As the world tentatively begins to dream about booking travel again, now might be a good time to give your website and booking pages the once over.
It’s an opportunity to check whether they are optimized correctly to encourage booking conversions from travelers. That is, laid out and set up in such a way as to turn lookers into bookers.
Consider everything you do to market your travel company and products.
You might run email campaigns, nurture an audience on social media, or connect with other local businesses to promote your tours. The last step to see your efforts come to life is to take in the bookings.
Given the precautions people are taking around COVID-19, ideally, you want to offer contactless online bookings to your travel clients.
How Do I Add Bookings To My Website?
First off, if you don’t have online booking functionality for your travel or tour products, there is an easy way to get it – sign up with WeTravel.
Using our platform, you can add booking functionality to your website.
Your clients will be able to book your trips directly from your web pages. Without needing any technical expertise, you can embed our Book Now button onto your page, which creates an iFrame overlay checkout process.
It’s a great way to keep your branding consistent and make the process easy for your clients.
Can I Take Online Bookings Without A Website?
Even if you don’t have a fancy website or separate web page for your tour, it’s still possible to offer online bookings using WeTravel.
Our trip page builder allows you to create beautiful booking pages that convert.
The builder guides you through setting up the details for your trip, where you can load eye-catching imagery, write an itinerary, and give your clients all the details they need ahead of making a booking decision.
Once you have created your booking page, a trip link is generated. You can send this via email directly to the people who wish to make a reservation for your product.
Best Practices To Optimize Your Trip Booking Pages
Regardless of whether you are using WeTravel’s trip page builder or embedding a Book Now button onto your own web page, there are several best practices to keep in mind.
Implementing these will help you to create engaging pages for your travel product, as well as set yourself up for the best opportunity of converting clients.
It’s one thing for them to view your booking page, and another to go through with making the reservation. You need to provide travelers with the inspiration, information, assurance, and call to action to guide them through the process.
All in all, they need to find the information they’re looking for, as well as enjoy a seamless user experience.
Here are the sections that travelers will expect to see on your booking page for an optimal experience:
- headline and trip overview
- photo and video gallery
- inclusions and exclusions
- health and safety precautions
- available packages
- price and real-time booking functionality
- itinerary
- details about you and your company
- map
- reviews
Let’s look at these in more detail.
1. Headline and Trip Overview
Once travelers land on your booking page, is what they read going to keep them there or cause them to bounce off it?
To optimize booking pages for conversion, you’re going to need well-written copy for the headline and tour overview. They are front and center and essentially lay the groundwork for sparking travelers’ interest.
The headline and tour description are also ideal places to place your keywords if you’re looking to increase organic traffic to your website’s booking page.
Remember:
Use compelling headings.
Travelers should know that they have landed on the right page
Keep the overview copy simple and to the point.
Before diving into the finer details, give a brief overview of the key points so that travelers know right away what they are looking at.
Let your words paint an enticing picture – after all, travel is all about new and exciting experiences.
2. Engage Travelers With Eye-Catching Images and Video
The images and videos you use on your booking page should help travelers visualize the experience. It's a crucial part of making the sale - the content should speak volumes and get the person thinking, wow, I can see myself going on this trip.
Put in a mix of imagery, including some of the scenery, people, activities and experiences, accommodation, and so on. Make it clear on the value that you are offering.
3. Tell All By Going Into The Nitty Gritty
Potential clients will probably still contact you for extra information, but the idea is to provide them with enough of it in the first place to warrant their continued interest.
You will need to share:
- an overview of the itinerary
- trip inclusions and exclusions
- information on the different packages on offer
- details about you and your company
- reviews from previous tours and clients if you have them
It’s also a good idea to pin your tour location, or at least the main focal point of it on the map. Again, this is for visualization purposes, as well as to help clients research where they would be going.
4. Build Trust, Highlight The Hygiene and Safety Precautions For The Trip
Given the uncertainty of COVID, people understandably want to know that they are in good hands when traveling.
You can instill confidence by providing details of the measures you are taking to run your tour safely and hygienically to limit the spread of the virus.
It’s not necessary to go into every single detail here, but do provide enough information to set minds at ease.
Once a booking has been made you can send over a more thorough safety and hygiene manual to the person.
Alternatively, link to your full policy that’s published on your site from your booking page for clients to read up further.
5. Create A Seamless Booking Experience
With all the inspiration, information, and assurance they can ask for, the next step in optimizing booking pages is to provide travelers with real-time booking functionality.
Using WeTravel, you will be able to:
- display the price prominently
- give travelers a selection of booking options and add-ons
- offer real-time booking and take deposit payments
- provide them with a one-touch way to contact you directly
Final Thoughts
When travelers land on your booking page, what greets them should impress them. It gives them a great sense of your business and quite literally helps to seal the deal with bookings.
By optimizing the pages to include the features we’ve mentioned, you have a better chance to land the reservations. If you’d like to know more about WeTravel’s booking and payment solution, get in touch!
About the author
