Three-Tier Content Strategy for Hotel Websites

When localizing a global website, in addition to choosing the target language, another key question is: what content should be translated? Although many companies often take a one-size-fits-all approach, that is, translating all content, this is often not the best option. Comprehensive translation not only wastes a lot of resources, but may also lead to content redundancy. Therefore, focusing on specific content areas and types can more effectively improve the return on investment (ROI). Even if additional user experience (UX) and information technology (IT) work is required to adjust the website, such an investment will usually get a higher return than translating all the content.

First level: Booking process

When localizing your website, the first step is to localize the booking flow. Without a localized booking flow, there is no point in translating the rest of your website. However, even if the rest of the content is not available to users in a certain language, you can still use the localized booking flow through some distribution channels. These channels, including partner networks, metasearch engines, TripAdvisor Instant Booking, and Booking on Google, often provide localized content before directing users to your booking flow.

Data shows:

• 72% of consumers prefer to make purchases in their native language. — Common Sense Consulting

The cost of localizing a booking engine is usually lower because there is less content involved and it is updated less frequently. Often, rate descriptions are the part of the booking content that requires special attention and can be simplified by standardizing language or using icons instead of text descriptions. If this is not feasible, machine translation (MT) is a good option for handling this type of formatted content.

The main challenge of localizing a booking engine may not lie in the content itself, but in IT technology. Have you ensured that your central reservation system (CRS) supports non-Western writing systems, especially right-to-left languages such as Arabic? Can it handle user data (such as name, address, etc.) in the appropriate format? Large online travel companies (OTCs) usually have these features already, but if you are using a home-grown system, it may require additional research or agency solutions to enable support for these languages.

Second level: Property content

About 60% of traffic goes directly to the hotel website through the property page, bypassing the brand homepage. For a small hotel group (up to 10 hotels), property pages may account for 50% of the total website content. For large hotel groups, the proportion of property pages may even exceed 95%, so localizing the content of property pages is particularly important.

Typically, the minimum language requirements for travel websites are English for international visitors and local language for in-market visitors. However, not all international target groups are fluent in English, and even those tourists who are fluent in English tend to prefer content in their native language. For example, online travel agencies (OTAs) like Booking.com, Priceline.com, etc. often localize their listings into multiple languages.

To increase bookings, use website analytics data to see the user preferred language for each property page. If you find that users in certain markets have a language preference that is inconsistent with the language available on your website, localizing your property content in those markets will significantly increase bookings.

Level 3: Brands, offers and destination content

Brand: The influence of brands continues to grow, especially when attracting millennials, brand loyalty is very high. Brands have a unique advantage in the competition, especially when competing with OTAs. The booking process itself provides brands with an immersive customer experience opportunity. In order to establish an emotional connection with customers, especially non-native users, localization of brand content is crucial.

However, for small markets, fully localizing all brand content may be too expensive. Unless you need to build brand awareness in a specific market, you can skip translating brand content or take a step-by-step approach and translate only key pages such as the homepage, offer templates, and necessary legal content.

Offers: Your landing page templates should definitely be localized to allow digital acquisition teams to attract target users in specific markets. These templates can link directly to the booking flow and/or property pages.

Destination content: Destination content is critical for search engine optimization (SEO), driving more traffic to your website by increasing site stickiness and user engagement. However, creating and localizing this content is often expensive. Similar to property content, only localize relevant destination content in specific markets, or consider using machine translation.

Summarize

The localization of hotel website content can adopt a three-tier strategy, first focusing on the booking process, then localizing the property page content, and finally gradually localizing the brand, discount and destination content based on cost-effectiveness considerations. Through reasonable data analysis, ensuring the translation and localization of the most valuable content areas can not only improve the user experience, but also maximize market coverage and return on investment.

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