Revenue managers did you analyze if your customers are really happy? If yes, then your business is surely on the way to growth. Good news!

The pride and success of any business lie in the kind of experience it is able to deliver to its customers. Interestingly, with fast evolving technology, the traveler community has also evolved quite rapidly, in terms of their behavior, choices, and demands, etc.

The current era is marked by the striking phenomenal growth of mobile technology, we shared about this in our last blog also – Optimize Your Hotel’s SEO and Mobile Strategy. In this blog, we will talk about points to consider when going for the mobile friendly website.

The tremendous use of mobile internet having shaken the functioning of each industry immensely. Mobile phones have become an indispensable necessity of human lives now, it is no longer just a lifestyle statement, as it was a few years ago. Businesses across varied industries are stupendously capitalizing on this sharp trend by defining a unique mobile strategy and incorporating the same in their overall growth trajectory. The hotel industry is, by no means, an exception.

Keeping in mind the radically changing consumer behavior, the search engines have also fused to this trend of growth of mobile internet. Google has laid down a host of mobile updates in the recent few months, strongly favoring mobile friendly websites now, by giving them a higher ranking in the search engine results. The websites of companies are now weighed on different parameters which make mobile usability a direct ranking factor in its Search Algorithm.

Yes, it is definitely time for the businesses to construct or revisit their mobile websites, in order to maintain their online visibility intact. If your website is not mobile-friendly, you are probably on your way out, as you might be pushed down on the search page results and also leave your customers unhappy. Quite perilous, it can be!

These changes have significant implications for the hotel industry. Mobile is undoubtedly driving the current hotel bookings scenario, with nearly 60% of searches taking place on smartphones, a 27% increase year-over-year (Google).  By 2018, mobile is expected to account for 35 percent of online bookings (World Travel Market). The revelations make it clear that having a mobile-friendly website has become utmost crucial and a strong, must-have for the success of any hotel’s business. Also the more since now customers are present on mobile internet for most of their needs, even booking their travel and also relying a lot on the online reviews of the other travelers, for their travel booking decisions it had become absolutely imperative for hotels to invest in mobile website along with a comprehensive online reputation management system.

The hotel industry players are left with no choice at all, but to optimize their websites for mobile, and make consistent efforts to keep improving it from time to time. With myriad options of hotels available to travelers for booking their stay through mobile, Google being the prime facilitator redirecting the travelers to the hotel websites, it is certain that no hotel would like their site’s search results to dip.

Surely, it is time to emphasize on the following:

  1. Page Loading Speed – It is important that a mobile site does not take longer than a few seconds to load, or it may annoy the user, who may switch to another site to book his/ her stay.
  2. Simple Design and Responsive Navigation – A mobile website should be easy to use and boast of a user interface specially designed for mobile.  A simple layout, easy-to-read text (with no zooming required to view the content), clear images, big buttons are some of the must-haves of an efficient mobile site. Proper spacing between links, buttons and images make it easy for the traveler to navigate around the hotel website, despite the small screen.
  3. User-friendly Content – Keeping in mind the small size of the mobile phones, the content must be presented in a concise manner, where the user is able to extract the key information without having to juggle through different pages.
  4. Emphasis on keywords – Keywords should be chosen properly and content devised around those keywords in order to generate a higher number of clicks on the hotel’s website. These should be reviewed and monitored from time to time, in case any changes need to be made.
  5. Integration of social media channels with mobile site – Most of the hotels have already integrated social media with their desktop websites. The same needs to be replicated with the mobile channel, so that these tiny devices deliver a complete and exhaustive experience to the travelers, fulfilling all their requirements, anywhere on the go.

The above-listed points would go a long way in ensuring an improved engagement of users with the hotel’s mobile site, ultimately giving a boost to their mobile rankings and conversions. Hotels whose websites are already mobile optimized can sit back and relax – it is certainly not a sign of alarm for them. For those who haven’t really paid attention to this critical aspect, the time is definitely now. Perhaps, it is a make-or-break situation and a mobile-friendly website is certainly the need of the hour.