Ioanna, a reader from Greece, sends her website for our next makeover.

“Hi! I’m a very loyal fan of your blog, through which I was introduced to a number of useful ideas. I have (shared) ownership of a medium size 2 star seafront hotel in Lixouri, Kefalonia (Cephalonia), Greece…. I would love it if you could review our hotel website…[which] is provided through yearly subscription by a big name in Greek Tourism which also promotes our hotel together with all the other hotels in its system.”

It’s been a few weeks since our last hotel website makeover, so let’s dive right in…

Website Analysis

Read more…

What does a good hotel website look like?

Keith, a reader from Toronto, Canada, sends us his hotel’s website for our next review – and from a marketing perspective, there is a lot of great stuff I see.

Because this is going to be a largely positive review, it’s important I review the guidelines of this series: this hotel is not a client of Gradigio, and this review is not part of any type of sales pitch. The purpose of these reviews is to let us explore hotel internet marketing in a real-world environment.

Website Analysis

(Click image for full size review)

When one of their website visitors clicks one of these buttons, they arrive on a landing page with relevant content…

Click image for full size review

What I like about this website

• They provide relevant messages to each of their core target guest personas
• Contact information is prominent & easy to find (especially the phone number)
• There is usually a next step on each page (important for getting visitors to take action)
• The strong calls to action don’t feel too pushy

What I would add

The website development team did a great job with the design, so I suggest they focus now on building a powerful web presence.

• Base your SEO optimization on hard data. It looks like the website developers have made an attempt at on-page search optimization, but the keywords chosen don’t make sense looking at the results from my research tools. I recommend beginning with the free research tool from Google, and choosing to optimize for words people actually search for.
• Make pages easy to save, share & print. I personally like the widget provided by AddThis.com – which includes all the major functions visitors need to spread your content.
• Add a little more social media integration. Plan a hotel Flickr strategy…and invite your guests to participate. Embed updates from your blog or Twitter updates. A great website is one that is frequently updated with fresh content…and it’s even better when guests help produce that.

Take-away questions for anyone:

1. Am I targeting unique guest personas on my website?
2. What is the basis for my search optimization efforts?
3. Is my page content focused on the reader instead of the hotel?
4. Do my pages have a clear call to action?
5. Once on my website, is it easy for visitors to book a room?

Our next hotel website makeover comes from Chris, a reader from South Africa, and owner of the Whale Cottage Guest Houses. First, a little background information:

• Location:  South Africa
• Property Type: Guest houses
• Number of rooms: 33 rooms across 4 properties
• Price range: R 300-450 pppn (winter); R 490-650 pppn (summer)
• Typical Guests: From the UK, Germany, and South Africa

Website analysis

(Click image for full size review)

What I would change

Unlike the Apple Tree Inn last week, the Whale Cottage Guest Houses have started to build their web presence with a blog and Twitter account. For this reason, my review focused on their homepage – where a makeover is most likely to provide positive results.

Here’s what I recommend changing:

• The heading area – to focus on more useful content
• The navigation – to be simple and intuitive
• The page structure – to eliminate duplication
• The body copy – to explain the benefits of the cottages
• The call to action – to encourage more bookings

It all comes down to two words

Simplify and focus.

Take-away questions for anyone:

1. Is my website concise & intuitive?
2. Is the navigation simple?
3. Is important content “above the fold”?

How would you optimize the Whale Cottage website?

For our first hotel website makeover, we’re going to analyze the Apple Tree Inn in Petoskey, Michigan. As outlined in the series guidelines, I don’t know the owners of this hotel, but I chose them to begin because they are near my summer home and their site is typical of smaller independent hotels of their class.

First, a screenshot of their homepage:

AppleTreeInn.com Homepage

Now some changes I would like to see:

My suggestions (click for full image)

(Side note: I just got my Bamboo Pen Tablet, and am still working on my hand/eye coordination. Apologies if you have trouble reading my writing!)

What needs work on this site

1. Less focus on them, more on the potential guest. It’s the #1 mistake hotel websites make: “Aren’t we beautiful?” Visitors don’t care – they want to find solutions to their needs & desires.
2. More external credibility by adding guest comments, media reviews & any awards won
3. The site lacks focus and a strong call to action: where should a visitor look when she first visits? What action should she take? There is no prominent visual element.
4. There needs to be a way to build relationships with their prospective & best guests – perhaps an email newsletter or blog?
5. The design looks circa 2000-2002 – a fresh design might help

Improving search visibility

As we looked at last week, on-page adjustments should only be one part of a search optimization strategy – but it’s a good place to start:

• Current homepage title: Apple Tree Inn – Petoskey Michigan
  • “Petoskey” and “Michigan” are keywords, but they should focus on showing up in broader searches
  • Current Google ranking for important keywords
    • “petoskey hotel” – [not in first 20 results pages]
    • “petoskey inn” – #12 (on page 2 of results)
    • “petoskey michigan hotels” – #30 (on page 3 of results)
    • “inn petoskey mi” – #3 (good!)
  • Recommended new homepage title: Petoskey Hotel: Apple Tree Inn in Northern Michigan
  • Also, each page on the website needs to have a unique, descriptive title. Right now, they’re all the same.
• Current META description: Apple Tree Inn Overlooking Beautiful Little Traverse Bay, Near Victories Casino
  • Analysis: Not a bad start, but it feels a little forced and over-optimized for search engines. Remember, this is the text people see in web searches. I recommend re-writing to sound more natural and focus on the hotel’s benefits.
• However, this site’s BIGGEST flaw is a lack of content. Most of the pages only have a couple of sentences of text. The Apple Tree Inn needs to publish a lot more useful content that both travel planners and search engines love.

Recommended next steps

1. Completely re-write the website, adding a lot more useful content. Perhaps develop an area guide for the Little Traverse Bay region?
2. Re-design website to focus on the #1 goal for visitors to the site
3. Launch a search visibility improvement campaign
4. Build their web presence in social media sites, starting with Flickr and YouTube

Tell me: how did I do with this review? Did it help you? I think this post concept has potential, but I need your candid feedback to make it good!