'...You have given us so many enquiries we simply can't keep up and the bookings are well up...' Excerpt from an email received from a client hotel late February 2008, ten weeks after the updated website went live.

Internet marketing for luxury hotels starts with the hotels’ own websites. It’s absolutely imperative you ensure your website is realising its own potential as your most powerful marketing tool; it’s capable of generating over 70% of total revenue, if not more, so its worth to you must never be underestimated.

Do you need to improve the performance of your website? Follow the link to a few simple questions to help you decide.

Improved performance means:

a. increased traffic to your website
b. improved conversion of traffic to enquiries
c. improved conversion of enquiries to bookings

which, in turn, means increased occupancy, revenue per available rooms and revenue growth generally.

How much do you rely on hotel portal websites, either paid for or free, for enquiries or bookings? Some hotels spend over £2,000 per year to be featured within one or more of these portals and struggle to recoup their investment. Their own website, if properly managed, could render most of these portals unnecessary.

Effective internet marketing, therefore, starts with your own website. In order to achieve its full potential as a revenue generator, it needs to achieve a high search engine ranking and to sell the unique qualities of your hotel at every opportunity to persuade visitors to make an enquiry or a booking. This, in turn, requires good website management. The less your website is managed properly, the less effective and competitive it will be.

A high performance website can be readily created without adversely affecting the luxury presentation and positioning of your hotel and without compromising your passion and focus.

Improving ‘revpar’, occupancy and overall revenue growth via your existing website is the focus of Alberghi Marketing.

Would you like to arrange a preliminary meeting? An initial chat about your website and its contribution to your success is always a useful exercise and it won’t cost you anything.