Your booking engine is frequently the first impression guests – or rather, potential guests – have of your hotel. How can you make the best first impression possible so lookers become bookers?

First, make sure that the rates and descriptions you give to booking engines are accurate and complete. Your rate should include a fairly comprehensive explanation of everything included for that price, and make sure that your refund and deposit policies are clear and unambiguous. Trying to appear more generous or affordable than is actual, leads to a lot of negative social media you don’t need.

Hospitality pro J. Thomas Coulthurst recommends streamlining the offerings to avoid confusing or overburdening people, since most people will simply give up if they can’t wade through all the options. He suggests offering no more than ten package options and showing only rates that are actually available at the time.

If you’re offering promotional rates or packages, make sure these are featured prominently and clearly not only on the front page of your site, but on the page where somebody would go to actually book. Literally, make them unmissable.

Look good! Put your best foot forward! Have there been significant upgrades since the last set of pictures were taken? Take new ones and make your property as appealing as possible. If it’s more the location than your property itself that’s the selling point, make sure people get an eyeful of the location.

As Little Hotelier notes, “A booking engine that integrates with your channel manager ensures that your room inventory across all your online channels is automatically updated.

Be consistent. When people go from your site to the booking engine, they should feel they’re having a consistent experience – the idea is to maintain the same style across platforms without being repetitive.

Be sure people know what amenities are included with the rooms. Of course you’re going to feature those that set you apart from the competition, right?

Many issues with the booking engine are settled with the selection of a booking engine in the first place. You’ll want one that can handle the functions you need – for the right price you can find one that does everything you want. If you’re having trouble with your current engine, look around. There are many other options available.

Your booking engine is where people turn from browsers into customers, so make it as much of a sales tool as possible.