A recently renovated resort in Ocean City, Maryland, gets an updated front-end website that is integrated to the Skipper booking engine using O’Rourke Hospitality’s Guest Experience (GX) design methodology to significantly increase direct bookings and boost revenue.
After a recent renovation, Ashore Resort & Beach Club wanted a revamped website to match. The seaside resort has spectacular ocean view rooms, upscale dining, a beachfront pool, live music, wedding and conference hosting, and proximity to 17 championship golf courses.
Using a third-party booking engine outside of its website, Ashore was seeing just 1.33% of its booking engine visitors booking rooms. When the property implemented Skipper on top of the Windsurfer CRS, as the new booking engine, the percentage of Ashore’s booking engine visitors who booked nearly tripled, going from 1.33% to 3.65%.
Then, just two months after adopting O’Rourke’s GX design methodology, the percentage of booking engine visitors making direct bookings spiked again, going from 3.65% to nearly 7%. Using an average revenue assumption of $100,000 per month at 1.33% booking directly, a nearly 7% conversion rate would generate over $500,000 monthly.
Like other independent hotels with conventionally designed websites, the vast majority of Ashore’s booking engine visitors bounced off the website before ever making a reservation. Studies have shown that number is upwards of 80 percent industry wide. Recapturing even a portion of those “booking engine abandonment shoppers” represented a substantial source of direct revenue they couldn’t afford to miss.
Our Guest Experience (GX) design methodology provides all the information a website visitor needs to make a purchasing decision on the spot: room type, availability, and price — all without having to leave and enter a separate booking engine. The front-end website is integrated with the Skipper booking engine directly so there’s no need for prospects to hunt around for information.
We implemented the GX design with the Skipper booking engine solution in November 2023 and soon after began seeing results. Each room type now has its own image along with a description including capacity, beds, amenities, accessibility, availability, and price.
Now a potential guest can check availability of rooms that are actually available for their stay dates, click on the room they’re interested in and filter to see if it suits their needs, and budget.
Creating a new website with the Guest Experience design methodology is providing Ashore’s website visitors with the important details they need to quickly and easily make a reservation. Learn more about how GX design can increase your website’s effectiveness.
If you’d like to discuss your property’s website and other marketing strategy needs, we’d love to hear from you.
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