Who “owns” the property website?
Mercedes Blanco from The Hotels Network has initiated an extremely useful educational series “Reclaiming Power in Hotel Website Management.” I have already contributed my thoughts for one of the series - see the link to the video in the comments.
So, who “owns” the property website today?
In my view, reclaiming power of the property website starts with establishing clear and unambiguous ownership of the website: Who among the employees “owns” the website?
Whose compensation is directly tied to the success or failure of the property site and its results: bookings, RFPs, referrals?
Today almost 100% of independent hotels have no clear “ownership” of the website, which explains the mediocre website bookings and the rising contribution by the OTAs at the expense of the direct online channel.
In the course of 20 years at NextGuest, now merged with Cendyn, we asked our client hotels a very simple question: When was the last time you visited your own property website?
We even conducted surveys with the property staff to that effect. I do not want to share the replies to this question or the results of the surveys - so embarrassing they were!
Who should “own” the hotel website at the property?
The Sales Team?
The sales team has one singular objective: to hunt for new business. Sales people have their target markets and quotas and are rightfully incentivized for their sales production.
The Revenue Management Team?
As industry professionals, revenue managers and marketing managers are cut from a different cloth: Most revenue managers are data-driven and very analytical, whereas marketing professionals are by default intuitive and creative. The owner of the property website should excel in content marketing, creative campaigns, and expert in digital marketing.
In addition, many revenue managers now act as OTA ambassadors, which is a direct conflict of interest if the property wants to grow their website bookings.
The DOSM?
At most hotels the Director of Sales and Marketing (DOSM) is just a Director of Sales (DOS). The “marketing” part was tucked into the title a few decades ago when owners and GMs did not know which department to attach marketing to.
In my 30-year digital career I have never met a DOSM that is directly incentivized to produce more website bookings. In the same time, very few DOSM have marketing expertise, not to mention expertise in digital marketing, website marketing, website and marketing technologies, etc.
So, the only “rightful owner” of the property website should be a dedicated marketing manager, marketing coordinator, etc. - someone with vested interests in the success of the website and direct online bookings.
The lack of well-defined and incentivized ownership of the property website is the main reason why the website has become the property’s bustard child and largely abandoned, and why the direct online channel is suffering as a result of that.
