The Problem with Las Vegas High Rise Condo Hotel Websites

I'll never understand why the marketing departments of all these Las Vegas high rise condo projects hire website designers that just don't get it. Speaking as a website developer with over 6 years experience in the trade, there's only three reasons to have a website: to inform, to entertain, or to sell. That's it. Of course, most websites have a component of all three, but most of the websites for the high rises I've seen makes it hard for you to get the information that you'll need to actually buy a unit.

Take the ICON high rise condo project for example. I'm sure they spent a ton of money having their site developed - And it really is gorgeous with excellent graphic design features. But for starters, why the "Enter" button? It's obvious I want to enter or I wouldn't have come to the site. Tons of projects do this including Trump, Liberty Tower, Allure, and the Cosmopolitan. At least the Turnberry Towers and the MGM Grand Residences websites ask me legitamite questions before proceeding inward. Think about it... it's like calling someone on the phone and having the person pick up and say, "yes, it's me... press one if you'd like to talk". Of course I want to talk - that's why I called you! In web terminology, you're forcing me to make another mouse-click for absolutely no reason before I get any useful information.

The next issue is the complete overuse of Macromedia's Flash technology. Besides being tremendously "un-search engine friendly", it requires the user to download the Flash player (which in these days isn't too much of a big deal), but more importantly, it forces me to sit through these incredibly drawn out multimedia presentations before arriving at the information I want - a MENU! In fact, the ICON website forces me to download a new movie for every page in their site! What a colassal waste of time if I just want to see their amenities package.

Along the same lines, the Sandhurst website is an example of exactly what you DON'T want to do. View it, and you'll go through this elaborate sales pitch (very well done by the way) before getting to the meat of the project. What if I just want a phone number to contact them at? Of course they get by that with the clever "Skip Intro" link - which in itself is a completely ridiculous override. You're paying all this money for the multimedia introduction, then you want people to skip over it. "Oh, I just bought this brand new Jaguar, but don't look at it - let's drive the Saturn instead."

And Sandhurst isn't alone. All beautifully done, Soho Lofts, Palms Place, and Spanish View Towers are just a few more examples of the countless websites employing this "subject users to unnecessary delay times" strategy. Web developers love to pitch all this multimedia crap on their customers because it's "cool". Plus it costs more.

It just doesn't help to sell the product.

Then, each project feels the need to "out-do" the other, which includes a more elaborate website introduction or adding useless moving graphics. What they don't consider is the fact that the main purpose of their websites is not to entertain - it's to provide information for the potential customer. If you're in the movie or music business, then by all means use as much animation and multimedia as possible. But you're a condo developer - I want contact information... Now! I want to know the building amenities and floorplans... Now! I want to know prices. I want to know location... Now! I don't want to see a movie telling me you're the biggest, or best, or tallest, or whatever!

But the biggest problem with all these Flash websites is the lack of being able to provide a specific link in an email or on a website. This is huge - and it doesn't seem to bother anyone in the high rise condo hotel marketing departments. Let me give you an example. Suppose you heard that the one-bedroom unit in Trump had the best floorplan out there and you wanted to see for yourself what it looked like. If I were to direct you to that part of the website, I'd have to say "go to the Trump website, wait for the presentation to load, then click on "enter", then wait for the menu to come up, then click on "menu", then then click on "Residences", then click on "Floorplans", then click on "one bedroom" and you'll finally arrive at the information you wanted in the first place.

Whew!

Now, if you asked me the same question on a website that "get's it", such as the 17th and Vine site, I could just say "oh, here's the link: http://www.17thandvine.com/floorplans/rodeo". It doesn't get any easier than that - one click and you're there - and you could put that specific link in an email message, a link on your website, from your instant messanger, etc. With a Flash site, you can't do that. And what is it they say, time is money?

That's why I like sites such as 17th and Vine, or the Streamline Tower, or Juhl. They give you information quickly, they're easy to navigate, they load fast, and they work well with the search engines. None of these have the glitz that a Trump or a Cosmopolitan website has, but then again, if you want to be entertained, go to George Lucas' site.

Me? I want to buy a high rise condo hotel, and I don't want to wait any longer than I have to in order to get the information I need to make a purchasing decision.