Hotels must improve Web sites to turn lookers into bookers, study says.

Have you booked a hotel reservation on the Web lately? If so, you may have participated in the Rush Report, a study of hospitality industry Web sites that was released late last week. It says hotels need to make dramatic improvements to their sites to lure customers away from big travel agency sites like Expedia.

The study, from research firm iPerceptions and consulting firm Hospitality eBusiness Strategies, included online surveys of 40,000 visitors to 28 branded hotel Web sites. The visitors include leisure travelers (56 percent) and business travelers (32 percent), who come to the Web to book reservations (31 percent), get information (34 percent) and compare rates (23 percent).

One problem for hotel sites, according to the survey, is that only 36 percent of all visitors to hotel sites actually book reservations. And a Forrester study from 2002 shows that 40 percent of visitors who researched hotel rooms online booked offline because they couldn't find what they needed online. This bookers vs. lookers dilemma cuts into hotel revenue.

One of the reasons visitors say they don't book online is that their experience with the sites is unsatisfying. Less than 19 percent of all visitors to branded hotel sites characterize their experience as excellent, says Max Starkov, CEO of Hospitality eBusiness Perceptions.

"Even more troubling is the fact that almost 17 percent are not satisfied with their Web site experience and qualify it as 'fair' or 'poor,'" he says. "Hospitality sites have much to do to increase user satisfaction, and this report debunks a lot of assumptions that many hotel brands have about their Web sites."

The low ratings have a lot to do with the way the sites are designed, Starkov says. Many inundate visitors with confusing content. Starkov says that when visitors click on "home" on one site, they are taken to seven different locations, depending on where that started. "They get lost," he says.

Another problem is that different visitors seek different kinds of content, so the sites may not appeal to everyone. The study says business travelers want ease of use so they can book rooms quickly, while leisure travelers want relevant content so they can to learn more about the hotels. Surprisingly, saving money is the lowest desired attribute for both groups of visitors.

Marriott topped the 28 Web sites reviewed in the study, Starkov says. "It scored the highest, utilizing 72 percent of the best practices," including a satisfactory booking engine, insightful rich media copy and a strong customer loyalty program.

"The three crucial aspects of their site are user friendliness, search engine friendliness and booker friendliness," he says.

But "no player has solved all the issues on their site, even Marriott," he says, "although the other players are much worse. All major hotel companies need to address the issues the report identifies and [discover] what they have to do to address the best practices and provide customer feedback."

In 2004, $16.4 billion will be spent on online hotel room bookings by leisure travelers, out of a total of $53 billion for all travel products, according to Forrester Research. So, "it's critically important for hotels to make sure their sites are well designed with good content," says Henry Harteveldt, Forrester's vice president of travel research.

Harteveldt says hotel sites may not be able to compete with the popular travel agency sites like Expedia. "Agency sites have lots of content, you can go to them and compare every hotel, but when you go to the branded sites you only see that hotel. Customers place more trust in the branded sites because they believe the sites are more accurate and up to date, but agency sites have the best rates."

Harteveldt also spoke to the content problems the branded sites have. The sites are "inwardly focused with design use terminology that hotel executives understand, but confuse casual travelers. Some sites list hundreds of price points for the same room. Travel agency sites do a better job."