From the homepage to individual room pages and regional attractions guides, hospitality sites can quickly scale to hundreds or thousands of pages. While deep content keeps visitors engaged, manual updates become extremely cumbersome over time. A content management system (CMS) empowers owners to publish pages in bulk while automating much of the search engine optimization (SEO).
Creatives On Call has over 1,300 hospitality experts who understand the nuances of the industry and can help you implement a CMS that keeps you up-to-date with the fast pace of your competition. In addition to CMS experts, we partner with seasoned hospitality copywriters, social media professionals and more, who work together to deliver high-performing content strategies and systems that set your business apart and resonate with visitors.
Now, let’s explore the importance of a CMS in hospitality and how it can help your business stay organized and competitive.
Understanding the Hotel Content Management System
A content management system is a software application used to create, manage and modify content on a website without the need for specialized technical knowledge.
At a time when website content is central to a company’s customer engagement and acquisition strategy, a CMS has become essential. CMSs typically aim to avoid the need for hand-coding but may support it for specific elements or entire pages. At Creatives On Call, we work with hospitality experts who can help implement and manage a CMS for your business to ensure your team stays organized and your content stays up to date.
Functionality and Key Features of a CMS
The functionality of a content management system can be organized into several key features. These include but are not limited to:
- Workflow management: Workflow management ensures that the content follows a regular and streamlined process from creation to publication.
- Version control: Version control allows the system to track and manage changes to a document, which facilitates easy retrieval of any specific version.
- Content repository: This element serves as a database storing all company content in one place, which improves accessibility.
Importance of a CMS in Hospitality
Whether you’ve tried to implement a hotel CMS before or are looking for experts like Creatives On Call to help, there are so many reasons to integrate this system into your business.
Personalizing Content Experiences for Different Audiences
Savvy systems surface visitor analytics to inform content strategies targeting leisure guests, event planners, international travelers and other niches. Personalized site versions, triggered emails and dynamic page layouts deliver a tailored brand experience matching specific interests. In an industry where brands often struggle to distinguish themselves, offering personalized experiences is a game changer.
Integrations With Booking Systems, Email and Operational Tools
Instead of data silos, a unified hotel CMS freely exchanges information between core platforms like reservation engines, email service providers and destination management systems. Automated handoffs between apps create seamless guest experiences while optimizing internal workflows.
Improving SEO Through Enhanced Metadata Tagging
CMS architectures centralize page titles, meta descriptions, alt text, headings and other metadata to improve context for search engines. Optimized tagging helps pages gain visibility for commercial and long-tail keyword searches related to the property. In addition to content management experts, Creatives On Call can also gather SEO experts to help your team get the most out of your CMS.
Must-Have CMS Features for Hospitality Sites
Optimized content management software for the hospitality industry contains several nonnegotiable elements to synchronize information across touchpoints:
- Dynamic page layouts and themes: Display room types, amenities and packages in visually engaging layouts enhanced by themes with travel appeal. Allow nondevelopers to swap modular content blocks on pages without coding.
- Showcased rooms and property details: Visually highlight the most appealing areas of the resort or hotel with photo galleries and special callouts. Pull availability automatically from reservation systems and dynamically update promotional details.
- Optimized booking funnels: Make room selection, amenities choices and package add-ons intuitive before handing off to the secure reservation engine using application programming interface (API) integrations. Reduce guest friction during transactions.
- Responsive design: Serve a mobile-friendly version of critical booking pages to allow completion on smartphones. Ensure viewing consistency whether visitors research the property via desktop, tablet or other devices.
- Social media integration: Build brand buzz by publishing fresh blog posts across your social accounts automatically. Curate visually engaging galleries that showcase stunning views and amenities for guests to share.
Getting Full Value From Your Hospitality CMS
Once a content management system is implemented, improving efficiency and collaboration across teams takes some planning.
Defining Workflows and User Roles
Map approval chains between content creators, managers and publishers based on responsibilities. Control permissions by user accounts and content types to prevent unintended changes from going live.
Configuring Automated Emails and Landing Pages
Trigger personalized welcome emails when bookings are made or pre-arrival confirmations by integrating your hotel CMS with marketing automation tools. Populate instantly with guest data.
Monitoring Performance Data To Prioritize Enhancements
Lean on visitor metrics to guide where more imagery, promotional text and calls-to-action (CTAs) can optimize conversion performance. Let data inform better layouts and content.
Working With CMS Experts
Partner with marketing and creative experts, like the Creatives On Call team, to seek opportunities for enhancing your CMS and using this tool to its full potential. When combined with marketing tactics like social media promotion and copywriting, your hotel CMS can deliver an exceptional guest experience.
Connect With Creatives On Call Today
As an industry-leading marketing and creative consultancy, Creatives On Call specializes in helping businesses solve marketing and communications challenges. From expertise in hotel data analytics to hospitality UI/UX design, our team has a deep understanding of the hospitality industry and can use this experience to take your business to the next level.
While we believe digital marketing should be an ongoing, coordinated effort, Creatives on Call can also connect you with content management experts for single projects or campaigns. Or we can build your dream team for hospitality marketing.
Wherever you are in your marketing journey, we’re here to meet you and get to work. Contact us today to get started.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best CMS for a hotel website?
The most effective hotel CMS solutions balance ease of use with hospitality-specific features like glossaries for room types, drag-and-drop page builders, and integrations with booking engines and property management systems. They optimize for conversions over complex site builds.
What is a management system in the hospitality industry?
A management system in the hospitality industry refers to the policies, procedures and tools that hotels and other hospitality businesses put in place to manage daily operations and processes efficiently. These systems help hospitality managers oversee departments, track metrics, comply with regulations and work to improve the guest experience.
