Does your hotel website design convert direct bookings?

It may not come as a surprise when we tell you that, when it comes to hotel website design, 1 in 5 Brits are put off by confusing layout and navigation and a third say that high-quality content would encourage them to book a holiday.

In a digital-led world, ensuring your hotel's web design and performance is up to scratch is crucial for customer engagement and driving direct bookings.

Your hotel website is your online storefront where you have a key opportunity to define your brand, highlight your core values and showcase what you have to offer guests to persuade them to make a booking directly through your website.

Great hotel web design can make or break a guest's booking decision. So, what should you consider when developing a successful hotel website?

Read on for some top tips to ensure your hotel website design works for you.

Design and User Experience

The primary objective of a hotel website is to convert users into paying guests via direct bookings. However, did you know that 88% of users won't return to a website if the user experience is poor?The more accessible and straightforward the navigation, layout and content, the better the user experience. And, the more likely the user will stay on the site, look around and ultimately book a room.If a hotel website design is confusing or cluttered, your potential guests may not even get as far as navigating to the rooms, let alone the booking engine.Therefore, it is essential that the design of a hotel website is appealing, engaging and highlights your business concept, key messages, and brand values.

Front End Design

If your website is a contemporary, stylish and modern hotel, then your hotel website's design should reflect this look and feel. Similarly, if your hotel is set in the countryside with cosy and rustic interiors, these elements should be pulled through to your website to create a sense of what a guest can expect from their stay.

Ensuring all heading and body copy fonts are consistent throughout is essential for maintaining a professional image. In addition, any titles that are laid over images should be clear enough to read, which is also a critical factor for users with eyesight constraints. Busy fonts and messy layouts can leave your hotel website looking cluttered, meaning your list of facilities and important messages get lost.

It is also important to feature a prominent 'Book Direct' offer on your hotel website homepage, above the fold, to encourage users to book through your website rather than through an OTA which charges you a commission.

Navigation

Website navigation ensures that your users can quickly and easily find the information they are looking for and do not have difficulty navigating through your hotel website. To achieve this, a clear hierarchy and breadcrumbs are also essential elements.

Promotions and Offers

Promotions and attractive offers are essential for engaging guests and converting direct bookings. Adding inspirational imagery and call to action buttons will encourage direct bookings and enquiries. Ensuring all promotions listed on your hotel website are on a date is vital for UX. Landing on out of date events or offers will only cause frustration for the user.

Room Pages

High-quality room images and descriptions of facilities are crucial to providing the user with a good idea of what they can expect from their stay. In addition, each room page should feature a Book Now button that links directly to the booking engine for a seamless booking journey.

Mobile Friendly

A hotel website design should be optimised to work across all mobile devices. The header is the first thing a user sees when visiting a website. Therefore, images must be high quality and appealing with a clear call to action, such as Book Now buttons; otherwise, you risk them leaving as soon as they land on your website.

Written Content

Content should be helpful and clear, including the key benefits of booking at our hotel over your competitors and descriptions of facilities. However, content should also be optimised for search engines through a few tactics, including adding h1 headings with the hotel's name on the homepage and adding relevant keywords and internal and external links across the site to help with SEO.

Contact Page

An interactive map and a photo of the hotel façade is essential for a hotel contact us page. In addition, phone numbers and email addresses should be clickable links to provide quick access for users to get in touch if needed.

Gallery

Featuring a gallery section provides users with a complete visual experience of what they can expect whilst stay at your hotel. Featuring fly-throughs or video content is also necessary for user engagement and dwell time.

Guest Reviews

Honest guest reviews increase the trust of future customers. For example, you have received fantastic reviews on Facebook, featuring these on the homepage or as a scrolling banner on the website will encourage users to book direct.

Performance

Testing your website performance is also crucial for SEO and user experience.

Poor page speed can lead to high bounce rates and a loss of direct bookings. Good sites start to load in under 1 second, while poor sites load in over 2.5 seconds. Websites need to load in 1 to 2.5 seconds. otherwise, you can be penalised by Google. Slow page speed is caused by several factors, including javascript, having too many plugins loading, images being too large.

Ensuring your website uses a favicon in the page tab serves as branding for your website; its purpose is to help visitors locate your page when multiple tabs are open. In addition, check for errors such as broken links, i.e. pages that link to a 404 error, which is also detrimental to SEO and UX.

Hotel Website Design Experts

HopDigital is a hospitality-focused digital marketing agency that works with many clients in the hospitality and tourism industries.

We offer a range of creative and data-driven services to help raise your hotel's online profile, increase direct bookings and drive revenue and provide recommendations for continuous results and improvements.

Get in touch for your free website review by emailing sales@hopsoftware.com.