Hotel Technology Next Generation

SOUTHLAKE, Texas -- A good first impression really can make a difference. More than 60 percent of all online hotel bookings are made on the first visit to a hotel's Website and over 80 percent of all online bookings are made in the same day as their first visit according to Sabre Hospitality Solutions' research. These statistics represent a tremendous opportunity to gain customers, but at the same time, lose them if a hotel cannot close the booking in the initial online visit.

The Website developers at Sabre Hospitality Solutions know this firsthand and design Websites with that goal in mind: create Websites that make an impression, capture the visitor's attention and drive them to take action.

This experience helped Sabre Hospitality Solutions recently win 12 WebAwards from the Web Marketing Association's annual Competition including two Best in Category awards and 16 W3 Awards including 3 Gold Awards. While the awards bring the well-earned recognition to Sabre Hospitality's design and development teams, results from customers tell the real story. Two award-winning Websites demonstrate the results that can be achieved when considering first impressions.

Recent re-designs of both Destination Hotels & Resorts' corporate site and Tarrytown House Estate and Conference Center incorporated high-quality background images and a clean and organized homepage to ensure a good first impression along with a strong overall user engagement. As a result, homepage "bounce rates" for Destination's site fell 17 percent and Tarrytown's fell 29 percent. The "bounce rate" measures the amount of people that viewed just the home page and left without visiting any other pages; the perfect metric for first impressions.

"Congratulations to the team at Sabre Hospitality Solutions on their awards! We have always been impressed with the work their team does with both our corporate Website and our individual property websites," commented Isaac Gerstenzang, corporate director of E-Commerce for Destination Hotels & Resorts. "They are creative and do a great job of measuring each initiative so we always know what's working and what needs to be tweaked in order to reach our goals."

In addition to a visually appealing home page, "calls-to-action" repeated consistently throughout the landing and interior pages will directly impact online bookings. Destination's Website now includes behaviorally targeted content as well as "smart defaults" on search consoles which make it easy for the visitor to select a hotel category or specific property from Destination's group. They have seen booking volume originating from the corporate site increase 164 percent.

Tarrytown's homepage includes a visually prominent booking console making it easier for users to find. The console is also strategically placed in a horizontal format under the masthead image. A series of Sabre Hospitality Solutions multivariate tests (the practice of changing a Website element and using the results to refine the Website), have documented that this placement drives more visits to the booking engine. As a result, Tarrytown has seen bookings increase 46 percent.

Each example highlights the potential worth of making calls-to-action both visible and effortless.

"Our team continues to challenge itself to lead the industry by creating best practices in hospitality Website development based on creativity and research. This approach ensures our sites create lasting impressions and produce results for our clients," said Alix Paye, vice president of Creative and Website Strategy for Sabre Hospitality Solutions. "We are honored to be recognized by the Web Marketing Association with these awards but even more satisfied by the many success stories our team is creating each day."

About Sabre Hospitality Solutions
Sabre Hospitality Solutions leverages the strength and breadth of Sabre Holding's technology, internet marketing and distribution tools to bring hotel suppliers a global end-to-end solution. Sabre's hospitality expertise and portfolio of solutionshas grown significantly over the last several years and now includes SynXis, whichprovides distribution technology and marketing services; E-site Marketing, the leading hospitality Internet marketing solutions provider; Sabre Hotels GDS; Sabre Hotel RFP, which develops, delivers and manages hotel requests for proposals into a single organization; and Sabre Media Solutions for GDS and other creative services in hospitality. For more information visit http://www.sabrehospitality.com.

Sabre Holdings connects people with the world's greatest travel possibilities by retailing travel products and providing distribution and technology solutions for the travel industry. More information is available at http://www.sabre-holdings.com.

Contact
Carol Levitt
Director, Marketing & Communications
United States - Potomac, Email: carol.levitt@sabre.com

Organization
Aven Hospitality
https://avenhospitality.com/
3150 Sabre Drive
USA - Southlake, TX 76092
Phone: 682-606-4000