The advice from Global Reviews follows its survey of six leading hotel websites, which saw Hilton remain at the top of the table for overall customer experience.
The sites were assessed against more than 500 criteria including the hotel selection process, booking, customer support, online content and tools and general site usability.
Bertie Stevenson, Global Reviews director, commented: ‘Many hotels recognise the importance of the web and spend a lot of money trying to make it as accessible as possible for customers.
‘This is the right thing for the big brands, with big budgets, as they can afford to do it well. However, if done badly, it can do more harm than good.’
He said smaller chains should ensure their website looks appealing and is easily found online, but then clearly directs visitors to phone numbers or email addresses to make bookings.
In last month’s survey, Hilton was rated the best for overall customer experience for the second consecutive year, with a score of 61%.
It was followed by Hotels.com (54%), Ibis (50%), Express by Holiday Inn (48%), Travelodge (47%) and Premier Inn (43%).
Compared to 2008, Hilton improved slightly from 59%, while Travelodge leapt from 38% and Express by Holiday Inn and Premier rose from 44% and 36% respectively.
Hotel selection and the booking process are the two categories that are most important to customers, and in these areas, Hotels.com came top, closely followed by Express by Holiday Inn.
More Hilton news from e-tid.com:
Hilton reports strong summer (18/08/2009)
Hilton continues Doubletree expansion (21/07/2009)
HHC adds mid-market extended stay brand (28/01/2009)
And website benchmarking news:
New research claims web players could do better (23/07/2009)
Expedia and Neilson top web surveys (27/03/2009)
Company stability now 'as important as price' (22/12/2008)
Quality online experience ‘leads to more sales’ (09/12/2008)
Hotel websites let down by poor navigation (25/04/2007)