Hotel Propeller Blog

3 Reasons Your Hotel Website Needs to be Mobile Optimized

Think your hotel needs a mobile site?  Let’s see…

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes:

You’re running late for your business trip. You’re stressed and busy thinking about the presentation you’ve prepared for your meeting tomorrow. And then the hotel you’re booked at this evening calls you to tell you they have made a mistake, and unfortunately they can’t honor your reservation.

You need to be on the move. You need to catch your flight. So out comes your cell phone, searching for another hotel. You find several, but every website you visit on your mobile device is incredibly slow or doesn’t work at all. Imagine the frustration of not being able to book online or even find a phone number to call them.

Google reports that hotel mobile searches have increased by 3,000% and that now over 20% of all searches are conducted via a mobile device.

Today, we discuss three reasons why a mobile website for your hotel shouldn’t be a last minute thought, or not a thought at all, but a key component of your most valuable marketing tool.

Travellers Need to be Mobile

Most people staying at your hotel will be traveling a long distance to get there. Their only available means of communication is likely to be their cell phone or iPad.

Travellers also have a habit of arranging important things, such as accommodation, to the last minute. It’s for this reason then, that you must make it easy and fast for customers to book a room at your hotel via their mobile device.

Customers Need Easily Accessible Contact Information

One of the most important things a traveller can take with them is their hotel contact details, but it is always the last thing on their mind before they step out of the door. Of course, it is the first thing on their mind the moment they arrive in your city.

The easiest way to find your phone number or address is to use their mobile device, but there are few things more frustrating than a tired traveller struggling to load your website because it isn’t optimized for mobile devices.

Make browsing easy, and ensure the information they need such as contact and location details are positioned towards the top of your mobile website.

Gain an Edge of Your Competitors

When a potential customer is stood in the middle of the city, or in the airport, do you want to be the hotel which offered him a fast, useful mobile website, or the one who offered a broken mess after several minutes of waiting for it to load?

Because most hotels don’t offer a mobile optimized website, it’s very easy to stand out above the crowd and offer what your potential customers are looking for without doing much work. In an industry where everybody generally has a similar goal, it’s sometimes not easy to differentiate yourself, but ensuring your customers can easily book and contact you via a mobile website is a very good way to gain a competitive edge.

Do you have a mobile website for your hotel? How many visitors to your website are using mobile devices? Let us know by commenting below.

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