It can be a challenge to keep visitors on your website — the average hotel site bounce rate is 43%. Many visitors may leave without venturing past the home page, which means you’re losing out on potential sales. Reducing your site’s bounce rate while increasing its ability to convert prospects relies on valuable content and an accessible user experience. Let’s look at four ways to encourage visitors to stay on your site.
Improve Usability
Small mistakes or obstacles in the user journey can be enough to cause a visitor to leave. You can improve usability by considering a few key factors:
- Simple navigation: Can visitors easily find what they’re looking for?
- Load time: How long does your website take to load? You can check your site using a site speed test.
- Accessibility: Can users access your site through different browsers (Safari, Firefox, Chrome) or devices (mobile, desktop, tablet)?
First-time visitors should easily be able to make and confirm a booking without any prior experience. To help guide users through the sales funnel, make sure to test the booking process yourself and record any glitches you encounter along the way. By addressing any usability problems early on, you can increase the chances of visitors staying on your site and making a booking.
Target Off-Site Effectively
Besides usability, you can keep your bounce rate low by drawing the right audience to your site. Your marketing and distribution efforts should be targeting ideal guests who are interested in learning more about your hotel or feel ready to make a booking.
- Social media and emails: Include a clear call-to-action when linking to your site. For example, “book a room today” or “learn more about our services” informs potential guests of what your site provides.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Target long-tail keywords for your site. The hospitality industry is highly competitive so linking your site to specific, relevant terms (such as “hotel in downtown seattle”) will improve the likelihood of prospects finding your site through search results.
It can be tempting to draw large groups of visitors to your site with less specific queries, but there’s no guarantee that these visitors will engage with your content. That’s why targeting a qualified audience can help you with conversions.
Provide Triggered Offers
Sometimes visitors don’t leave immediately, but might exit after viewing a few pages or during the booking process. You can design different responses to take place depending on a user action.
- Site offer: When a user views a room package, that action can trigger a specialized offer that includes a value add-on (like spa access or reserved parking) if they book directly on your website.
- Email: When a user has registered their email address but failed to make a booking, you can send them a discount to motivate them to come back and complete the process.
You can also provide offers on your site based on seasonal trends—these deals can help your site remain competitive against OTA pricing.
Include Meaningful Content
Every site visitor is looking for something that provides value, whether it’s information, entertainment or a specific action. For potential guests, they need content that will help them make their choice in accommodations, such as:
- Visuals: Besides high-resolution photos, offer video tours of your property so potential guests can get a sense of your offerings.
- Travel instructions: Highlight specific travel options (car, public transit, shuttle bus), and explain how patrons can reach your hotel from major hubs or airports.
- Testimonials: Share reviews from past satisfied guests, so prospects feel assured in the quality of your services.
Beyond that, you should ensure that your pricing is marked clearly on your site, and that each page features your contact and address details so visitors don’t have to go hunting for this information.
Ensuring your visitors remain engaged on your site can help you keep their attention and ultimately create more direct bookings for your business.
A centralized Property Management System can help you drive more direct bookings from your website. Learn how you can use RoomKeyPMS to convert more sales.
Feature Photo: michaeljung / Shutterstock.com
