How to Recognize a Good Hotel Website Designer
If there is one world in which "web designer hopping" is almost a hobby, not to say the national hymn, than that is the hotel world.
And in general the problem is always the same: there was no pilot in the plane And that is not likely to change anytime soon.
Many hotels, if not most, will go on dragging their website from company to company, caught in the web of spending money, losing search engine rankings on the way, and forever jump on outdated tips.
What is the problem? The Internet is still too new.
The reputation of a hotel website designer is still miles away of that of a lawyer, surgeon or pilot.
So what happens is this: the hotel itself takes over the whole marketing strategy.
But...
the hotel is managed by a professional in hospitality, not by a marketing specialist!.
That is as much as knocking at the door of the cockpit and saying: Could you fly a bit more to the right? And avoid that cloud? And over Paris please.
Because I have read an article about being a pilot, and in the pub they have explained me how to do it, so now please follow all my directions.
Obviously, this plane is going nowhere.
If it does not crash.
But in the majority of cases it is just forever lost in a cloud.
Many a hotel web designer hates this too.
He or she knows that the hotel will get dissatisfied within 6 months...
and cancel within 12.
And also for him that means a terrible amount of lost energy, money and time...
because he will not even be able to use this hotel website as a referral.
But he does not have a choice.
In most cases companies have to produce, if only to keep their staff busy, and if he can do so by providing instant gratification, then that is what he will do.
In order to at least at the start have a satisfied customer.
So there the hotel goes.
Armed with a website according to his personal taste, and the love for orange of the cleaning lady, and built on a vague mixture of tips found in the over 10 million online pages telling about search engine optimization.
How can a hotel know he is dealing with a good, serious, reliable web designer with marketing background? If the hotel is told: "NO, I will NOT do this, this is NOT good".
That is the short version.
In the long version it will probably sound more like: "I understand your concerns, but will have to advise you that, from a marketing point of view, this will not increase the potential, and I will explain this more clearly by informing you that...
".
Anyone can make a beautiful design.
That is what designers love doing.
They are creative.
But in 2009 that is no longer the issue.
In a massive universe of 400.
000 hotel websites, and 10 million IDS and online hotel guides...
a hotel website needs to be smart.
And in general the problem is always the same: there was no pilot in the plane And that is not likely to change anytime soon.
Many hotels, if not most, will go on dragging their website from company to company, caught in the web of spending money, losing search engine rankings on the way, and forever jump on outdated tips.
What is the problem? The Internet is still too new.
The reputation of a hotel website designer is still miles away of that of a lawyer, surgeon or pilot.
So what happens is this: the hotel itself takes over the whole marketing strategy.
But...
the hotel is managed by a professional in hospitality, not by a marketing specialist!.
That is as much as knocking at the door of the cockpit and saying: Could you fly a bit more to the right? And avoid that cloud? And over Paris please.
Because I have read an article about being a pilot, and in the pub they have explained me how to do it, so now please follow all my directions.
Obviously, this plane is going nowhere.
If it does not crash.
But in the majority of cases it is just forever lost in a cloud.
Many a hotel web designer hates this too.
He or she knows that the hotel will get dissatisfied within 6 months...
and cancel within 12.
And also for him that means a terrible amount of lost energy, money and time...
because he will not even be able to use this hotel website as a referral.
But he does not have a choice.
In most cases companies have to produce, if only to keep their staff busy, and if he can do so by providing instant gratification, then that is what he will do.
In order to at least at the start have a satisfied customer.
So there the hotel goes.
Armed with a website according to his personal taste, and the love for orange of the cleaning lady, and built on a vague mixture of tips found in the over 10 million online pages telling about search engine optimization.
How can a hotel know he is dealing with a good, serious, reliable web designer with marketing background? If the hotel is told: "NO, I will NOT do this, this is NOT good".
That is the short version.
In the long version it will probably sound more like: "I understand your concerns, but will have to advise you that, from a marketing point of view, this will not increase the potential, and I will explain this more clearly by informing you that...
".
Anyone can make a beautiful design.
That is what designers love doing.
They are creative.
But in 2009 that is no longer the issue.
In a massive universe of 400.
000 hotel websites, and 10 million IDS and online hotel guides...
a hotel website needs to be smart.
Source...