"Hotels with poor websites face drop in profits"

Hotels which fail to spend time and money on their websites face a drop in bookings and profitability, according to a new study. Customers expect a host of features on hotel websites, even when looking at small hotels in developing countries, according to the researchers from the University of Portsmouth. Arunasalam Sambhanthan, a recent graduate, and Dr Alice Good, both from the School of Computing, published their research in the International Journal of Information Systems in the Service Sector. They studied hotels in Sri Lanka which aim to attract western business travellers, but say their findings apply broadly across the sector. Dr Alice Good said: “Hotels that rely upon web bookings are undoubtedly going to face a drop in bookings if they fail to keep pace with website design and the importance of it to customers. “There is extensive research in how poor web design impacts upon both usability and accessibility in relation to e-commerce websites, with numerous examples of companies going out of business because of poor website design. Circle Source: Breaking Travel News