ST. PAUL, Minn. — Resorts and Lodges (www.resortsandlodges.com), a leading niche portal Web site providing advertising for the hospitality and travel industry, has received a WebAward for excellence in Web site design and development from the Web Marketing Association (WMA). The company was chosen from among 2,400 entries from more than 40 countries during the WMA’s annual WebAward competition.
The company’s redesigned site was awarded the “Standard of Excellence” in the competition’s Hotel/Lodging/Travel category. The redesign, launched in late 2006, showcases the diverse features and benefits of approximately 10,000 resort and lodge properties worldwide. Focusing on an enhanced user experience and including the development of completely new front- and back-end functionality, the site update maximizes conversions and provides sophisticated tracking for the company’s leisure advertising clientele.
“We are extremely proud to have our design and development work recognized internationally,” said Ryan Bailey, Vice President of ResortsandLodges. “Our goal was to establish ResortsandLodges.com as a premiere vacation portal, built on best practices for conversion. We felt the best way to do that was by taking the traveler through a branded ‘journey’ presented through rich media, to enhance and even transform their affinity with our advertisers.”
The new design features an interactive map which allows online customers to quickly and easily explore vacation destinations and lodging. In addition, it highlights each resort or lodge property through a mix of unique content developed through individual client interviews, colorful photography, and interactive video. A convenient search tool allows visitors to filter properties by resort type, accommodation type, activity type, amenity type and price range.
In addition to an enhanced traveler experience, the Web site redesign also included the development of sophisticated tracking for the company’s resort and lodge advertising clientele. Advertisers can now view performance statistics for click-through rates; page impressions, email inquiries and phone activity. The phone calls appear as visual data and are recorded as voice data, making it simple for a client to assess the frequency of conversions over the phone. Much of this development has never been implemented on any other travel-related Web site.
“More than ever before, Resorts and Lodges allows advertisers to truly track the performance of their campaigns,” said Bailey. “Through sophisticated data analytics, they can continually optimize their campaigns and manage the creative approach for extraordinary results.”
About ResortsandLodges
Headquartered in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, ResortsandLodges is owned and operated by Travelnet Solutions, Inc. (www.travelnetsolutions.com), a leader in providing complete and dynamic solutions to the hospitality and travel industry. The company’s portfolio of brands includes ResortsandLodges.com, ParksandCampgrounds.com, RezTracker.com and Red Rock Resort.
[tags]advertising for the hospitality and travel industry, Web Marketing Association WebAward, ResortsandLodges niche portal Web site, Ryan Bailey[/tags]
