How To Create A Hotel Website: What Features Do You Really Need?
Hotel website designs really do vary. I’ve seen some truly wild flash animations, slow-loading background video, complicated templates… Some of this stuff looks cool, but does it actually help your property get direct bookings?
I can’t overstate the importance of a well-designed hotel website.
But you need to have a balance of form AND function.
OTA commission fees range anywhere from 15-30%. If you want to increase direct bookings, you have to have your own website. Simple, right?
Well, there’s a bit more to it than that. “If you build it, they will come,” might’ve worked in Field of Dreams, but friend, this is the real world. Folks aren’t going to magically stumble onto your hotel website, just because you built one. And once they’re on it, there’s also no guarantee they’ll book direct.
So how do you get them there? How do you get them to stick around, instead of clicking away to their favorite OTA? And importantly, how do you get them to make that direct booking? Good design doesn’t mean a ton of bells and whistles.
The hotel website examples I include below prove that sometimes, less is more!
Prefer to watch? Check out the video version below!
How do I create a website for a hotel?
There are really only two ways to build a hotel website: DIY or hire a professional.
I strongly recommend the latter. So before we get into the different features you need, let me quickly explain your options.
There are all sorts of reasons you might want to DIY your hotel website — budget, I’m guessing, would be #1.
Now… I don’t mean to discourage intrepid hoteliers from getting into the weeds and maybe learning a (valuable!) new skill…
Today’s drag-and-drop website builders are powerful, but they have their limitations.
As I walk you through the most important hotel website requirements, you’ll start to realize that the DIY route is not the best use of your valuable time or resources.
Yes, it’s possible to put a good-looking site together yourself using a hotel website builder like Squarespace or Wix.
But even the most capable, web-savvy hotel business owner can end up spending hours or even DAYS laboring every little detail, Googling HTML and trying to “hack” together the different features you need…
Or… you know… don’t! Save yourself the headache and hire a professional.
So, what features will you ask for? What should you make sure your developer is doing, right from the start? What are the must-haves and what’s just “nice to have”? Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.
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Responsive design
Great photography
Speed
Direct booking engine
Lead capture
COVID-19 info page
Consistent branding
Social proof
Useful, relevant content
Tracking and analytics
SEO functionality
A hotel blog (not required, but nice to have!)
Live chat (also nice to have!)
I’ll go over each of these requirements in more detail — and explain the two hotel website features I think are valuable, though not always necessary.
Must-have hotel website features — these are non-negotiable!
1. Responsive Design
Long gone are the days when hotels could get away with a website that wasn’t mobile-friendly.
Research shows that more and more consumers are using multiple devices to research, plan, and book their travels.
But what does it mean to have “responsive” design?
Responsive design is an approach to web design that renders the site into the best format based on the screen size or device being used.
Are you viewing this blog post on your phone?
You’ll notice that my site’s navigation is condensed and hidden behind a simple menu folder up at the top. You also don’t have to pinch and zoom in on the text, because the font size has adjusted to fit the screen.
How about on desktop?
To see what I mean, use your cursor to hover over the left edge of the screen. You’ll see an arrow symbol (←→) appear. Click and drag the browser to the right and you’ll see that the page content automatically adjusts to fit the new screen size.
Neat, eh? This, my friend, is responsive design. It’s an essential part of user experience — and your hotel website needs it.
2. Great Photography
High-quality images are an essential part of any hotel website design. It’s simple: customers want to know what it is they’re paying for.
Hotel photography is often a major investment, I know. But it really is one of your most important assets, so if yours needs to be redone, add it to your hotel marketing budget ASAP.
Your photography won’t just be living on your hotel website, by the way.
If you need help getting the budget, remind the powers-that-be that you also need photos for sales collateral and social media strategy, as well as third-party listings and the GGS (that’s the Global Distribution System).
Whether you’re opening a new hotel or just finished a renovation, it doesn’t hurt to revisit your images.
Here’s a quick hotel photography shot list to reference:
Front Exterior - aim for the most attractive angle(s), and get a mix of daytime, sunset/dusk, and night
Hotel Lobby - with and without front desk colleagues
Rooms - shoot every room category, if possible. Get a “hero” shot showing the full space, as well as details like the view, work area, and bedside. Don’t forget the bathrooms!
Meetings - aim to showcase the flexibility of your meeting rooms by setting up different configurations
Weddings & Events - if weddings and social events are part of your business strategy, you need a selection of supporting images. In this category, styled shots work best. You may want to hire models and dedicate time/budget for a separate photoshoot. Another option is to engage a past client (and their photographer), and ask if you can use the professional photos from a real wedding at your property.
Dining - at minimum, aim for a few wide “hero” shots of your F&B outlets and some attractive shots of your standard menu offerings. You may want to also get an appealing photo of your in-room dining offering.
Spa - if you have a spa, grab some “hero” shots and some detail photos of specific offerings like the massage area, beauty treatments, or sauna.
Pool - resort amenities like a pool or beach access are particularly great to shoot from above with a drone!
Other Amenities - this list could go on! The important thing is to capture what makes your property unique and attractive to potential guests.
With hotel photography, more variety is better. Guests want to be able to picture themselves at your property!
Make sure your hotel marketing budget covers photography. You need to have those “hero” shots at a minimum, but try to get more lifestyle images and detail shots if possible.
HOTEL WEBSITE DESIGN EXAMPLE: BELMOND
The Belmond group has absolutely nailed their hotel website design, including this example from The Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town.
Major props to their photographer for capturing the beautiful “hero” shot above. I love the iconic pink paint set against the backdrop of Table Mountain.
And of course, it’s responsive and looks just as good on mobile.
3. Speed
Speaking of high-quality images, they can really slow down your site if you let them.
How often have you landed on a website that took ages to load? Modern attention spans are short. Don’t make them wait! The best hotel websites load in under 2-3 seconds.
To help speed things up, try to limit the number of plugins and page redirects. (The what-now?)
If your hotel website is built on Wordpress — many of them are! — your web developer likely added a few “plugins” on the back end. Plugins are little add-ons that CAN help your site, such as Yoast for SEO or Akismet for stopping spam. It’s perfectly fine to have a few plugins, but don’t let your developer over-do it.
Page redirects happen when you change the URL of a page, and then “redirect” the old one to the new one. Again, this is something that’s perfectly OK in small doses — but don’t have too many.
Most of the time, videos and images are the biggest culprits slowing down your hotel website.
If you have video on your site and can’t reduce the file size, host it somewhere else, like on YouTube or Vimeo.
Make sure that the images you upload are compressed to optimal sizes. Here are a few quick rules of thumb:
Save photos as JPG files and graphics/logos as PNG
Photos should be 72dpi or 92dpi resolution for web (print typically requires about 300dpi)
Large images should be no more than 1 MB
Full-screen, background images should be around 2000 pixels wide
While not the sexiest subject, page load speed is important to consider.
Slow websites stop customers from booking direct — we’re impatient creatures, remember!
But that’s not the only reason your website needs to load smoothly. It matters for SEO, too, because Google penalizes slow-loading sites in their search result rankings.
I recommend using this free tool to check your hotel website’s page speed.
4. Direct Booking Engine
Friendly reminder: The purpose of a hotel website is to generate direct bookings!
One of the most important hotel website features is a secure, PCI-compliant, integrated booking engine that syncs up with your hotel’s property management system (PMS).
While a user explores your website, that “Book Now” button should remain visible — ideally, locked into position along the top or bottom of their screen.
Contrary to popular lore, there’s no “magic” color to use for your call-to-action buttons. All that matters is that it stands out, so pick something that complements your brand color scheme.
You also want to choose an online booking system that plays nicely with the rest of your website. Look for a hotel booking engine with a seamless, responsive design.
The point is to keep visitors ON your website, not clicking your “Book Now” button and being taken onto a new web page to book. (Your friends in revenue management will thank you!)
HOTEL WEBSITE DESIGN EXAMPLE: LITTLE PALM ISLAND RESORT
Little Palm Island in Florida has a gorgeous luxury resort website.
The embedded background video file is compressed and loads lightning-quick. I really like that the video shows off their resort facilities, giving off a “secluded relaxation” vibe that really works in COVID times.
Their “Book Now” button is also locked at the top and uses a contrasting color. Note: I do wish their booking engine was integrated instead of opening in a new window, but it’s not the end of the world.
5. Lead Capture
While direct bookings are the main goal of your hotel website, conversions aren’t limited to room reservations.
You have other revenue streams and other goals to support, from meeting and event inquiries to restaurant reservations.
Make sure your hotel website offers clear direction to meeting planners and prospective wedding bookers. How do they submit an RFP?
To get more prospects in your inbox and site visits on the books, your contact information needs to be front and center.
Your hotel should also collect leads (email addresses) in order to communicate directly with potential customers.
But friend, I have to be honest with you, “Subscribe to our newsletter” ain’t it!
This is one of the weakest methods of lead capture and I could rant on and on about it… but I kind of did already, in this other article about lead generation for hotels. 😅
My advice? Use a lead magnet.
Create something helpful and/or valuable for your customer — and ask them for their email address in exchange.
There are so many different ways to approach a hotel lead magnet. It just depends on which segment you’re targeting. (That article I’ve just linked goes into way more detail.)
6. COVID-19 Info Page
Note: As of Spring 2022, COVID is still an ongoing global event and many destinations still have restrictions in place.
To be honest, travel and hotel operations will likely remain impacted by COVID in the long-term.
Right now many destinations still need a hotel COVID-19 info page.
This is how you’ll communicate your property safety measures, health guidelines, cleanliness standards, and any local restrictions that travelers need to know about.
Of course, this could still change in the future…
If you’re going to have this page, you should make it super prominent on your hotel website, like an announcement bar along the top or somewhere else that’s visible and easy to find.
For some examples and more info on what specific content needs to go on this page, check out the post linked below.
Read Next: How To Write Your Hotel’s COVID-19 FAQ Page
7. Consistent Branding
One of the reasons OTAs are so popular with consumers is that they enjoy a certain degree of trust.
Online hotel booking websites like Booking.com and Expedia have built that trust by giving people what they want: an easy way to find and book the best hotels. (As annoying as that is for us hoteliers, you know it’s true!)
For a hotel to compete, they need to have a brand that resonates with customers.
From a visual standpoint, hotel branding tells consumers that your website is legitimate and can be trusted.
Branding extends to your website address itself.
Would you trust your credit card info on a site called myawesomehotel14.freewebsitebuilder.com? Yikes, nope!
Hotel branding is also a useful exercise in uncovering what attracts your customer personas.
Say your price point and amenities are most appealing to luxury-minded global executives. You may want to keep your branding sleek and minimalist, using luxury hotel copywriting to craft a more elevated tone of voice.
If you want to attract a younger, more adventurous traveler, try incorporating bold punches of color, quirky design elements, and playful, more conversational copy.
Your aim is to create a consistent brand that keeps what the customer wants in mind.
If you’re writing your own marketing materials, it’s very helpful to keep brand voice guide handy. That’s why I’ve included a “find your hotel brand voice” exercise for you inside the Hotel Website Workbook.
8. Social Proof
Another important way hotels can make their websites more trustworthy is through social proof.
Social proof, in technical terms, is “a psychological and social phenomenon wherein people copy the actions of others in an attempt to undertake behavior in a given situation.”
In plain English, social proof means people trust something when others vouch for it.
96% of customers surveyed by TrustYou consider reviews important when researching a hotel.
This is why testimonials from real hotel guests are incredibly impactful. The best hotel websites show real reviews from trusted third-party sources like TripAdvisor and Google.
Social proof can also include social media.
Hotels can use a tool like Olapic to create a feed of user-generated content (UGC) shared by their guests.
Olapic pulls in images from social platforms like Instagram or Facebook, that either tag the hotel’s location or use a specific branded hashtag.
Check out the hotel website example below to see this in action.
HOTEL WEBSITE DESIGN EXAMPLE: MANDARIN ORIENTAL
OK, this might be my favorite example of social proof by a hotel I’ve ever seen. (#TucciGang)
Not many hotels can afford a brand partnership with a popular celebrity like Stanley Tucci, but it is a kind of social proof — and it does the Mandarin Oriental brand, absolutely. This is a 5-star design hotel and Stanley is a discerning gent!
Mandarin Oriental, Hyde Park also features user-generated content (UGC) from their guests on social media.
At a minimum, you should highlight reviews from past guests as social proof.
9. Useful, Relevant Content
Your hotel website content needs to be two things: useful and relevant. That doesn’t mean you need a landing page for every single amenity you offer.
Keep in mind, your hotel only has one page on an OTA, and their conversion rates are just fine…
What OTAs do well is condensing only the most “useful and relevant” content about a hotel.
Property listings come with a general description, room types with specs, your reservation policies, and a bulleted list of amenities. That’s it.
The opportunity you have with a hotel website is to tell your story better.
So yes, stick to the most important stuff — but do make it compelling!
Good hotel website content should address all of your guests’ most pressing questions. Otherwise, they’ll open up a new tab and start Googling around for answers and other options.
How big is the room? Is there a view? Should I pack my hairdryer? Where is the hotel and how do I get there from the airport/in my car? What is there to do nearby?
Put yourself in your target guest’s shoes and make sure the content on your website speaks to what they want.
10. Analytics and Tracking Pixels
There are a few basic technical things every hotel website needs to have on the back-end.
Analytics and tracking pixels make it possible to access powerful insights and better ad targeting — and both are way easier to set up than you might think.
If you’re working with a web designer, they’ll know exactly what to do.
If not, here are two step-by-step tutorials to follow:
Google Analytics is free and a great place to start tracking your hotel website’s most important metrics. To set it up, all you need to do is create an account and copy/paste a short line of code into your website’s Header.
Adding a Facebook pixel follows similar steps.
With a Facebook pixel on your hotel website, you’re able to build more powerful ad campaigns. You can target users based on the actions they’ve taken on your site, like viewing certain pages, submitting an RFP, or abandoning a booking.
Caveat: If you have either of the above in place (and you should), you need to make sure you’re getting appropriate permissions from your visitors.
Yep, I’m talking about Cookies. 🍪
Nope, not the fun kind. That annoying little bar or pop-up that appears every time you visit a website… yeah, there’s no getting around it.
My advice? Be mindful of how many other announcement bars or pop-ups you’re using.
You NEED to let visitors view and OK your cookie policy. So please don’t immediately bombard them with three other pop-ups asking them to subscribe to your emails or view your new package… Just chill!
11. Built-In SEO Functionality
Whether you’re using a website builder like Squarespace or have a fully-developed and custom design, some components of search engine optimization need to be built-in.
Most hotel SEO hinges on your actual content — as in, #9 and #10 on this list.
But some things also happen “behind the scenes.”
Make sure your content management system (CMS) has fields for you to input at least the following:
Page URL or “Slug” (specifically, the bit after your domain name. As in, yourhotelwebsite.com/your-page-url)
Page Title (the name of the page, as it appears in Google search results)
Meta Description (a short description of the page that appears only on the Google search results page)
As I mentioned earlier, if your hotel website is built on Wordpress, one of the most popular SEO plug-ins is Yoast.
Yoast doesn’t do the work for you, though. Yoast just gives you the necessary fields (and little guidance) by prompting you to tick off all the steps involved with optimizing a page.
It’s kind of like having an SEO checklist built right into your website’s back-end.
(But in case you do want a real one to reference, you can get a free hotel SEO checklist here.)
You don’t NEED to have a fancy plug-in added to optimize your hotel website for search, though. You just need to understand the placements mentioned above and know where to find them in your own CMS.
What other hotel website features are nice to have?
12. a Hotel Blog
Blogging can be a very powerful content marketing strategy for hotels.
Now, most global chain brands are kind of particular about whether their hotels have a blog…
In my experience, it’s sort of an “all or nothing” scenario because they want to ensure high quality across multiple (sometimes hundreds of) properties. Not every hotel can deliver.
If you’re independent or building a small hotel website, and it’s up to you, I highly recommend adding a blog!
Blogging is very, very good for SEO.
It gives you space to create the kind of longer, more in-depth content that travelers are looking for throughout their online booking journey.
Blogging can help improve your website’s domain authority — which is one indicator (of many) you can look to when trying to compete for the best hotel keywords.
I recommend hotels use their blog to create a go-to resource for their destination.
Help guests discover all the great things to do in your area, where to eat/drink, how to travel there with kids, what’s open right now during the pandemic, etc.
Blogging can also be used for B2B purposes. Why not guide potential meeting planners on the latest trends?
Of course, blogging is a lot of work, so I weighed a few pros and cons of having a hotel blog in a previous article:
Read Next: Do You Need A Hotel Blog? Answered! (The Pros And Cons)
13. Live Chat
Clear contact info on its own is a great trust signal, but another feature you may want to consider? Live chat.
The easiest way to do this is through Messenger.
Follow Facebook’s directions for adding Messenger to your website and make sure you have a colleague tasked with “manning” the inbox.
You can also supplement this by using an AI-powered chatbot.
After a little bit of initial setup, chatbots can answer common customer service questions — and even execute simple tasks, like fulfilling a housekeeping request, handling a guest complaint, or recommending local attractions.
It’s a cool way to improve your hotel guest experience online, too.
Caveat: Be mindful of how adding this feature could impact your page’s loading speed. (See #3 above.)
That’s why I don’t count live chat as a “must-have” but rather, a great-to-have.
Test your page speed before and after implementing chat — if it slows things down or doesn’t get much use, just remove it. No harm, no foul.
Final Thoughts
I consider those first eleven features your “must-haves” or your main hotel website requirements. Again, I think adding a hotel blog and live chat can be super valuable in some cases, but they’re not always necessary!
Did I miss anything else? What other features are important when you create a hotel website? Let me know what you think in the comments!
And while you’re here, I created something for you that will make writing your hotel website way easier — and dare I say it, more fun.
Grab yourself a copy of the Hotel Website Workbook and let’s whip your website into tip-top shape! ⤵
WHAT TO READ NEXT:
Hotel Branding: How To Craft A Memorable Hotel Brand Identity
Lead Generation For Hotels: How To Create A Hotel Lead Magnet
Published: 7/27/2019
Updated: 7/26/2021