Nothing matters as much to a hotel or resort than its website. Not TripAdvisor, powerful as it is. Not the big OTAs. Not travel agents. The website is where the prospective guest forms his/her opinions about the property. It's where they make decisions about where to book. Which raises the question: why are so many hotel websites dreadful?

Know this: a few simple fixes will give you the website you want and need.

Where do many hotel/resort websites go horribly wrong? One word: hoarders. Whoever designs them practices a kind of digital hoarding that throws everything on the page, probably out of fear of leaving some selling point out. But the upshot is visual and textual clutter. Feature sentences such as: "Whether you like golf or boating or pastoral settings or wine or beer or" – well, you get the point. That is verbal drift that leaves a reader confused, exhausted and bored.

What is the cure? Five steps will get you there.

*Rigorously focus on one message. If you believe you are the best boutique in Phoenix, say it, loud and clear. Get the big point across. Use tabs to highlight various offerings - gourmet dining, spa, cocktails, art - but put the primacy on the landing page on the big message you want to get across.

Research shows that the majority of viewers will leave your site within 15 seconds. That's fast. Make your point, make it clearly. That way even the drop ins know the score.

What about those who want more info? That's where the tabs come in – and, by the way, always have third parties test the site for ease of navigation. Give them some tasks - how does a guest book a spa appointment? - and ask them to keep track of time. If it takes more than 10 seconds to find the answer, the navigation is a fail. Make it more intuitive.

*Use fresh, unstaged photography. Evidence mounts that prospective guests are turned off by photography that reeks of salesmanship and marketing. Do not use models - at least don't use models that look like models. This is how to drive website visitors away.

Go for a casual, here and in the moment look for the website. Yes, you want great photos - how better to sell hotels and resorts? But the trick is using art that seems unaffected. Use photos that would look at home on Instagram - and, by the way, encourage people to use them in posts on Instagram, with attribution back to the resort of course.

When you see your art popping up on Instagram and Pinterest, you know you have won this fight.

* Use scrupulously truthful language, free of hyperbole. Tell it like Hemingway would. Be sparing in using adverbs and adjectives.

I cringe when I read: "a perfect luxury getaway," said of a modest resort with no honest claim to luxury.

"A luxury setting like no other." Sure, right. (Not.)

Lies drive prospects away. Don't let Joe Isuzu write your ad copy.

*Always test a website on mobile: small screens rule today especially in travel. In just the past year, the mobile share of bookings has doubled and now one in about four happens via a mobile device. That number will only go up.

I want to scream when I see DoSMs and hotel marketers testing sites on 27" screens. Just stop it. Before pronouncing any site done, be sure it looks sharp on mobile.

*Build in easy access to social feeds, especially TripAdvisor and Facebook. Accept reality: before they actually click book now, the vast majority of prospects will drop in for a skim of TripAdvisor reviews, many will look at the property's Facebook page. Make it easy. Build in visible buttons that with one click take the guest to TripAdvisor or to Facebook or, at your option, Twitter or Instagram.

If you are especially proud of your TripAdvisor reviews - and you should be - stream a sampling on your site. Four Seasons of course famously does this - giving TripAdvisor reviews a prime place on a hotel's web page - and bravo to them.

But that's not mandatory. What is mandatory is making it close to effortless for the guest to read the social buzz.

Add the steps up and they are simple.

One message.

Unstaged photography.

Write lean in the Hemingway style.

Go mobile.

Live social.

Take just those five steps and your website will be transformed into a sparkling gem.

Babs Harrison
Babs Harrison + Partners
Babs Harrison + Partners