How to lose out to the competition
My wife and I will celebrate our fifth anniversary at the end of the month and we’re looking around for options for a quick getaway.
Once place we’re considering is Grand Lake, Oklahoma, located not far from where I grew up. For us, the trip sounds ideal - we can drop the kid off at the grandparents’ house and drive down to the lake for a few days to ourselves.
We live about five hours away from Grand Lake, so I’d prefer to do this research online. What I found was astounding. A Google search lead me to GrandLake.com, which led me to a listing of hotels and motels near Grand Lake. While there were eight listings for us to choose from, there was only one that had a website.
I have no interest in calling each one of them and asking for their rates, and I have no way to view pictures of each hotel without an online presence.
The only lodging we’re seriously considering is the one with the website.
I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again: your business needs a website. Granted, I’m more experienced than most with regard to shopping or researching online, but in this case I’m as typical a website visitor as any. Put simply, I’m looking for information because I’m a working still and the internet provides the quickest, easiest way for me to evaluate my choices.
When your competitor has a website and you don’t, you’ve allowed your competitor to help the customer make up his mind - and you’re not likely to come out the winner on that deal.
What excuse can you come up with for not having a website? Is it too costly? Do you not have the time to put in to get it going? Are you too busy to research a designer?
How much sales have you lost in the meantime?
If hotels can’t organise a website they should at least submit a detailed rundown (with recent photos) to an accomodation listing website.
While I couldn’t be sure, just looking at some the hotel names in your screenshot, I get the feeling quite a few of them are “mum and dad” type operations (as many motels, especially, tend to be) who probably thrive on both casual, regular, and word of mouth business, and haven’t really thought about advertising beyond the “traditional media”.