Building A Trusted Brand: Why hotel web design matters and what consumers are looking for in your website?

In an industry where appearances matter, it is amazing how many hotel brands represent their properties using tired, outdated design. The user experience (UX) design of a hotel website has a huge impact on how guests assess your brand and consequently, how likely they are to select your business. 

In an increasingly sceptical world, consumers are highly attuned to any errors or mistakes on websites. Professional presentation goes a long way to assuring customers of your professionalism and earning their trust. After all, if you can’t keep your web presence in order, how do you expect guests to have faith that their stay at your property will be any different?

We count down some of the most important features in hotel web design:

Responsive Templates - At any given moment, people could be looking at your website from their phone, laptop or tablet. Your website’s template (the structure and design) needs to adapt itself to display correctly across multiple displays for an optimal viewing experience. Hotel guests are often on the move and are more likely to view your content on mobile devices so make sure to test across a range of devices to ensure it presents correctly. 
 

Optimised loading times - The loading speed of your website matters! According to Kissmetrics, 47 percent of visitors expect a website to load in less than 2 seconds, and 40 percent of visitors will leave the website if the loading process takes more than 3 seconds. Your choice of hosting can make a huge impact on how quickly your site loads. Another important consideration is image sizes. As a general rule, it’s handy to keep images under 100kb but make sure that they are crisp and not pixelated. 
 

Clean design - When it comes to design, often less is more. Choosing a simple and clean design allows guests to follow a path that makes your hotel positioning and features clear at first glance. Limit the text, using short and punchy headlines and bylines and carefully research and use the most relevant keywords to enhance your Search Engine Ranking. 
 

Easy to use menu and navigation - There are few things that will turn off customers more quickly than not being able to easily find the information that they are looking for. By creating  a clear structure and menu, you’ll greatly improves your guest’s experience by making navigation simple.
 

Maintain your position - It may seem obvious, but not every hotel can cater for every guest. There are hotels for every imaginable type of consumer and it’s important to make it clear early just who your target audience is. Are you a family friendly resort? Do you cater to a more distinguished audience? Are you primarily a business focussed hotel? Whoever your audience is, make sure that you make this clear and consistent across your site. 
 

Clear images and videos - An image speaks a thousand words so make sure your images are telling the right story. Be sure to highlight the most important features of your hotel early. Even better, use videos to highlight the most important features of your property. Video is a more engaging medium for visitors  and means that you are able to present a more complete picture of your property. Travellers are more easily able to conceptualise rooms and features using images and videos rather than poring over reading lengthy room descriptions.
 

Multilingual content - In order to position yourself as a truly international hotel, it is critical to ensure that you are translating your website into the different local languages of the countries you are targeting. Not only does this ensure a higher ranking in search directories, but it offers a great convenience to potential guests, providing additional motivation for them to book directly through your website.