times, the share expressing intent to book was 29%. Statistical testing reveals that this is a significant differential. Moreover, 90% of higher frequency visitors indicated that they possessed some level of membership in this brand's hotel rewards program, while only 70% of lower frequency visitors indicated that they were members. Finally, 58% of higher frequency visitors indicated that they spend at least 21 nights per year in one of the brand's hotels. The related figure for lower frequency visitors was only 12%.

The importance of visit frequency as a critical metric is borne out in these numbers. The findings are certainly eye opening. It isn't simply that higher frequency visitors are substantially more likely to be higher frequency travelers with rewards program membership than lower frequency visitors. More critically, the fact that they are more likely to book than lower frequency visitors suggests that they are also more valuable in terms of accelerating ROI.

Let's look at some of the best practices currently employed effectively to accommodate this segment. Leveraging rewards/loyalty programs is the first step most marketers take to address the needs of this high-value cohort. Typically, a login interface occupies some prominent panel on the home page or landing page. The visitor usually will have the option to check off a "remember me" box to avoid the tedious process of reentering their login credentials during each visit. After having inputted his/her loyalty program information, the user is then treated to a personalized portal with varying degrees of past behavioral and personal information stored and readied. This is the standard method adopted to arouse within the visitors' minds the feeling they have been there before, that this is a familiar place, and that they know their way around.

Managing point balances and point redemption is critical, as a poor performance in this aspect can do irremediable damage to brand equity. Effective presentation of accrued reward point balances is the bare minimum. But visualization of reward point information and reward point balances frequently emerge as problems areas for many hospitality brand sites. As with many things, the devil is in the details. For the demanding, higher frequency visitor, it is simply not enough to show only limited summaries of reward points earned. More granularity is required, typically in the form of specific point posting events, stamped with time signatures.

Beyond that, however, the site must leverage the politics of recognition. Brand loyalty is a precious thing and loyalty program membership is a badge of commitment. Beyond promotional offers, bells and whistles can be added to the members' versions of the site to convey the sense of exclusivity. These could take the form of deeper assortments of room and hotel photos, more highly customizable search tools, and live chat applets with representatives available to handle problematic and/or personalized requests. Also, for the your more aspiring visitors, you may want to consider having some sort of calculator onsite that will allow them to compute how many stays will be required to achieve the next tier of membership.

There are several other areas where a few minor site adjustments can produce a huge satisfaction windfall among higher frequency visitors. Analysis of open-ended commentary pulled from the survey referenced above reveals that many visitors are members of the American Automotive Association and, as a result, are entitled to discounted room rates. AAA membership numbers should be stored and AAA preferred rates made easy to retrieve. In a related fashion, many higher frequency visitors and higher frequency travelers are government employees with fixed per diem allowances. Making it easy for them to find per-diem rates is one of the best ways to boost their satisfaction and drive conversion.

Our website satisfaction surveys are replete with the testimony of visitors who value recognition in exchange for brand loyalty. There is a wealth of business intelligence and actionable insight here. The challenge is to consider that higher frequency visitors are almost always higher frequency travelers, for whom time is the most precious of commodities. Thus, the site that leverages both familiarity and utility will be positioning itself to outperform.

Making your website feel like a second-home for higher frequency visitors will go a long way toward ensuring that they continue to stay in your hotel rooms. While substantial energy should always be devoted to the acquisition of new customers, pleasing the die-hards should also remain at the forefront of every marketer's strategic thinking.

Jerry Tarasofsky is CEO of iPerceptions Inc. Its webValidator® "captures the voice" of the online customer, helping companies learn more about their customers. Using a comprehensive perceptual framework to evaluate key elements of the visitor experience and, algorithms and modeling to identify attributes that drive satisfaction. The webValidator solution turns data points into easy-to-understand strategic and tactical decision support. iPerceptions’ clients in the hospitality sector include Crowne Plaza, Omni, Savoy, Wellesley, Homestead, Radisson and Holiday Inn. Mr. Tarasofsky can be contacted at jerryt@iperceptions.com Extended Bio...

HotelExecutive.com retains the copyright to the articles published in the Hotel Business Review. Articles cannot be republished without prior written consent by HotelExecutive.com.