Technology : Website development

Among websites using content management systems , Wordpress is by far the most commonly used :

Source : Web Technology Surveys that the only things that ever change are copy and photos . The creative team needs to be unshackled and competent enough to make more strategic and / or aesthetic changes to meet the needs of the business .”

Content management systems are divided into two basic categories — proprietary and open-source . Some agencies serving the hospitality industry have developed their own content management systems complete with tools geared specifically to serve a hotel ’ s needs . Other agencies use open-source CMS platforms .

The two most widely used open-source CMS platforms , WordPress and Joomla , have been widely available for years . Because they are open-source , developers worldwide can add tools , improve functionality and develop plug-ins . Due to the sheer volume of development , WordPress and Joomla have a strong following among hospitality website design agencies . The WordPress platform was originally developed as a blog-centric CMS , allowing millions of new amateur publishers to run their own blogs , and has since grown to become a CMS full of advanced website design functionality . Joomla ’ s original purpose was to support commercial website developments .

WordPress is experiencing a surge in adoption , both across the web and within the hospitality industry . According to a recent survey by Web Technology Surveys , 60 % of websites using a CMS are utilizing WordPress . “ WordPress provides our clients with a lot of important advantages when managing their website , most important being their agility to react to conditions in their market ,” Heil says . “ As an example , with WordPress our clients can create a landing page for a special promotion and push it live in a matter of minutes . That empowers hotel marketers to generate incremental results .”

Some agencies say WordPress can limit the level of technology the agency can deploy . “ We don ’ t ever want to be shackled by CMS limitations , and with Joomla we can accomplish almost anything with the full power of the PHP programming language ,” Cagle says . “ Should we need something customized , we can build it or modify an existing tool .”

In exchange for a more powerful CMS platform , though , some users have found the management interface to be too complex for the non-technical user .

Open-source content management systems offer two other key advantages for hotels — no ongoing licensing fees and increased flexibility . Should a property have a falling out with its agency , it can easily engage a new agency that is familiar with the architecture of the CMS .

However , some hoteliers are instead opting for proprietary content management systems that agencies design specifically for hotels . In these systems , individual functionality and modules are born from real-world needs of the hotel revenue manager , director of sales and marketing or social media manager while functionality that doesn ’ t apply to the hospitality industry is stripped away .

“ Our proprietary CMS was designed specifically with the hotel industry in mind ,” says Michael Waltman , co-CEO of Interactive Sites , Tempe , Arizona . “ It allows anyone on the team to manage website content after a 45-minute training session because our proprietary CMS , like most , was specifically designed to be a simple-to-use platform allowing non-technical people to perform highly technical tasks .”

Chris Jackson is president and partner and Scott van Hartesvelt is partner at hotel online marketing agency GCommerce Solutions , Park City , Utah .

60 HOTELS July / August 2014 www . hotelsmag . com