Trends are changing in the hospitality industry, corporate travel is way down, and hotels will start looking more closely at local business opportunities. Studies show that most people will be vacationing locally this coming summer. Most hotel web sites are geared toward corporate travel and conventions. Hotels should be highlighting such things as summer specials, guest room promotions, local attraction specials, special promotions, Internet promotions, catering specials, and bar and restaurant specials to bring these services to the forefront of their web sites.
"Web sites are great sales tools," says Louis Godin of WebEventPlanner.com, "but web site information needs to change as the market changes. What may have been popular in organizing a web site a year or two ago will not be as effective in terms of sales this year." Taking the steps now to realign existing web site marketing information will help hotels weather the current financial storm and provide them the tools needed to capture additional local and transient business.
