Home
Home Jobs About Us News Archive Help Yourself Consultants Classifieds Links Contact Us

 

 

 

 

     
 

 
The secrets to hotel website success
14th Apr 2003
Back
 
Discover the secrets to hotel website success

GSA talks to John Stonham, the CEO of one of the few website success stories, asia-hotels.com. With up to 30,000 bookings a month and 35,000 daily visits to his site, he must be doing something right. We also speak to expert web-man, Rob Schumann about what makes a strong and effective website.

Jon Stonham, CEO of asia-hotels.com, is one of the few website success stories. When Stonham started the company six years ago he was knocking on hotel doors trying to persuade them to use his website - now they're knocking on his. The Hong Kong-based company, with its 60 staff, provides independent advice on hotels, hotel ratings, feedback from some 40,000 guests, hotel information and allows users to make reservations online. It also supplies technical advice on how hotels can improve their websites. Most of the hotels it covers are in Asia, with a few from Europe.

"We've grown very steeply," Stonham said. "Now we do between 20-30,000 bookings a month, depending on which month. We have something like 35,000 people use our website everyday.'' Stonham said the company's reservation business was growing at an average of 25 per cent a year. Sixty per cent of bookings come from Asia and about 18 per cent each from North America and Europe. Stonham said his best customers came from Singapore and Korea, with Hong Kong one of his weakest markets. "Hong Kong people prefer to pick up the phone," he said.

Stonham said feedback from hotels pointed to Internet reservations jumping from one per cent five years ago to its current level of between five and 30 per cent. He said smaller hotels received more website bookings because larger hotels had their own infrastructure in place which competed against the Internet. The most preferred destination is Thailand, followed by Malaysia, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Stonham predicted online bookings would continue to grow, with it reaching a peak of around 20-25 per cent on average. "The Internet provides more private access. So generally, it makes for a more official way of doing business," he said.

Stonham said he was amazed how confusing some hotel websites were, while others did not offer enough booking flexibility. Some hotels responded too slowly to Internet bookings, he added. As for the future of online reservations, Stonham predicted the booking process would be much simpler, efficient and cheaper. "So the future's looking bright."

Website expert Rob Schumann, managing director of RS-Tech Consulting in Thailand, said a good website must be quick to load, have good content and be easy to navigate. Each page also needs to orient the visitor with respect to whose site they are in, where they are within it and the information (and routes to it) that can be accessed. This is vital if the visitor is not to feel lost through becoming confused by a poorly designed, often overloaded interface. Adding a search facility can greatly assist the location of relevant information, but a poorly designed one can just as easily hinder the process.

"It's not exactly earth shattering revelations, just the simple application of plain old common sense," Schumann said. "It sounds rather dull, but site effectiveness requires that these criteria all be met. Many hotels, hotel groups or super-group websites fall down on at least one of these and, with surprising frequency, two or more."
 
 
     
Send this page to a friend
 
         
Terms of Use Privacy Policy Contact Us