It’s an incredible exercise in frustration, isn’t it? Spend five minutes clicking through the average high-end hotel website and you’ll find yourself in a digital archaeological dig. We’ve become masters at the art of the “buried treasure,” except in this case, the treasure is our own revenue-generating products.
I’m talking about the things that actually rounds out the P&L—the dining, the spa, the event spaces, the experiences. If you want a room, the “Book Now” button follows you around like a persistent shadow, front and center, practically begging for a credit card. But anything else? You’re diving multiple clicks deep, squinting at tiny footer links or hunting through vague “Amenities” tabs just to find out if you can actually spend money with them. It’s as if we’re embarrassed to admit we sell anything other than a mattress and a pillow.
This isn’t just a UX oversight; it’s a symptom of how deeply ingrained the “heads in beds” mentality is in our industry’s collective psyche. We’ve spent twenty years optimizing the room sale to the point of obsession, while treating our other revenue centers like the red-headed stepchildren of the digital storefront. We talk a big game about “total revenue management” and “ancillary spend,” yet our websites tell a completely different story.
Is it any wonder the customer goes elsewhere? If I have to go through a digital labyrinth just to book a table at the signature restaurant or reserve a cabana, I’m probably just going to OpenTable or looking for a local alternative. We’re literally making it difficult for the customer to give us their money.
It’s time for a serious industry re-education. We need to stop treating our websites like digital brochures for real estate and start treating them like the multi-departmental commerce engines they ought to be. If it’s a product and it’s for sale, it needs a seat at the high table—front, center, and clickable. We can’t keep burying the lead and then wondering why our non-room spend is lagging.
Life is so tech. But our digital sales strategy? Still stuck in the basement.
