When somebody walks into the front lobby, I assume your staff welcomes them. After all, that is what hospitality is about: making your guest feel welcome. Now, when a potential guest visits your website your staff does not even notice them. Why not say 'Hello, can I help you?'

IKEA does this, and so do many other companies but strangely this practice seems absent in the hospitality industry. In fact, our industry seems to be focused on how we can move away from that personal welcome and towards how we can increase the number internet transactions. Year after year highly esteemed research reports give us a progress report on the percentages of this pursuit. This year in the US it looks like we have passed the tipping point. Meanwhile, the web in general is becoming more personal, and VOIP like Skype is gaining significantly in popularity.

It's time to make our websites reflect why we are in this industry; let's make them hospitable. Instant Messaging (IM) is not just for kids, it is a tool that can be used to let your customer know you care about them, instantaneously! IKEA uses it to help their customers with any questions as they browse their website, and brokers on Wall Street use it to give immediate advice as the market fluctuations stir emotions in their clients. I believe we can (and should) do the same. In the last two years we have seen hotels increase their direct sales and I believe this type of personal attention can be the catalyst to change the traditional distribution model forever. By now I hope I have at least made you curious as to how one can make their site more personal and more hospitable by reaching out to your website’s visitors in real time.

The most obvious solution would be to encourage them to call you if they have questions . Not just by displaying your phone number , but to do this with the simplicity of a click. Visitors that use Skype (there are 10’s of millions of them) could click a “Skype Me” button that can easily be routed to your front desk or call center via “Skype In”. Additionally your website's visitors should be able to send an instant message requesting a call back by simply entering their phone number. This instant “call back” message could be routed directly to your phone system or mobile phone as a SMS message.

Secondly, and the more comprehensive solution, would be to use an instant message service by which you can chat with you website visitor in real time. There are numerous solutions out there and many have advanced features that would allow you to direct your visitor through the content of your website. Some of these IM / “live support” solutions even allow you to see what they have been looking at since they entered your site, and most allow you to route the request to the appropriate location. If you have a (multi lingual) call center this can be especially useful. Furthermore think of the data (feedback) that you will be collecting which you can then use to improve your website or use in your CRM system .

If you have any questions, comments or you would just like to share that your hotel already has a “hospitable website” like this , I would love to hear from you.