I recently saw Alix Paye, our vice president of creative and Website strategy, present on the Future of Hospitality Websites and wanted to share with you, in a series of blog articles, some highlights that may help you when considering your own property or chain’s site.

There is an old rule of print advertising that “color sells.” Even when advertisers paid a substantial premium for a 4-color page, experience showed they got more value for their advertising—they attracted more eyeballs, which translated into more phone calls and visits, so the cost per visit was substantially lower. In her presentation, Alix showed how the same rule holds true on the Web, and it is especially true for those segments of the travel industry where seeing is 99 percent of believing.

Alix demonstrated how you can tell the story that your property is going to deliver a more satisfying experience than the competitors. The most convincing arguments start with strong visuals. On the Web, high impact images sell, whether in color or shades of grey.

As Alix pointed out, you need to start with high impact images, but they have to be coupled with a strong message and – most important on the Web – a clear path to the next step. The next step leads to the next and the next until the browser becomes a buyer and makes a reservation.

Two technical advances have brought visual impact to the fore in hospitality website design: First, the increase in the size and resolution of browser screens have increased the real estate we have to display our images. Second, web users at home and at work generally have access to higher bandwidth that permits both larger images and video.

Make Imagery the Focal Point of Your Home Page

When you go to the home page of many of the great hospitality Websites, imagery is the focal point. “You only have seconds to capture an audience on the web,” Alix said. “The stronger the images, the better your chances to make that first engagement with your visitor.”

Alix warned that you have to be careful in how you choose to present your images. Many Websites are moving away from Flash due to mobile compatibility. They are also relying more heavily on video to sell the experience with movement.

But high impact visuals on the web do more than provide arresting eye catchers: they have become a highly effective point for interaction and involvement with your visitors. Today the photo gallery ranks consistently as the third highest in page views on hospitality Websites. And of course the larger the screen, the more impactful the images are.

Impactful images provide great opportunities for engagement, such as when a hotel features each room type and includes a “check availability” date picker that passes the date and room type to the booking engine directly from the gallery.

In looking at current trends, Alix asked, “As Websites as a whole become more highly visual with large format photos, do you need a dedicated photo gallery or does your entire Website in essence become the gallery?” You can see a great example here at http://www.montagebeverlyhills.com.  

Destination Photo Galleries Are Going Social

Increasingly, those who visit a destination are also sharing their own photos online, both on social sites and on hotel or destination Websites. Wild Dunes, a resort in South Carolina, for example, has gone social with their online photo gallery.

The Wild Dunes vacation photo gallery enables guests to upload vacation photos and videos. The resort has approval rights prior to posting live and the photo tags and accompanying blogs provide great organic search visibility.

Alix demonstrated how you can create a high impact, photo rich site even if you do not have the budget for a full Website redesign. Instead of spending your marketing budget on a full redesign you can update your current Website by filling the extra real estate to the left and right of the browser background with a brand or destination related photo.

This effect can be put in place by a simple Website template update leveraging the trend of additional screen real estate and making every pixel within that space work for your brand. You can see a good example at http://www.drhmaui.com.

A Final Warning about Page Load Optimization

The increase in bandwidth available to customers has given high impact visuals an even higher level of importance on today’s websites, but Alix warned there are still limits to how much of a good thing you can put on a web page. Graphic load speeds don’t really start to impact how your site is listed in Google until you start seeing 10 to 15 seconds or more to download. The Optimal Load Time is 2 to 3 seconds.

You can use these tools to test your page loads: