Redesigning Your Hotel Website for the Social MediaRevolutionSep 29, 11 | 12:03 amA case study from Thailand Faasai Resort and SpaDespite their critical business importance, most hotelwebsites fail to take advantage of the social media revolution or meet theneeds of modern wired travelers. Today more than 80 percent of travelers relyon the internet for their travel research and want a fast, multimedia,interactive experience including advice from other travelers. The owner-manager of Faasai Resort and Spa, a smalleco-resort in Southeast Thailand, Bronwen Evans recognized this need butstruggled to find local designers and developers who could develop her site inthe way she wanted. She therefore turned for assistance to a New Zealandwebsite business Core Development, that produced beautiful, innovative andclean designs and between them they redesigned the new website www.faasai.com.Bronwen's vision was to redesign the website along thelines of a news magazine so that travelers could have a rich experience ofdiscovery before they even arrived. In line with best practices, they decidedthe hotel website should have these features: Fully integrated with social media - reviews fromTripAdvisor, interactive Google Map, Facebook comments, YouTube videos, plus ahost of other social media sharing buttons. Optimised for search engines - simple navigation,dynamic and rich content, internal and external links, image-rich, withembedded captions, a Google site map, meta tag page descriptions Call to action - a link to the booking engineprominently displayed on the home page and room pages Mobile-friendly - displaying well on any kind of mobiledevice or any kind of browser with simple navigation Rich multi-media experience - prominently displayedvideos, 360 virtual tour plus extensive gallery of high quality photos Calendar of events and local highlights - up-to-dateinformation about the local area and upcoming events Blog and photo gallery - shared stories about theactivities at the resort and guests continually updated through the contentmanagement system Brand values - care for nature, responsible tourism andfriendliness and warmthThe independent resort is owned and managed by a Thai NewZealand couple, Surin Laopha and Bronwen Evans. Surin had a traditional countrychildhood in a village in the Northeast of Thailand and studied and practicedtraditional Thai massage and healing at Wat Po, the elite school of Thaimassage in Bangkok. Bronwen is a former Radio New Zealand broadcaster who alsoworks as an advisor to a major Thai corporation. The resort reflects New Zealand tourismstandards such as a high level of environmental protection, participation andlearning activities for guests and interactive experience of nature. On theThai side there is a chance to experience the real Thailand in an unspoiledfishing village community, fun, a genuine love for guests and Buddhisttolerance and patience."Since we built our old website there have been manyimportant changes at the resort including buying and preserving a nearbywetlands nature sanctuary and developing our integrated edible forestgarden," said Bronwen. "The website now reflects these things, ourlove of nature and some of the character of our staff and guests."Bronwen's tips for other hoteliers planning to updatetheir website is they should not to try to do everything on their own site butintegrate them with specialist sites and social media - for example the Faasaiwebsite outsources the map