DEAR AMBER: How can I notify guests of maintenance for renovations on my hotel website? RESTLESS RENOVATOR
DEAR RESTLESS RENOVATOR: Thanks for your note.
The best place to host notifications for guests on your hotel website is your News and Events section. In creating a news article, you have the ability to control the dates in which the article self-activates/self-deactivates from the hotel website. Then, use the article to crosslink back from any applicable pages on your hotel website. For example, for pool maintenance, you will want to place a link on the pool page to the news article, and vice versa. Please ensure you are utilizing the select path tool (the tool which allows you to select the node for the relative website URL within the system, rather than pasting the entire front-facing website URL, starting with “http://”, into the URL field).
You may further surface the item on your home page right-hand rail by assigning a priority to the article. Other locations to promote your message would be through use of the various two-up placements and rotating mastheads on the hotel website pages, which accommodate links to direct to learn further about the maintenance, and overlay text to tease the guest to learn more. Another placement option is the homepage feature panel, which is prime real-estate for notifying guests of upcoming events or surfacing unique hotel attributes. Our recommendation is that if featured, the information is only placed once on the page, to not inundate guests with the message.
The Studio content team is also able to manage space for messaging above the booking engine to communicate the notice to guests before they select a room to book. Please note, the space may not house any rate information. The messaging may not be set to appear only when certain dates are selected in the quick book: messaging must explain when the maintenance will occur, as it will appear when availability is checked for any date, so long as the message is posted.
Talk soon,
Amber Fijolek is the Digital Content team’s website edits guru, monitoring the inbox, she answers our hotel’s everyday needs.