Marketing Hospitality Web Sites Galen Collins Northern Arizona University, Null@Nau.Edu

Home , 1999 Webby Awards, Travelocity, Webby Awards

Hospitality Review Volume 20 Article 2 Issue 1 Hospitality Review Volume 20/Issue 1

January 2002 Marketing Hospitality Web Sites Galen Collins Northern Arizona University, [email protected]

Jamie Murphy The University of Western Australia, [email protected]

Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/hospitalityreview Part of the E-Commerce Commons, Hospitality Administration and Management Commons, and the Management Information Systems Commons

Recommended Citation Collins, Galen and Murphy, Jamie (2002) "Marketing Hospitality Web Sites," Hospitality Review: Vol. 20 : Iss. 1 , Article 2. Available at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/hospitalityreview/vol20/iss1/2

This work is brought to you for free and open access by FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hospitality Review by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Marketing Hospitality Web Sites

Abstract The ew b has emerged as a potent business channel. Yet many hospitality websites are irrelevant in a new and cluttered technical world. Knowing how to promote and advertise a website and capitalizing on available resources are the keys to success. The uthora s lay out a marketing plan for increasing hospitality website traffic.

Keywords Internet, Hospitality, Galen Collins

This article is available in Hospitality Review: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/hospitalityreview/vol20/iss1/2 Marketing hospitality websites

by Galen Collins and Jamie Murphy

The web has emwedas a potentbusiness created wonderful websites, yet like channel. kt many hospitaliry websites are a wonderful and irrelevant in a new and cluttered technld world, how promote andadver- establishment, the acid test is visi- tise a website and capitalizing on available tors that stay and spend. resoums are the kevs to success. The authors lay out a marketing plan for increasing hospimlity wbsite tiattic. Sites are tracked Establishing s~eci6cobiectives. such as increased market share; reduced selling costs, improved hile industry execu- customer relationships, and tives and analysts say recruiting employees, is the requi- 'Wthe industry has site first step in a website marketing plenty of issues to deal with, 1999 campaign. Savvy operators also should go down in the books as the track visitor responses (e.g., reser- year e-commerce finally took off."' vations booked or employees hired) With $14 billion in 2000 sales and a and analyze server log files' to forecasted $32 billion for 2006, measure their cyber-objedives. travel is a leading category of on- Unlike traditional media- line spending.' Way back in 1997, print, radio and television-which the Ernst andYoung Internet Shop- rely on third party audience ping Survey found that making activity measures (Nielsen, online reservations is a favorite on- Simmons, or Arbitron), websites line shopping activiw record almost every visitor's every The decision is no longer move (mouse click)." This rich data whether to have a website, but how source yields additional website to market it in this evolving and performance metrics. increasingly cluttered medium. The website server logs every Hospitality organizations have file requested-commonly trans-

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Contents © 2002 by FIU Hospitality Review. The reproduction of any artwork, editorial or other material is expresslv prohibited without written permission from the publisher, excepting that one-timeeducational reproduction ts allowed without express permission. lated into hits, page views, and 10,000 visitors per day, fewer visits." Each file requested equals than 100 may visit a low-traffic one hit. A web page with three site. graphic files and bni text file, for example, generates four hits. Page Page views: Indicates visitor views measure text files, high- satisfaction. If visitors view lighting the website's popular many pages on the average, areas. A visit is the hits and page they are probably finding inter- views for a specific website visitor. esting information. Bill Sthay, vice president of Length of average visit: Indi- reservations for Outrigger Hotels, cates whether visitors are looks at page views, paying special reading pages or just browsing. attention to "the most viewed Another indicator of readmg or pages to see what areas of our site browsing is the average dura- are of most importance to our tion of page view. When exam- viewers.'' The most useful log file ining this statistic, one must statistics for Sal Dickinson, vice consider the page style, length, president of marketing for the and graphics. The more Resorts Division of Meristar Hotels graphics, the longer the page and Resorts, are the most, least, takes to load. Furthermore, and first pages viewed! many argue that thanks to The referrer and agent infor- limited bandwidth, www mation, which may be added to the stands for the world wide wait.1° server log files, often reveals how visitors came to a site as well as Domains, geographic areas: their browser names and version. Helps indicate where visitors This works, however, if the visitors accessed the Internet, which followed a link. If the visitor came helps focus promotional efforts. from a bookmark or types in the Most visitors, however, may URL, nothing appears. come from Vienna, Virginia, Although statistics can be home of America Online. tracked manually, tracking soft- Although "the geographic ware (shareware, freeware, and analysis of visitors is relatively commercial) saves time and useless because it shows you the presents information in graphic origin of their ISP... the break- form, providing a more compelling down by country is interesting."LL and understandable performance Busiest hours, days: Helps picture.' Other useful statistics for plan daily and weekly updates, benchmarking a website's perfor- promotion campaigns, and mance are listed as follows: advertising. Visitor count: Identifies the Most requested pages: Iden- number of visitors. A popular ties popular pages and pages website may have 5,000 to needing attention.

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Contents © 2002 by FIU Hospitality Review. The reproduction of any artwork, editorial or other material is expresslv prohibited without written permission from the publisher, excepting that one-timeeducational reproduction ts allowed without express permission. Most requested last pages: Branding is critical Helps spot trends and bad The first step for establishing a pages. If the last page web identity is a short, memorable requested, for example, has a URL. This means spending $15 to large number of linka to $35 to purchase a one-year lease on external web sites- it is pmb a domain name.13 Although ably the reason most people exit America Online or Geocities offer hm this point. If the last web space, the primary web page requested has no address should stop after .corn. A external links, it may need URL such as www.hilton.com is updating or contain errors easier to remember and builds a and inconsistencies. better image than www.aol.com /members/-hilton. Top paths through site: Most consumers guess an orga- Shows the common website nization's URL by planting www paths, providing insight into before and .com &r the company's the effectiveness of its focus name. Unfortunately, there is a and organizational structure. finite pool of these second-level If a resort website's primary domain names to sandwich goal is to raise overall daily between www and .corn. Only one revenue, for example, ideal www.apple.com exists, although paths would lead to other Apple Computers, Apple Records, reservations (e.g., golf, tennis, and other "Applen entities might massage, dining room, ete.), in like to have this easy-to-remember addition to room bookings. domain name.'" Gwyneth Storr, Internet If the name desired is already resources manager for taken, the company should consider Bridgestreet Accommoda- alternative spellings by including tions, uses "this information to hyphens, using abbreviations, or discern the most popular substituting numbers for words, or pages and change our naviga- consider registering in a top-level tion paths."I2 domain other than .corn. In addition to .corn, over 200 country code top- Top entry page: Identifies a level domains exist. A Swiss visitor's first page viewed. Since company could register in .ch or a the top entry page is not always Canadian company in .ca. Countries the home page, appropriate such as Tonga (.to), Nieu (.nu), and internal links (e.g., link back to Turkmenistan (.tm) offer a catchy main page) should be added to ending for memorable URLS.'~ every web page. A well- Once a name is selected, it conceived internal linking should be incorporated into collat- scheme eliminates dead ends, eral materials, with the e-mail and eases navigation, and high- website addresses on business lights the site's offerings. cards, brochures, press releases,

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Contents © 2002 by FIU Hospitality Review. The reproduction of any artwork, editorial or other material is expresslv prohibited without written permission from the publisher, excepting that one-timeeducational reproduction ts allowed without express permission. advertisements, etc.-any medium minutes. AltaVista and HotBot that makes sense (videos, T-shirts, take a day or two, and Excite takes audio recordings, cocktail napkins, about three weeks. Lycos and pens, beach towels, tip covers, guest WebCrawler take months to receipts, matchbox covers, etc.). register page submissions. Just as important, online branding To reach audiences abroad, opportunities should be considered. consider the target countries' search engines (www.bizforms.com/ Site registration needed search.htm). Major American Portals, the major search search engines like AltaVista have engines and directories, are one of foreign language editions. The web the best online ways to increase is a great tool for reaching interna- website traffic. They are called tional markets but customers must portals 'kcause of the role they try understand the message. to play as the front doors to people's An international version of the Internet journeys."'" website, using simple grammar and The URL should be registered avoiding long sentences, slang, with search engines, either person- colloquialisms, and jargon, may be ally or with automated submission appropriate. Or it may have to be sohare or a registration service completely translated into a foreign (e.g.,www.submit-it.com).Although language. In either case, the right the latter two methods take less tone and style are necessary. What time, someone from the marketing seems acceptable in New York City team should make the time to or New Delhi may look strange in register with the top search engines Milan, even in Italian. Adding such as AltaVista, Lycos, HotBot, foreign words to meta keyword tags Excite, and WebCrawler. No helps. The number of people submission service or software searching for "complejo turistico" knows the property better than a instead of resort may be surprising. marketing team member. "We have Additional pages as well as the used software that registers our homepage should be registered to sites with several hundred search improve the odds people will find engines and directories, but have the web site by entering through also found that a manual submis- another page. This also reduces the sion to the dominant ones... works risk of a search engine not indexing better," Meristar's Dickinsou said." the pages. Finally, the site's place- The site should be registered ment should be checked regularly when it is roughly 90 percent using tools [e.g., Webposition finished and worlung properly. In (www.Webposition.com) and Posi- some cases, it may take several tionAgent (www.positionagent.com)l submissions to get listed. According to monitor the web site's search to Search Engine Watch engine rankings and for helpful (http://searchenginewatch.com), ranking information. Often a Infoseek registers pages within website, which begins on top of

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option on most web browsers ment should immediately clearly displays a web page's follow a web page's graphic html coding. whenever possible. While restaurateurs are known The text should be well orga- to borrow recipes, borrowing nized and focus on a page's theme, meta-tags may prove costly. using clear, complete and properly Although it is a new legal fron- punctuated statements. A few tier, the early rulings indicate search engines disregard incom- that hijacking meta-tags is plete sentences. Also, meta illegal.'Vor example, Holiday keywords, especially two-word Inn should not include meta- phrases, should be added into the tag keywords such as Hilton, text without losing the message. Hyatt, or Howard Johnson's. This is vital for search engines that Page text. Where applicable, do not reference meta-tags. each web page should be Repeating meta keywords in the started with a descriptive text is beneficial as long as it is summary statement of fewer within a well-constructed sentence than 200 characters. The text and has appropriate context. at the top of the page often In addition to search engines, counts more than the text at the site should be registered with the bottom and may be used web guides and directories. Rele- as a site description by some vantKnowledge, Inc. (www.relevan- search engines. To prevent tknowledge.com) ranked Yahoo!, graphical descriptions (e.g., the best known directory, as the Siapan.img.) from appearing most visited website. Unlike search in search engine page descrip- engines, guides and directories tions, the summary state- manually list sites based on

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Contents © 2002 by FIU Hospitality Review. The reproduction of any artwork, editorial or other material is expresslv prohibited without written permission from the publisher, excepting that one-timeeducational reproduction ts allowed without express permission. submitted information. A person, tions, convention centers, airports, rather than a machine, reviews the entertainment, accommodations, site. Consequently, directories and shopping, etc. A person wishing to guides provide more targeted find a Mexican restaurant in results than search engines. Phoenix would access the Phoenix Sice most diredories strin- city guide. gently -n new submissions, they Some guides (e.g., Looksmart) should be submitted in the appro- list only submissions judged to be priate category. When possible, the among the best sites on the web, major areas of the website should be assigning a numerical score, star listed in different categories to rating, or medal. Judging criteria enhance their visibility. For include presentation, design, example, a hotel website could list content, personality, and experi- its homepage in one category and ence. Tu improve the chances of its recreational activities in being listed, the submission should another. Top diredories with hospi- focus on the top-level areas and tality-related listings include include eye-catching, descriptive Yahoo!, Infospace, Nerd World, All information based on a clear under- Business Network, What's New, standing of how the guide functions. and BigBookz' Finally, one should consider Notable travel and tourism submitting the website for awards. diredories include Hotels and Dauel A high profile award such as "Cool on the Net (www.hotelstravel.com), Site of the Dayn dramatically Hospitality Net (www.hospitali- increases traffic. To improve the tynet.org0, Ecotrauel (www. odds of being selected, it is impor- ecotravel.com), The Search Engine tant to get to know the reviewers' for hue1 Information on the Net preferences. Meaningful award (http://wmv.setii.com), and Dau- sites include The Webby Awards elHub (www.travelhub.com).Hotels (httpJl~~~.Webbyawards.~~m~mai and %uel on the Net, for example, 1, WebAward (http:liwww. contains hundreds of thousands of Webaward.org/), and Cool Central international listings with hotel, (www.coolcentral.com). airline, airport, travel-related prod- Search engine, directory, and ucts and services, and travel refer- guide listii are a great way to ence categories. begin marketing a website. Yet, Websites should be registered according to a 1998 study in Science in the city and metro guides that Magazine, even the most dedicated cover their geographical area. surfer using the best search engine Users access these increasingly would be able to find barely one popular directories for city, state, or third of the pages." Although country information. For example, measuring the web is a task unto USA CityLlnk (wmv.usacitylink. itself, experts agree that hundreds com) provides information on of millions of pages exist.22 dining, vacation tips, tourist attrac- A final listing option is elec-

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Contents © 2002 by FIU Hospitality Review. The reproduction of any artwork, editorial or other material is expresslv prohibited without written permission from the publisher, excepting that one-timeeducational reproduction ts allowed without express permission. tronic travel distributors such as banner. The current industry Travelocity (www.travelocity.com), average is under 2 percent.26For Pegasus' Travel Web (wwwtrav- improved click-through rates, a elWeb.com), or Microsoft's Expedia banner must be topic specific and (www.expedia.com).These paid list- well designed, and placed at a site ings often work with a hotel's global with the right audience. For distribution system (GDSP There example, a banner for a beach are many creative approaches, free resort would have better results on and otherwise. a Hawaiian page than on a web page design page. Selecting place- Banner ads promote ment pages helps target the desired A banner is an ad on a web page market. Furthermore, testing hyper-linked to the advertiser's site banner ads can be easy and inex- and a leading online method to pensive."" promote websites. Bridgestreet The South Seas Resorts has Accommodations, for example, had purchased banner ads on city a paid banner on Homestore guides and destination-specific (http://www.homestore.com/) sites (e.g., FLAUSA, visitors and because of good referral tra£fie2" convention bureaus, tourism- Advertising banner terms oriented chambers, etc.), since the include cost per thousand (CPM), top keywords that bring visitors to governing, frequency, and click- their website are geographically through percentages. CPM is the related, such as Sanibel, island, cost per thousand banners served Florida, beach, etc."? (impressions) and typically influ- Most analysts agree that enced by the visitor demographics. banner frequency -the number of A website that charges $1,000 per times a banner is consistently banner and guarantees 100,000 displayed-around three is impressions has a CPM of $10 optimal." A banner's life span is ($1,000/100). short. Response rates can drop by Smaller properties may one half hmthe second to third consider joining a banner exchange, time someone views an ad.2gThere- a cooperative web advertising fore, banners should be rotated and program. While most banner bad performers quickly removed. exchanges allow almost any type of The pace the entire campaign banner advertising, there are follows must be watched; 100,000 specialty banner exchanges that banner impressions purchased for focus in specific areas such as travel a site that receives 2.4 million visi- websites (e.g., http://www.l-2- tors per month could be quickly ~ee.com/banner/globavhome.html.) exhausted. Pacing the impres- Click-through percentages are sions over a 30-day period, based on the relationship between however, provides a campaign banner impressions and the with balance and a potential for number of people who click on the greater exposure.

22 FIU Hospitality ReuiewlSpring 2002

Contents © 2002 by FIU Hospitality Review. The reproduction of any artwork, editorial or other material is expresslv prohibited without written permission from the publisher, excepting that one-timeeducational reproduction ts allowed without express permission. Tips on banner design to each other. Sites with similar inter- increase the click-through ratio are ests are the best reciprocal links. as follows: This is a great way to increase the number of visitors and provide visi- Use animation to increase tors with additional mformation. response rates 30 to 40 percent. Routinely adding related sites to Animation, however, can be the website usually increases annoying if used on a page that repeat visitors. a user would dwell on for an The Colony Hotel in Maine, a extended period of time. recent winner of Cornell's Eco- Have a call to action in the Management Award, links to orga- banner. Adding the words nizations it belongs to such as the "click heren to a banner can Green Hotels Association, Maine increase response rates Businesses for Social Responsibility, twofold. and the National Trust for Historic Avoid nondescript colors like Preservation. The Colony Hotel site beige and gray. A recent study also links to "various service reported that bold colors like providers in our area with whom we yellow and green outperf01111 do business (weddmg cakes, sea black and white. kayaking outfitter, etc.)."" Match the message to the Some operators should consider target audience. Banners with joining a web ring (dir.webring. keywords pull much better. yahoo.com/rw), a group of sites (e.g., Use wider banners, typically bed and breakfast ring located at 468 or 500 pixels, to draw a http://bandb.tqn.comhlring.htm) higher response rate. with the same topic. Links are Use promotional incentives to listed at the bottom of the page, induce users to click on the along with the ring's identifying banner. graphic. In almost every case, there Refresh banner frequently. will be links to the "next" site in the Several studies show that ring, the "previous siten in the ring banner ads drop off in click- or a "random site" in the ring. There throughs aRer several days, is no cost to join a web ring, which but jump when a new banner some feel may be a successful orga- appears. nizational and navigational tool for Establish a system to track the web of tomorrow.31 what works and what does not E-mail is an effective mecha- work in an ad campaign. nism for promoting a web site. E- Keep the banner design simple mail messages usually take one of but distinctive. three forms: person-to-person, posted to a newsgroup, and Links increase visits submitted to a mailing list. Many sites offer reciprocal Sending a "solicitedn message links, two websites hyper-linked to ia the most direct method. Direct

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Contents © 2002 by FIU Hospitality Review. The reproduction of any artwork, editorial or other material is expresslv prohibited without written permission from the publisher, excepting that one-timeeducational reproduction ts allowed without express permission. e-mail marketing is a promising users retrieve messages, mailing list field, but unsolicited e-mail should users receive messages. With poten- be avoided like the plague.32 tially thousands of people receiving "Spam," the derogatory jargon for a promotional message, a blatant unsolicited e-mail which taints the advertisement quickly generates sender and annoys the receiver, hate mail. An ideal posting is infor- may soon be reg~lated:~"Don't be mative, helpful and brief. One of the lured into mass e-mail broadcasting best mailing list directories, Liszt schemes... called spa~nming."'~E- (www.liszt.com), provides a search- mail should be sent to people who able and category index of almost have signed up to receive e-mail, 100,000 mailing lists. sending them messages "designed Whenever possible, a creative to be quick, easy to read, and e-mail signature file should be used extremely relevant to the recip- and customized for each target ient's buying habits or interests.'"j audience (e.g., golfers, business travelers, etc.). This little file goes Targeted lists available at the end of every e-mail sent, Although the best mailing lists except when posting to some are compiled from website visitors, mailing lists. It is considered bulk e-mail lists also exist." These acceptable to use a signature file for databases, which contain individ- advertising purposes, but it should uals who have requested specific be kept to fewer than five lines. It categories of news and information, should contain the employee's pennit targeted mailings:' Refer- name, title, telephone, and fax ences on these announcement numbers, company name, a brief services should be double checked product or service description and to ensure that they never spam. the website URL. Special events or The Internet has thousands of promotions may also be included. newsgroups covering a vast array of topics. A promotional message Classifieds are market posted to a newsgroup should be Internet classified ads should short, informative, and relevant. have an embedded link to your For example, ifa newsgroup partic- website (see Exhibit 2). Both tradi- ipant asks about tourist attractions tional newspapers and upstarts are in Arizona, an appropriate reply by pursuing the online venion of this an employee of an Arizona resort multi-billion dollar market." A might be a message, a few para- traditional classified ad costs about graphs at the most, discussing 10 cents to reach a thousand people. tourist-related links featured at the On the internet, ad costs range resort's website. Google offers a from free to about eight cents per good newsgroup starting point, thousand people". Internet classi- with millions of current postings, fieds are typically 25 to 200 words. searchable by keywords. The Internet may be the most cost- Unlike newsgroups whereby effective advertising yet to enable

FIU Hospitality ReuiewlSpring 2002

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an advertiser to test any- product,- coronadovisitors.com/) is the place service, or information inexpen- to showcase a website's main areas. sivelv and instantly. It is also important to list the main Hundreds of cfassified websites areas on the top-level pages within receive over 10,000 visitors per day. the site, as many people may not Placing an ad at multiple sites begin their visit at the homepage. increases its response rate. Ad Anyone visiting the Coronado Visi- submission services, such as Ad- tors Bureau recreation page should Submit (www.ad-submit.com), place also be pointed toward the accom- ads quickly at a large number of modations page and vice versa. websites. Visit Excite (http:il Promoting both areas increases www.classitleds2000.com~for exam- page views and gives readers a ples of classifieds with embedded better understandug and apprecia- web links. tion of the website's offerings. Once a strategy for directing Visitors must stay traffic to popular pages is devel- Although website statistics oped, examine the less popular identifj. the popular web pages, it is pages. If the page content has important to have a few road signs value, consider combining it with a directing visitors to these popular popular page. First, however, deter- areas. Plain old text can create mine if the road signs directing visi- links to pages needing promotion. tors to an unpopular page are clear People visiting the Coronado Visi- and informative. tors Bureau recreation page When visitors encounter errors (www.coronadovisitors.com/recre- at a website-such as the dreaded ation.asp), for example, might also "404-File Not Foundn-they may be interested in the accommoda- leave and never return. The tions page (substitute accornmoda- server's access and error logs iden- tions for recreation) to discover tlfy trouble spots. Common prob- hotels and resorts located in Coro- lems include dead links, excessive nado, California. load times (due to graphics or other The home page (http://www. bandwidth-hogging features), and

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Contents © 2002 by FIU Hospitality Review. The reproduction of any artwork, editorial or other material is expresslv prohibited without written permission from the publisher, excepting that one-timeeducational reproduction ts allowed without express permission. faulty HTML coding. (websitegarage.netscape.com), Bad links are the primary cause where a cyber mechanic performs of the 'Tile Not Foundnerror which diagnostic tests, including a load occurs when a lid has an incorrect time check, dead link check, URL (uniform resource locator), an spellcheck, html (hypertext markup address that points to a specific language) design check, and page or site on the web. The address browser compatibility check. Some may simply be misspelled (e.g., sites solicit visitors to e-mail any www.hilto.com rather than www. technical errors they encounter. hilton.com) or have the wrong mixture of uppercase and lowercase Content is impotant letters. Although a variety of methods While all links work perfectly attract visitors, compelling and initially, moving, deleting, or current content is the best way to combining pages oRen triggers an keep visitors and keep them coming avalanche of errors. Any link (e.g., back. "Make sure the site has value- search engine) to a changed page added content and interactive inadvertently directs people to features that will encourage visitors dead ends. This is easily fixed by to enjoy and return to the site."' creating a placeholder document, The Outrigger Hotel is a page that redirects the visitor to "currently tweaking our site to a different location on a website. A make copy quicker reads, stan- better solution is programming dardize format for facilities and the placeholder page to use client services information, and eventu- pull technology that automati- ally structure to involve the site cally redirects the visitor to the visitor even more - more interac- correct page. tivity... updating information is a Lost connections are often continual, on-going process ... users impatient visitors not willing to seem to like the detailed informa- wait for a page to load. According to tion, hotel schematics, photos, and the WebsiteJounml, if a site does not destination guide."43 The South load within 20 seconds, 50 percent Seas Resorts, now part of MeriStar of the surfers will hit another site.'" Hotels and Resorts, updates and Since 40 percent of consumers adds content weekly-keeping its browse the web using 28.8K or information fresh and accurate on slower modems, it is critical to an easy-to-navigate and quick-to- consider each page's load time." A load site. 44 page with a large number of lost Similar to marketing a "real-life" connections should be changed to hospitality establishment, the load quicker. ongoing website marketing task is To save time diagnosing or repeat visitors. Two basic approaches fxing problems, purchase trou- to attracting repeat visitors are "pull bleshooting sofhvare or have the or push." The pull approach offers site serviced at a "website Garage" content compelling enough to entice

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Contents © 2002 by FIU Hospitality Review. The reproduction of any artwork, editorial or other material is expresslv prohibited without written permission from the publisher, excepting that one-timeeducational reproduction ts allowed without express permission. repeat visitors. The push approach promptly and fully is important in sends information to the user. cultivating long-term cyber-rela- The Hyatt website's (www. tionships. Setting up a referral hyatt.com) "Hot Dealsn exemplifies system, a button that lets a visitor the pull technique. Visitors may send e-mail to a friend suggesting check special offers and promotions the site, should also be considered. available at Hyatt hotels and resorts around the world. Visitors Customer service necessary may also subscribe to the Hyatt Depending on a website's e-mail Extras e-mail newsletter, a volume, purchasing an e-mail commonly used push tactic. management system, might be Obviously, the best approach to useful. This software provides attract repeat visitors is a mixture tracking, a database to store email of push and pull techniques. Both of addresses and messages, an auto- these, for example, are used in the matic e-mad acknowledgement or Hilton.com membership program auto-responder, and advanced (www.Hilton.com). Members can reporting capabilities. This system, sign-up for e-mail notices on impor- for example, can track average tant site updates, instantly check response times and maintain Honors (hquent guest program) customer communications histories. account information, and review Average response time seems to future reservations. be the bane of most commercial A guest book asks visitors for websites. Studies show that personal information (e.g., name, although e-mail holds phenomenal address, e-mail address, etc.) and potential for the coveted "oneto- comments. It may also ask if they onen relationship, most websites want to receive promotional mate- fail miserably in responding to e- rials such as press releases, adver- mail."6 Furthermore, the heavy tisements, clips from recently demand over the 1998 Christmas published pages, contests, page holiday season highlighted that updates, and highlights of inter- customer service was sorely lacking esting website areas. South Seas in e-commerce." Resorts, for example, has a form "Budget and staff the Internet that permits visitors to request department to be able to respond brochures online, resulting in 40 to quickly to e-mail inq~iries."~Dick- 70 prospects per day. They have inson suggests "providing as many collected over 20,000 e-mail ways as possible for your visitors to addresses by having site visitors communicate to you," but empha- voluntarily complete an interactive sizes to "make sure that you respond to them quickly and Every website needs an e-mail professi~nally."'~At the Colony link for communicating with visi- Hotel, "all reservationists are tors and for obtaining valuable trained to answer e-mails" and feedback. Answering all inquiries respond immediately?

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Contents © 2002 by FIU Hospitality Review. The reproduction of any artwork, editorial or other material is expresslv prohibited without written permission from the publisher, excepting that one-timeeducational reproduction ts allowed without express permission. Websites, however, should Sites need promotion tread lightly gathering personal Once a website is fine-tuned, 90 information. Although no manda- percent complete, and functioning tory guidelines exist yet, Congress properly, a focused promotion is considering legislation that campaign toward targeted audi- covers what information may and ences should be launched. This may not be gathered via the web.51 includes researching the competi- Guidelines already exist for gath- tion, adding the proper meta-tags ering information from children, and registering the website with yet few websites At a search engines-the principal bill- minimum, operators should review boards in cyberspace. Next, the site the guidelines of the Online should be registered with guides Privacy Association, a global coali- and diredories for visitors seeking tion of almost 100 corporations and specific types of dormation. Web organization^."^ marketing should integrate with Converting visitors into loyal standard marketing in order to customers includes frequently ampllfy the effects of marketing updated information, a simple dollars and to establish a universal purchase process, time-saving self- identity for brand and message service options, and solid, one-to- reinforcement." Other ways to one customer service. Enabling drive traffic to a site include banner customers to set up their own pages ads, strategic links to related sites, personalizes the customer service e-mail promotions, e-mail signature process (e.g., Hilton.com member- aes, and classified ads. ship program). A personalized web Once the site is fully registered page, for example, could provide and promoted, performance objec- customers links to their favorite tives and follow-up performance site areas or details on their evaluations are the requisite next current and past reservations. steps. Do visitors arrive predomi- A downloadable screen saver nantly from search engines, links, from the website can help visitors or other means? Who are the visi- remember the site and may bring tors? What areas do visitors find new ones if the screen saver is on a appealing? Do visitors enter the site high visibility work station. through the home page or through The first step in marketing secondary pages? Based on an hospitality websites is selecting analysis of visitor and page usage and registering a memorable URL, statistics, what areas need preferably in the .com domain. improvement? Companies should also consider Finally, and most important, a registering the same domain name website's content should be rele- in country domains, such as .fr for vant and fresh in order to garner France or .au for Australia, as well repeat visitors. In the bricks and as the new global domains-.biz mortar world, a huge promotional and .info. budget makes it easy for restau-

FIU Hospitality Review /Spring 2002

Contents © 2002 by FIU Hospitality Review. The reproduction of any artwork, editorial or other material is expresslv prohibited without written permission from the publisher, excepting that one-timeeducational reproduction ts allowed without express permission. rants to drive first-time visitors to sww.southseas.com. their front door. But repeat visits See Novak and Hoffian for a list of v&OUS PmduetS, depend upon quality focd, quality 'O Jamie Murphy and Charles F. service, and reasonable prices. Hofacker, "Explosive Growth Clogs the similarly,website promotions InterneCs Backbone," New York llm on the Web, Online newspaper at www.nytimes.com drive first time visitors to asite. But (J~~~29, 1996). the goal is repeat visitors that book- " Dickinson. mark a bookmark site and refer the " Personal e-mail, Gwyneth Stom, Internet resources manager, Bridgestreet site to friends and associates via Accommodations, (January 1999), "word of mouth." www.bridgestree.com. l3 Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (www.ieann.org) main- References tains a list of re6strars authorized to sell domain names in the .corn, .org, .net, and .biz Bob Tedeschi, "99: A Year to Make domaim. l4 Apple Computers owns the url. Good on Electronic Commerce," New York " Jamie Murphy and Nicole Smith, llmes on the Web, Online newspaper at "Out-of-the-Way Nations Capitalize on www.nytimes.com (December 29,1998). Catchy Domain Names," NY llmes on the Michael Pastore, "Online Travel Web, Online newspaper at www.nytimes.com Market Largely Avoids Economic Slowdown," (February 1,1998). Markets %uel, Online web marketing guide l6 Saul Hansell, "The Small Get Big, the at www.cybemtlas.lnternet.com (April 21, Big Get Bigger,"New York Times on the Web, 2MJ1); and Daniel J. Connolly, Michael D. Online newspaper at www.nytimes.com Olsen, and Richard G. Moore, 'The Internet (January 4,1999). as a Distribution Channel." Cornell Hotel and l7 Dickinson. Restaumnt AdrninistmtiA Quarterly 39, no. Sk. 4 (1998): 42-54. '' Carl S. Kaplan, "Legal Roadblocks ' Emst and Young, LLP, "Internet Shop Starting'b Deter Meta-TagHijackmg6,"New ping SurveyIn www.ey.com (1997). York limes on the Web, Online newspaper at ' Jamie Muimhv. Charles F. Hofacker www.nytimes.com (Oetober 16,1997). and Michelle ~ekett,"Websits Generated " Infospace (www.infospaze.com), Nerd Market-research Data: Tracine the Tracks World (search.nerdwordl.am), AU Business LeR Behind by Visitors ' cornell Hotel and Network (all-bizcorn), What's New Restaumnt Administrative Quarterlv". 42. no. (whatsnu.com), and Big Book l(2001): 82-91. ~www.bigbook.com). ' ?bm P. Novak and Donna L. Hoffian. " S. Lamnce, C. L. Giles, "Searching "New Metries for New Media: 'bward the the World Wide Web," Science 280 (1998): 98. Develapment of Web Measurement Stan- 22 Jamie Murphy, "It's Not the Size That dards," World W& Web Journal 2, no. 1 Counts, But How You Measure It," New York (1997): 213.246; for a detailed summary of llmes on the Web, Online newspaper at server log file terminology and characteris- www.nytimes.com (July 5, 1998). tics: www2W0.ogsm.vanderbiIt.eduinouakl " See Connolly, et. al., for a amprehen- Web.standards1Webstond.html. sive discussion of the Internet's relationship Vamie Murphy and Edward Forrest, ta a hoteh GDS. "Hits, Wews, Clicks and Wsits: Web Adver- Stol~. tisers Face Data Jungle,"New York llmes on 25 DoubleClick, www.dOablecliCk.com, a the Web, Online newspaper at leading company marketing advertising www.nyhmes.com (May 26, 1996). banners, provides periodic reports. At this personal e-mail, Bill Sthay, vice presi- time, click-through rates seem to be falling. dent of reservations, Outrigger Hotels, 2"harles F. Hofacker and Jamie January 1999, www.ouOigger.com. Murphy, World Wide Web Banner Ad Copy personal e-mail, Sal Dickinson, vice Testing," European Journal of Marketing 21, president of marketing, Resorts Division, no. 718 (1998): 703-712. Meristar IIotels and Resorts (January 19991, '"Dickimon.

Collins and Murphy 29

j' Jeri Clausing, "Busy High-Tech Session for Cowess," New York Times on the Web, Online newspaper at www.nytimes.com

30 FIU Hospitality Reuiew /Spring 2002