The School of Computing
Hotels: Your websites need to be as comfortable as your beds
Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:58:00 GMT
Hotels that fail to recognise the importance of good website design will face a drop in bookings and profitability, according to a new study.
Customers expect a host of features on hotel websites, even when looking at small hotels in developing countries, according to the researchers from the University of Portsmouth. Arunasalam Sambhanthan, a recent graduate, and Dr Alice Good, both from the School of Computing, published their research in the International Journal of Information Systems in the Service Sector. They studied hotels in Sri Lanka which aim to attract western business travellers, but say their findings apply broadly across the sector. Hotel websites need to not only provide the correct information but also to promote good usability and a positive user experience. Hotels, like any other business, should be prepared to spend a significant proportion of their budget on the security of their website. For too many companies, security is an afterthought, but the issue of trustworthiness and customers’ perception of a safe site impact heavily upon e-commerce. Further research has also looked at providing a list of critical success factors that can help to promote a better user experience when designing hotel websites.
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