This article is about a single element of the website: the enquiry form. It is not about whether the website is beautiful or whether the guest trusts it; there is other material on that. The question here is narrow and practical: which fields the form should have and what the guest should see in the second after pressing the button. These are two small decisions, and they turn out to be the place where many enquiries are lost or kept.
Every field is a cost to the guest
The guest has reached the form, so they already want to ask. From that moment on, all you do is take up their time. Every field is a small effort: working out what to write, checking whether they are allowed to leave the field empty, filling it in with a thumb on a small screen. So the good question for each field is not “would it be useful to me?” but “can I reply to the guest without it?” If you can, the field is removed or becomes optional.
Five fields that are usually enough
A hotel or guest house usually needs the following for its first reply:
- arrival date and departure date, if the guest knows them;
- number of guests and, for children, their ages, if that affects the room;
- name;
- a way to get in touch: phone or email, and if you offer both, let the guest choose;
- a free-text field for a question or request.
The free-text field is the most important one. In it the guest says what you did not think to ask: a child’s bed, early arrival, a special diet, a dog. If you replace it with a long list of tick boxes, you will get less information, not more.
What not to ask for in the first enquiry
Some things on a website only put people off, because the guest has not yet decided whether to choose you:
- the guest’s full address;
- personal identification numbers and document details;
- the reason for the trip;
- a choice of payment method;
- a confirmation up front that they have read the terms, as a mandatory tick box with no link to the terms themselves.
The details needed for check-in or an invoice are collected later, when there is a real arrangement. If you collect personal data on the website, check for your property what needs to be written next to the form and how the data is kept; this is a question for a specialist, not for the website editor.
Required or optional
The rule is simple: only the fields without which a reply is impossible are required. These are almost always the name and the way to get in touch. Dates are useful, but many guests do not know them yet, and if you make them required, some will enter random ones. It is more honest to leave them optional and ask in the reply.
Be careful with field checks too. If the phone number has to be in a single format and the form does not explain which, the guest will see a red message and give up. Accept numbers as they are written and sort them out on your side.
How to test the form
The owner is the worst tester of their own form, because they know what is expected of them. Hand the phone to someone you know who has not seen the website and tell them only: “You want to ask about two nights in August. Send an enquiry.” Watch where they hesitate. Also measure two simple things:
- how long it takes from opening the page to pressing the button;
- whether the button and the fields are fully visible when the keyboard appears.
If that person gets it wrong, a guest would get it wrong too.
What to say after sending
This is the part that is most often missing. Many websites show a short “Thank you!” or simply clear the form, and the guest is left in the dark: did the message reach anyone? A good screen after sending says three things:
- the enquiry has been received;
- it is not a reservation and does not hold the room; availability is clarified in the reply;
- when to expect a reply.
For example: “We have received your enquiry. It is not a reservation. We will reply within the working day and will then clarify availability.” If possible, the same short confirmation can also reach the guest by email, so that they have somewhere to find it later.
The time limit is an obligation
The time limit you write is a promise. If you write “within the working day”, someone has to check the enquiries every working day, including when the owner is out in the field. If you cannot guarantee that, write a longer but realistic time limit. A guest who has waited two days for a reply that was promised in a few hours is more dissatisfied than a guest who was told “within two working days” and received a reply on the second day. What happens to an enquiry that goes unanswered is covered in the article on the unanswered enquiry. And how the first reply itself should be structured is covered in the guide to the first reply to an enquiry.
A quick check of your form
Open the website on your phone and go through the form yourself:
- How many fields are there, and which of them would you remove?
- Which are required, and why?
- Can I fill it in with one hand in under a minute?
- What do I see after sending?
- Does it say that the enquiry is not a reservation, and when I will get a reply?
- Who exactly sees a new enquiry at your end, and when?
The last question is the most important. The best-arranged form does not help if the message sits in a mailbox that nobody opens.
Where ISKA Website can help
ISKA Website includes an enquiry form alongside the rest of the website’s content: rooms with photos and an optional “from” price, services, a gallery and offers. Changes are made as drafts, reviewed and published, and you can go back to a previous version. An enquiry is not a reservation and does not hold a room; the website is not an online reservation system and does not accept payment. It is offered by individual quote, with no standard price. For a general review of a small hotel’s website, see the checklist in the “Resources” section.