Strategic Web Design for Hotels and Resorts

The design of a hotel website has a huge impact on how easy it is for a user to determine its location, favorable reviews, and reasonable rates. This user experience comes down to the design. Designing websites based on their industry is a necessary procedure to appeal to your target audience and make sales. Optimum7’s experience extends to custom-built software and functionalities to fit your specific needs. Here is an overview of what the basics are when it comes to web design for hotels and resorts.

1. Create a Content Marketing Strategy

People often stay in hotels and resorts for a reason that has to do with work, travel, or leisure. The best way to communicate your ability to provide an outstanding experience related to these reasons is with great content. High resolution, professional photographs, short and engaging videos, and helpful maps or rate charts will drastically improve their opinion of your establishment. Content marketing can be an excellent way to drive traffic to your site, engage visitors, and encourage former guests to return to your establishment in the future.

• Hire professionals. Doing it in-house only means you’ll pay twice.
• Make content consistently and share it on the appropriate platforms.
• Implement, measure, track and analyze for future content strategy.
• Encourage user-generated content as a form of customer reviews.

2. Use Strong Calls to Action Often and Throughout your Site

When somebody visits a site, what action do you want them to take?

Calls to Action does not mean you have to have a big sales button on every page. While buttons and colors can be effective ways to lead your customer down the sales funnel, also consider how the role of persuasive copy paints a picture, beckoning the user to your hotel as if it were their own idea.

As previously mentioned, you don’t have to try and make a sale on every page. You can take your site visitor through a journey of discovery as they go from learning about your business, to the amenities you offer, to trust-building elements such as reviews before they make a purchase decision.

• Have clear calls to action such as book now, learn more, contact here.
• Use enticing copy to also get the job done by putting them in the scene.
• Orient your CTAs towards your client’s pain points.

3. Make Site Navigation Clear and Intuitive

Pretty pictures mean nothing if a user is lost on your website. Clear headers that identify your most important features will differentiate you from the competition. Be concise in your directions to avoid confusion. Don’t test your user’s patience with cutesy words that fit your motif – instead be straightforward with what is commonly expected and let your aesthetic do the talking.

Site navigation is a factor that falls into User Experience (UX). Not being able to find the information you want easily is frustrating for visitors to your site and could cause them to leave your site. Having a good user experience helps you convert users at a higher rate and builds trust.

• 76% of users say is finding what they need is the most important thing.
• A clear organized site structure with relevant URLs helps with SEO too.
• Don’t forget valuable sections like:
  • Overview of services.
  • Reviews and testimonials.

4. Optimize Your Site for Mobile Users

There are numerous apps for hotels and resorts that will list your accommodations, sometimes even without your knowledge. Be ready a user to click through to your website on mobile with integrated API to assist with their questions, a booking system that is reliable and fast, and design that is optimized for different screen sizes. At Optimum7, we specialize in platform integration with marketplaces, as each one has unique features and processes that take a lot of time to get right.

• 52% of all traffic is mobile traffic and that number is only expected to grow
• Your website needs to be responsive, meaning that the structure, fonts, etc. adjust based on the size of the screen/display.

5. Address 404s with 301 redirects

As your services or offerings change, you may be tempted to delete a page in favor of starting over. While that works for most things in life, it’s seriously damaging to your established website authority to suddenly delete pages without a 301 redirect to the most relevant page. It’s tricky business if you don’t know how to do this properly but with expert help, your website’s ranking in Google won’t be affected, allowing for change to proceed unscathed.

• Experts like Optimum7 make these kinds of migrations a breeze.
• Address broken links as soon as they are discovered.

6. Avoid Long, Blocky Paragraphs of Text

With all else that has been said, it should be obvious that copy needs to be concise and persuasive, yet you wouldn’t believe how often hotels and resorts are eager to advertise every prominent feature resulting in paragraphs that users lose interest in. For longer form content that expands on a hotel feature or nearby attraction, create a blog and keep it off your homepage and service pages. Blogs help with SEO and keyword density so that related search terms will bring users to your site.

• Blogging is time-consuming; outsource it to an agency like Optimum7.
• Long, blocky paragraphs can also affect the page load time.