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Messaging – A Sonic Boom in Hospitality Industry

Within the past year, hotel brands have made headlines for their adoption of various messaging channels, as well as for the development of their own messaging systems.

Consumers have taken quickly to messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Viber and others, on top of their existing SMS abilities. Hotels are realizing a great opportunity to engage and provide service to their guests by following suit.

Both Hyatt and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) use Facebook Messenger as part of their messaging strategies. Starwood EAME plans to add it as well.

Hyatt was also the first hotel chain to announce at the end of 2015 they are testing Facebook’s new “Businesses on Messenger” tool for guest service.

Hyatt has also been using Asian app WeChat to connect with the Chinese market. Shangri-La uses WeChat for content marketing campaigns.

Starwood has experimented with WhatsApp, as well as with Blackberry Messenger.

Other brands have added messaging functionality to their existing apps. Marriott International is testing this out, and it’s something Hilton plans to add to its app next year.

With their Lucy app, Virgin hotels let guests not only message hotel staff but also communicate with other guests, too.

Meanwhile, Kayak has taken the approach of launching a chatbot on the Facebook Messenger Platform.

How so?

The real-time, immediate and personal nature of messaging is part of what makes it such a compelling engagement channel for hotels. But messaging as a medium also has other characteristics that make it well-suited to guest engagement. It’s conversational, much like traditional interaction between guests and staff.

It’s also threaded and tied to an identity, which means context is retained. Staff can scroll through previous exchanges with a guest to recall preferences and previous requests. And, unlike phone calls and in-person communication, conversations in the form of messages between the guest and a hotel represent data that can, for the first time, be analyzed individually and in aggregate.

Messaging can help hotels improve guest satisfaction, by giving hotels the opportunity to take advantage of every request, suggestion, concern or compliment from guests. Since implementing messaging, Hyatt has enjoyed improved customer service ratings and higher net promoter scores. It can also – for the time being – still serve as a valuable differentiator between hotels and their competitors.

Instead of having to make calls to the front desk, hotels can use messaging as a means to proactively communicate with their guests, instead of simply reacting.

Messenger app can help hotels with guest recovery, by reducing comps and improving loyalty through engaging guests and resolving their concerns during their stay.

Messaging can help hotels improve revenue by actively engaging more guests throughout their journey and by driving more revenue through mobile marketing, loyalty programs and up-sell and cross-sell opportunities. Starwood, for example, has seen clear ROI from its messenger app. Since launch, revenue is up thanks partly to a rise in spend at on-property services, the company says.

 

wordpress-facebook-messenger

Facebook Messenger for WordPress & PHP

Top 10 Excellent Hotel WordPress Themes 2016

A business website not only serves as an online brand identity but also helps in promoting the business.

If you are yet to touch the huge potential of online visibility, then it’s the right time to do so.

Get your hotels and services posted online!

Your investment is certain to turn a profit.

Here below are the most promising WordPress Themes we pick to make your plan come true.

 


BOOK YOUR TRAVEL

Book Your Travel is a responsive WordPress theme which is practical and vivid for your hotel.

 

book-your-travel--hotel-wordpress-theme

Book Your Travel $49

With pixel perfect design, it looks and functions beautifully. By using Content Customizer, you can easily manage your reservation, pricing, room types, occupancy, and other tours or vehicle rental services. Clean and SEO-optimized code always keep the contents of your page indexed.

A brilliant choice for your start-up, I must say.

Fantastic features:

  • WooCommerce integration
  • Editable Inquiry & Booking Forms
  • Payment ready (PayPal, direct bank transfer, cheque payment and COD)
  • Useful custom widgets
  • Slider Revolution included
  • Translation & WMPL ready
  • Designated front-end area for users

 

HOTEL MASTER

 

hotel-master-hotel-wordpress-theme

Hotel Master $59

Hotel Master is smartly coded to display your hotel and resort in the most sophisticated way. This unique WordPress theme has every essential feature that makes your homepage stand out from the crowd. Fully integrated the best Room Booking System, plus included sliders, video, services, and attraction post types, it is ideal for your luxury hospitality brand. This first impression ensures that any website visitors would love to stay at your property.

Main features:

  • Impressive Room Booking System
  • Paypal payment support
  • Easy to manage services and facilities
  • GoodLayer Page Builder
  • WooCommerce ready
  • WPML fully support

 

LEISURE

 

leisure-hotel-wordpress-theme

Leisure $59

This WordPress theme is developed by committed experienced designers so that it not only brings relaxation to page visitors but also helps you leisurely create visually stunning pages in the shortest amount of time. With a matter of clicks, you can build any details you intend for your website thanks to Drag-n-drop Builder and all the other dedicated features they offer. You’ll definitely love its speed optimization, social sharing integration as well as fast and easy deployment.

Key features:

  • Fully Compatible with Retina Display
  • 100% responsive and fluid
  • Complete Customization
  • Visual Composer
  • Slider Revolution
  • NinjaForms plugin

 

HOLIDAY

Created specifically for hotels, motels, resort & spa,

Holiday WordPress theme is here to display the brightest side of your accommodation and facilities.

holiday-hotel-wordpress-theme

Holiday $64

An all-encompassing mega menu setup provides for a comprehensive navigation experience that lets you get your showcase online, let your words be heard and your niche become well-known. The Booking System is designed particularly for the most convenient management you can ever imagine.

Check these bright features out:

  • Internal Booking System
  • Back End Room Search Filter
  • Ultimate Branding Options
  • 12 Page Templates
  • 500+ Google Fonts
  • Video Support on all sliders (Youtube, Vimeo, Self-hosted)
  • Short-code Generator (Build Short-codes easily using our UI)

 

ANCHOR INN

 

anchor-inn--hotel-wordpress-theme

Anchor Inn $49

Anchor Inn comes equipped with easy-to-customize and rich-feature hotel theme. A wonderful gallery hallmark ensures that your rooms and facilities are shown beautifully at high resolution. It is overflowing with advanced features and customizable booking form that promise your business a major boost in the coming time.

Features:

  • Full Responsive Layout
  • Unlimited Color Schemes
  • Translation ready
  • Flickr Widget ready
  • Cross-browser compatibility

 

LAMBDA

Designed to suit the needs of a multitude of business, but Lambda is

particularly well-suited for hotels, resort & spa, and other leisure activities.

lambda-hotel-wordpress-theme

Lambda $59

Excellent in every aspect, this theme got top quality in Code, Design, Customization, and Documentation. With this comprehensive assistance, you got the right tool to make a statement about your luxury hotel brand. If you are an entrepreneur with a big vision looking for a theme that you won’t grow out of quickly, you should consider this a Must.

Don’t miss out these pristine features:

  • One-click Demo Installation
  • 100+ Customizable Bootstrap Options
  • Visual Composer
  • Live Customization
  • UltraSpeed
  • 5-star Solid Support

 

SOHO HOTEL

 

soho-hotel-wordpress-theme

Soho $59

Tailored for hotel management and any other kind of accommodation which requires a booking system, Soho Hotel WordPress theme is certain to attract your potential customers. This is enhanced with every essential criterion to help you control availability, room rates, payment, and customers’ contacts. Its practical layouts, stable functions and intuitive way of operation are what you might as well enjoy.

Core features:

  • Smart Room Booking System
  • Customizable Styles
  • Paypal payment
  • Room Availability Checker
  • Events and Testimonials
  • Translation Ready

 

AVADA

 

avada-hotel-wordpress-theme

Avada $59

We are not here to explain what makes Avada the #1 selling theme for the last several years, but to get astounded at how superb it is created. Born as a multi-purpose WordPress theme, yet it is improved intelligently to cater your business of hotels, hostels, apartments, or resorts. Avada’s top-notch quality is really beyond telling. You are the one to feel how it rocks, how handy it is for someone from beginner to advanced build impressive responsive pages, how perfect it works, and how effective it is to attract traffic to your showcase.

Get it, and own these:

  • Fusion Builder
  • One-page Parallax
  • Powerful Admin Panel
  • Full Customizable
  • Shortcode Generator
  • WooCommerce, bbPress, Events Calendar integrated
  • Built-in Mega-menu

 

BeTHEME

Another brilliant multi-purpose WordPress theme

comes powered with perfect functionalities, especially for hotel and resort & spa.

BeTheme-hotel-wordpress-theme

BeTheme $59

Tons of robust features are ready-made for you, so you can simply define your business style and quality without touching a single line of codes. Upon using  hotel-dedicated BeTheme version, it ensures your 100% satisfaction from how it looks to how “wow” it runs.

Core features:

  • One-click Demo Installation
  • Powerful Admin Panel
  • Full Customizable
  • Shortcode Generator
  • One Scroll Page
  • Unlimited Menu
  • Layouts Configurator
  • SEO Compatibility
  • Built-in Translator

 

HOTEC

 

hotec-hotel-wordpress-theme

Hotec $59

Hotec brings you a perfect combination of sleek layouts, smart page builder and premium resources of optimization, widgets, and plugins. With this powerful WordPress theme for hotel, you are going to bring your business to a whole new level. You can toggle between layout variations, pick the color scheme and customize unlimitedly to achieve the look you want to impress page surfers.

Try these features:

  • Full-width Layout
  • 4 Homepage Demo
  • Working Contact Form
  • Built on SmoothTheme Framework
  • Multimedia Post
  • Events Calendar