How does it work?

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More than 60% of online travelers begin their search for online accommodations through online travel agents like Expedia.com, Bookings.com or Lastminute.com. Once they find the accommodation that fits their needs, travelers search directly for the property’s website to find out more information about pricing and amenities. It is the perfect opportunity to capture their attention so make sure your web design, website content and website navigation are impeccable because they play a very important role when differentiating your property from your competitors and converting visitors into guests.

See how GuestCentric can transform your website design for maximum visibility.

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Case study published in Hospitality Technology posted on 07/22/2009

The Hotel Cuatro Naciones is an independent property of 55 rooms located in the heart of La Rambla, the most visited street in Barcelona. Like many other hotels all over the world, Cuatro Naciones experienced a dramatic 50% drop in their reservations at the beginning of 2009. Aware of the changes in travelers’ preferences toward online services, the hotel had to look for online solutions to help them to overcome the economic crisis, provide exceptional services for demanding travelers, and increase their direct online booking. After an exhaustive search, the manager of the hotel found in GuestCentric Systems  the solution that best fit their needs.
Hotel Cuatro Naciones adopted GuestCentric’s full-feature platform, which provided them with powerful online marketing and distribution tools. Quickly they were able to deploy a brand new hotel website design powered with an innovative booking engine, a reservation platform and direct social media integration with Twitter and Facebook.
Based on industry best practices and intensive usability tests, the new interactive website provides visitors with all of the necessary information about the property and its surroundings, while improving the visitors-to-booking ratio. By taking advantage of the multilingual website feature, the hotel expanded their target markets and now attracts visitors from Italy, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. With GuestCentric’s InstantHotel Technology, Cuatro Naciones can also take full control of their website by editing information whenever it is necessary, without the need for external programmers or designers.
Because GuestCentric’s platform is fully integrated, The Cuatro Naciones’ website is able to benefit from a best-in-class hotel booking engine that provides a truly interactive shopping experience for visitors. This innovative one-screen booking engine has an interactive calendar that displays up to 550 days of real-time availability and pricing. Due to its ease-of-use, Cuatro Naciones was able to reinvent its online offers and target more sophisticated visitors. Featuring a double security certification with security shields from VeriSign Secured and McAfee Secure, customers are ensured that all personal information submitted stays private.

Centralized reservations

In addition, the Hotel Cuatro Naciones can now simplify the management of both online and offline reservations through GuestCentric’s reservation platform, avoiding controversial issues like overbooking and double booking. The platform also simplifies guest and contacts management by creating an automated database with all the relevant information to help in the optimization of marketing campaigns.
“The analytical information provided by the dashboard helped us understand the importance of the international market for our property. The international traffic of the website accounts for 80% of the visits and more than 50% of our online reservations; after learning this information it was crucial for the hotel to simplify the searching process. That is when we decided to add another language to our website,” says Aurelio Saiz Hotel Cuatro Naciones e-commerce
The interaction with the BackOffice dashboard has helped hotel management to better understand the behavior of their online visitors, and measure the website’s success. With access to easy graphical information that was not available before, the hotel manager can now take timely actions like create and test different marketing campaigns to increase visitor flow and direct online bookings. And through the use of cost effective advertising campaigns combined with the latest trends of the market, Hotel Cuatro Naciones was able to adapt new ways to improve brand awareness and increase market share.

A boost to business

The results for the Hotel Cuatro Naciones exceeded all expectations. Within a month and a half of launching their new website and booking engine, the hotel experienced a 190% increase in their direct online reservations. And in the middle of an unfavorable economic period, within three months of deployment, online reservations alone were responsible for an increase of 180% in the overall hotel business.
Especially important for independent hoteliers, the simplicity of the integrated platform allows the hotel managers to spend more time in strategically planning and taking care of their customers rather than only managing reservations.
“The old website provided basic information about the property, so it was never part of our sales tools strategy. The first time we saw the new interactive website, we immediately saw the benefits of using it as our primarily sales tool,” says Aurelio.

Nowadays the web has become a powerful search engine tool for travelers. Hence hotels must make sure that their websites transmit quality, professionalism and credibility together with a good design and comfortable look-and-feel.
One of the most important aspects for e-commerce success has to do with the way the business is presented and the services are sold. Creating a sales-focused website is not trivial but there are many important details that must be taken into account.

Attractive graphic design
For obvious reasons the most visible characteristic of a website is the design. Although is not a decisive factor in a sales-oriented website it is the first connection of the person with the brand, therefore it influences their “looking” behavior. When creating your new website make sure you have open conversations with the web designer about the preferences in colors, textures and the experiences that the property offers. And then leave it to them; they are the professionals.

Navigation and usability
Having an easy-to-use and user-friendly navigation on your website can be a decisive factor for how long your visitors will stay in your website. Bad navigation and usability can lead to visitors abandoning the website within 2 seconds thus not converting into bookings. It is important to keep the navigation of a website simple and to the point, preferably just one level of navigation with a clear menu that feature items that users recognize.  It is not recommendable to try to innovate and distinguish this area of the website from your competitors.

Photo gallery
Studies indicate that images are the second factor right behind pricing in terms of influencing the choice of property to stay in. With today’s technology, taking a good picture is easier than ever. With a good website design any picture can look good and you don’t need to spend money in a professional photo shoot. But you need to make sure your images transmit what you want to sell to your customers.

Promotions and special offers
It is important to provide incentives to website visitors so they choose your property over the competition. Creating special offers on your website can help you sell distress inventory in a way that it doesn’t cannibalize your regular sales and you can optimize your search engine ranking by offering fresh content on the website. Make sure your promotions are visible on every page of the website and promote your special offers in different social channels.

Stimulate visitors to stay on the website
Many hotel websites include links to external sites like tripadvisor.com for users looking for 3rd party information. However, once users leave the website they will be attacked with advertising of competing offers. So, it is critical that once you leverage content syndication technologies like RSS to provide the turnkey package for decision making on your website and turn that looker into a booker.

Provide real time rates and availability
Two factors are always included in the decision of travelers: price and availability. It is critical that the website displays prominently, in every page, the ability for travelers to check rates and availabilities for the travel dates. Moreover, many travelers nowadays have flexible dates and are actively bargain hunting and willing to trade off some convenience for a better price or package.
Make sure your calendar overview displays a longer-term view of the rates and availabilities so travels can choose the perfect vacation or business trip according to their needs and possibilities.

Best available rate to ensure rate parity
According to the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research, hotels that are listed on third-party distributors’ websites like online travel agents, or OTAs, can expect to capture additional direct reservations. In order to leverage the full marketing potential of distribution channels, it is extremely important for your website to offer the best available rate always.

Facilitate instant online booking
Having a website that offers instant booking is crucial to decrease the abandon rate and increase online bookings. You must make sure that your website booking engine offers and easy and quick online booking process for guests to reserve a room.

Provide trust mechanisms
Providing security and privacy to your website visitors is crucial for the success of your online business. You must guarantee visitors that their personal information will always remain private, this will provide them confidence to book a room directly on your website.

Your website is your best sales representative, therefore it is important for it to provide the proper tools to engage lookers and turn them into bookers. But keep in mind that a sales-oriented website will only generate results if it has bookable offers.

Independent Properties Turning Lookers into Bookers

By Pedro Colaco GuestCentric President and CEO

Nowadays the web has become a powerful search engine tool for travelers. Hence hotels must make sure that their websites transmit quality, professionalism and credibility together with a good design and comfortable look-and-feel. Read more

How to create a sales driven hotel website

Nowadays the web has become a powerful search engine tool for travelers. Your website is your best sales representative, therefore it is important for it to provide the proper tools to engage lookers and turn them into bookers.

By Pedro Colaco GuestCentric President and CEO

Read more

GuestCentric Systems celebrates Social Media Day and offers a one time promotion for Social Media Cloud Solution

Nowadays, being able to expand your brand is a key success factor for independent hotels and social media networks like Facebook and Twitter can play a very important role in this matter. By using the proper social media tools you not only increase your brand visibility but you are able to offer a better service to your customers that will generate more revenue for your property. If you are a hotel operator looking for end-to-end social media solutions to expand your brand with the use of viral marketing strategies and engage customers through social networks then we have the perfect solution for you.

Sign-up for GuestCentric’s social media cloud service through GuestCentric’s Facebook local business page, will get 25% discount off the Social Distribution and Followers Specials annual fee. The offer is only valid on June 30 for more information and to see the terms and conditions go to: http://www.guestcentric.com/social-media-day-promotion/

Great savings of up to 31% for integrated e-Commerce and Social Cloud Solutions for hotels

GuestCentric Systems launches new pricing plans

GuestCentric Systems, the social cloud provider of e-commerce solutions for the independent hotel industry just launched the ultimate pricing plan for its customers. Read more

GuestCentric Systems the social cloud provider of e-commerce solutions for the independent hotel industry just launched the ultimate pricing plan for its customers. New and existing customers can now choose from the new fixed fee pricing that includes all platform features or continue to enjoy the pay-as-you-go model that brought unrivaled adoption of the platform by smaller properties.

“After two years of contributing to the online success of independent hoteliers, GuestCentric’s platform is now becoming essential to a vast number of properties. We are experiencing enormous traction with boutique hotels looking for a modern and easy-to-use solution that can integrate with their social marketing efforts.” said Pedro Colaco, President and CEO of GuestCentric. “In order to advance our mission of offering top-notch solutions at reasonable prices for boutique hotels that have higher revenue volume, we introduced a fixed price package for as little as $400 per month for hotels up to 100 rooms.”

GuestCentric provides top-notch solutions that provide an easy and affordable way for mid-sized independent hotels to develop their online business and engaging guests on social media outlets. With GuestCentric’s solutions, independent hotels can finally level the playing field against chains by leveraging the power of the Internet.

“We have very much enjoyed working with a professional company like GuestCentric, they have been able to fully understand the needs and opportunities for a small boutique property like Casa de Madrid. The design of the website matches the look and feel of the property and the technology has provided a perfect solution for Casa de Madrid. Most importantly, the online bookings revenue the property receives has delivered a substantial return on the investment made into the GuestCentric product and services.” said Ashley Usiskin, Business Development Consultant at Casa de Madrid

With the new fixed fee packages independent properties can use GuestCentric’s integrated platform to its full potential, without having to pay any extra or hidden costs:

Powerful e-commerce

• Hotel booking engine – This best-in-class booking engine provides a unique shopping experience with unparallel speed and convenience for guests willing to book online. GuestCentric’s booking engine is the only portable booking engine in the market that can be directly integrated to different websites, like Facebook or partner websites.
• Hotel analytics – The backend dashboard allows you to keep track of the property’s online progress, check hotel visibility, sales focus, bookable offers, and overall performance.
• Guest CRM – The system automatically collects a complete guest profile with the guest’s stay history. This information is crucial to create successful marketing campaigns to promote special deals and loyalty.

Social customer engagement

• Twitter center – Send, track, monitor and schedule messages on Twitter and easily monitor what people are saying about the property.
• Follower specials – Increase the brand exposure, create a loyalty program and easily reward social media followers with special deals created and available exclusively for them.
• Customer intimacy – Provide a more personalize service to your guests and learn more about who they are, what they want, need or think. Twitter profiles as well as last post are fully integrated with guest’s profile.

Time saving tools

• Set and forget setup – The easy-to-use interface of the platform allows a quick setup process. After 45 minutes training session you can start discovering the potential of the platform.
• Multilingual support – Increase brand presence and reach other regions by offering the booking engine and website in up to 5 languages in a fast and intuitive manner.
• Picture manager – the most sophisticated and intuitive picture manager in the industry that allows you to easily upload and display images as you wish on your website.

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About GuestCentric Systems

GuestCentric Systems develops and markets web services that revolutionize the way independent hotels work. GuestCentric has built a cloud-computing platform that allows independent hotels to develop long-standing relationships with guests, improve online revenues and lower expenses associated with online distribution. Through use of Web 2.0 technologies, GuestCentric provides easy-to-use tools at reasonable prices that up until now were only available for hotels with big budgets.

Take a look and let us know what you think!

How can independent properties achieve e-commerce success?

More and more independent properties are looking into adopting the best technologies in the market to improve their e-commerce. Here are 4 tips to keep in mind when planning your e-commerce strategy.

By Pedro Colaco, President and CEO, GuestCentric

Read more