The hotel description arms race…… is it time for a truce?

One common page within hotel booking websites is the product description page. On this page you will nearly always find:

• Hotel name
• Address (and perhaps even a flag on a map)
• Star rating (or other company rating mechanism)
• Facilities (such as gym, pool etc)
• A textual description - normally a couple of paragraphs 

Here is Opodo.com’s page for example…..

Then, you may also get additional detail such as:

• Photo or photos (external shot, room shot, shot of nearby amenities such as a beach or whatever)
• 360 degree image
• Video
• Independent reviews or collated customer feedback from the previous season
• Resort / city information

There will also be links to see room and rate details etc.

On the face of it…. all this great content is wonderful for consumers. If you ask a consumer whether they appreciate this level of content they are going to say that they want more detail, more photos, more reviews, more video, more images….

However, this content comes at a cost.

An example ”arms race” - the TV description
Take the humble television. Every hotel room has one so it is hardly worth mentioning in the description is it?

But you do - and so you have put on your website within your hotel descriptions ”Television“. Great. That is sufficient isn’t it….. No - because then a competitor goes and puts “Colour television“ (and immediately you have your first problem - should you call it color television or colour television….. and should this change depending upon the marketplace the description is being used in?)

OK - none of your customers are really going to think that your television is black and white, are they? But just to be on the safe side, you go and call your television a “Colour television“…..

The original website, noticing your change in your description thinks….. ah - we can go better than this - lets describe our TV as “Colour television with Satellite channels“…… That will do it.

Er…. no - another website goes and describes their TV as “Colour television with British channels and UK football“…. That will get people booking! (especially if you can get the description to change depending upon marketplace - as you don’t want to tell people in the US about UK football….)

As you can see, what we have here is a classic arms race.

What is wrong with an arms race?
On the humble TV description this may not cost to much to compete with this escalating arms race (unless you have to go and buy more TVs!)….. so far though this has just been small arms fire. The next step is rocket launchers and maybe even stronger weapons. At that stage it is not safe being on either side of the war (unless you are an arms dealer).

So - what are the next ”weapons”? Well the next battlefield will be images and video….. what happens when you add video to your website….? Your competitor will add video to their website. What happens if you add detailed room images for every rate and room type? Your competitor will do the same.

Does this content aid booking conversion?
I can’t put my hand on the academic paper right now…. but I remember reading some research that said that consumers, where faced with products and suppliers that can’t be differentiated easily…. will end up making purchase decisions based on aspects that you as an expert supplier would not believe would be used. So yes, this content and how it is described will make a difference.  

The academic paper suggested only listing features and amenities that you really want consumers to make purchase decisions on….. and leave the others out… (If anyone can remember the reference for this paper, please add to the comments below - it was out about 5 years ago)

Who has benefited from this escalation?

• You may have benefited - If you have managed to get one step ahead of a competitor. You will retain that benefit as long as you retain the advantage. Maybe you can convince yourself there is a return on investment….. maybe you can’t but you spend the money anyway after all video is the next big thing right? (and you wouldn’t want to be seen as old fashioned)
• The consumer may have benefited as they are better informed and trust your brand a little more. However all the costs of these technology developments and content sourcing will cost significant money - and will have to be spent by each website. Therefore not only will this have an upward impact on prices (as this investment must be recouped somehow) but smaller websites (who can’t compete with this arms race) will become less competitive…. and probably be merged with larger websites. This double whammy of reduced choice and increased prices will not help the consumer.
• The technology supplier (or arms dealer) will have benefited - as they will sell you a system to sort all of this out. However if they sell the same system to all your competitors that is hardly an advantage is it.
• The hotelier won’t have benefited - It will add massive pressure to manage a growing portfolio of images, videos etc…. as each time you get a refit all the imagery will need to be redone. If all websites are looking for competitive differentiation within the product description page (which is where the natural end game is for this arms race) - then you will need to support many many different image and video formats. A nightmare.

I don’t really expect anyone to hold back on the hotel description arms race. However I do wonder where this is all going to end. In history very few arms races have ended without any casualties. In this particular war however arms dealers are not just supplying arms (or software and solutions) but also advising all sides in the conflict to buy more weapons.

One thing for sure - the consumer will lose out in the long term….. but as mentioned before - the consumer, when asked, will want more content not less….

Final thought - I am also an arms dealer - and currently working with a number of clients - one of whom is actively updating their product description page to add more content!

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