Why does your independent hotel needs a good website design?
Your direct booking website has one goal and one only: convert visitors into guests. Given our reduced attention span and increased expectation as consumers online, guests won’t hesitate one second to close that booking tab if they have doubts!
The first step to ensure conversions is providing them with a good design experience.
Here are some prerequisites to make your hotel website design a brand builder, not a brand killer :
- Your hotel website design makes your guests "travel" from the start, and think "I want to experience a night there one day". To trigger this feeling, the first thing they see on your website should be an immersive visual / video (that loads really fast!).
- Your hotel website design makes it easy for guests to access practical informations: think prices, availabilities, amenities. Let's not reinvent the wheel here!
- Your hotel website design is tailored to your guest audience. For example, if your guests are based in Quebec, Canada, your website needs to be both in French & English. Another example is, if your hotel is designed for gamers, the design & copy will match gamer's vibes. And finally, if your hotel is created to be dog-friendly, well, you can have a lot of fun with your website! 🐶
- Your hotel website design needs a trustworthy booking check-out experience that feels like a “natural” next step! If clicking on “book now” opens a totally new page, with a different design, and even a different url name = you have to build trust all over again! That's why a custom integration with your PMS (MEWs, Cloudbeds or Lodgify) is important.
- Your hotel website design needs to work for you (while you sleep). Which means, it needs to bring in visitors from Google with good SEO optimizations, and collect guests emails as they navigate your website.
Choose your favorite independent hotel website design style
Here are a few example of hotel website design we can create together. Let's cover quickly which website builder we are using.
Which hotel website builder to choose?
All three hotel website design styles below were created using Webflow.
Webflow is a CMS option I love using for hospitality websites for the following reasons:
- You can create a conversion-first hotel website design that integrates seamlessly your hotel booking engine, without looking too much like a widget/template website. Here is an example of how I integrated Webflow with MEWs.
- You can create a unique and flexible visual experience, that will make you stand out from the sea of widgeted/templated websites, while remaining easy enough to use (it is still a no-code CMS).
- You can have a stand-alone website that grows with your business, and doesn't put you in a box. Whatever happens to your hotel brand, if you decide to expand your portfolio, change PMS software, add rooms or chalets - your website can be easily adapted. Your marketing will continue to work for you.
- All this while being easy to maintain, with a software that's updated regularly (future-proof), and a an access to your blog / page content.
This level of "easy + unique design" is much harder to do using Squarespace, and harder to maintain yourself using Wordpress.
3 hotel website design style examples
1. The Cozy Cabin
Designed for nature-first, "in the woods" hotel experiences, the Cozy Cabin is a small hotel website design that can be used for tiny houses, glamping, A-frames and cabin rentals.
2. The Modern Boutique
The Modern Boutique is best for small boutique hotels and modern-looking motels that are closer to cities, and attract guests on work trips, or roadtrips.
3. The Minimalist Stay
This one is dreamy and peaceful. The minimalist stay website design is perfect if your small hotel or vacation rental offers an outdoorsy experience is in a beautiful landscape, and has minimalistic interior design.
Are you looking for hotel web design services? I would love to help out. Feel free to book a call with me.