There’s a lot to consider when planning a new hotel website design. At first, you might think it’s just making the design “look good,” but there’s a lot of strategic decision-making, technical know-how, and legal compliance that goes into creating a website that drives direct booking.
Forge Apollo offers hotel website design based in Philadelphia. We know how to build high-performance websites. In fact, our website design for ICONA Resorts earned a Webby Honoree. In this checklist, our expert team of designers, developers, and strategists shares our best practices to guide your next website build.
Hotel Website Structure & Navigation Checklist
When planning your hotel website design, start with the structure and navigation. This has the largest impact on how users navigate your website and how search engines understand it.
- Use a logical, shallow structure when planning pages, like Home, Rooms (with separate pages for each room type), Amenities, About, Book Now, etc.
- Keep your URL structure clean and descriptive, such as /rooms/king-suite instead /page?id=123.
- Keep your primary navigation consistent across all pages
- Limit your navigation to 5-7 main items
- Have a “Book Now” or “Check Availability” button clearly accessible in your navigation
- Include the following in your footer: address, phone number, contact info, social media links, a newsletter signup, and links to key policies and pages.
Hotel Website Visual Design & User Experience Checklist
The visual aspect of your hotel website design makes the first impression. Here’s what Forge Apollo prioritizes to help get it right.
- Consistent branding (logo, color palette, and fonts)
- Modern layout with a clear visual hierarchy
- Standout H1 heading on each page
- Visual emphasis on the primary CTA
- Mobile-friendly design
Imagery & Videos
Your hotel’s imagery should align with your brand positioning and support your key selling points, like showing off your views or key amenities. When you work with a hotel website design agency that also offers video production, like Forge Apollo, you can have one team plan content shoots that seamlessly support your website design.
- Professional, high-resolution photos and videos that load quickly and show real, accurate representations (no misleading angles)
- Photos for each room type and amenity
- Location-establishing imagery (exterior building shots, neighborhood views, iconic nearby attractions)
- Limited use of stock imagery
- Photos and videos that reflect your targeting personas
- Banner video on your homepage
- Hero video establishing your brand & selling points
User Experience & Booking Flow
When a user has a bad experience on your hotel’s website, they’re more likely to bounce and find another hotel or book through an OTA. Use these best practices to give them a smooth experience.
- Prominent booking access (widget or bar) with simple fields
- Seamless connection to your booking engine
- Clear display of pricing
- Page layout or table that allows users to easily compare room types
- Easy contact options (like clicking to call or email, and an easily accessible contact form or live chat)
- Clearly stated policies (links to policy pages are easy to find)
- Multi-language and multi-currency support (for international markets)
Accessibility & Compliance
Certain regulations, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), require hotel websites to include accessibility and data transparency features. Here are a few factors to look out for that contribute to accessibility and compliance.
- Text has sufficient color contrast against backgrounds
- Images that are not for decoration only have descriptive alt text
- Forms have labels tied to inputs and clear error messaging
- The site is navigable via keyboard only
- Headings are used semantically (H1 > H2 > H3)
- Clear cookie consent and privacy notices compliant with relevant laws
- Dedicated Accessibility page describing ADA-compliant room features and property accessibility details
*This is not legal advice. Be sure to review regulations and compliance measures for your hotel with your legal team.
Hotel Website Content & Copy Checklist
Your website’s content speaks to potential travelers and can increase visibility on search engines and AI engines. Follow this checklist when planning yours.
- Unique, non-duplicated room descriptions (including who the room is ideal for, key features, and amenities)
- Transparent amenities page (what’s included, what’s an extra charge, and when each amenity is available)
- Location page (Highlight your distance to major landmarks, airport, or transit, nearby attractions, and things to do)
- Offers and packages page
- Helpful FAQs
- Blog or guide content
- Clear, human, guest-focused tone (“you” language, benefits over features)
Brand Positioning & Messaging
- Include a clear value proposition (who you are, who you’re for, your key differentiators)
- Use a consistent brand voice and tone across all pages
- Present a clear brand story (history or property concept and your local connection to community, culture, or sustainability)
- Speak to defined target personas
Hotel Website Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Checklist
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a process for increasing the number of conversions on your website. For a hotel website, this would mean securing more direct bookings. Here are some tactics you should take to increase your conversion rate.
- Primary CTAs are clear and consistent
- Strategic CTA placement (above the fold, mid-page after key content sections, and in the footer or sticky bar for long pages)
- Trust elements near key decision points (guest review snippets, star ratings, awards/badges, security badges)
- Social proof (testimonials and user-generated content)
- Clear value comparison messaging (like “best rate guarantee” on direct bookings)
- Reduced form friction (include the least number of fields possible)
Hotel Website Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Checklists
Search engine optimization (SEO) will help your hotel appear in more search results and can also improve visibility in AI engines. While SEO is a comprehensive approach that includes actions off of your website as well, here’s what you can do on-site to optimize.
Technical SEO
As part of your hotel website development process, this provides a technical base for all of your website performance.
- Images in proper formats for fast loading
- Secure HTTPS on all pages
- Fast load times
- Mobile-friendly
- Clean SML sitemap
- Proper robots.txt
- Canonical tags when needed
- Proper handling of URL parameters and pagination
On-Page SEO
This checklist should be followed for each individual page on your website.
- Optimized image alt text with descriptive, keyword-relevant phrases
- Keyword strategy that reflects the hotel type and location (ex, “Boutique hotel in Philadelphia”) and includes long-tail variations (ex, “family-friendly hotel near center city Philadelphia”).
- Each key page should have a Single H1 with supporting H2/H3 subheadings and a unique, descriptive title tag and meta description
- On-page copy naturally uses destination-specific terms, nearby landmarks, neighborhoods, and transit hubs
- Internal linking from blog/location pages to relevant room/offer pages and from the homepage to priority revenue-generating pages
- Content tailored by intent (informational for blogs, commercial for offers and rooms, transactional for booking pages)
Local SEO Considerations
Follow these best practices on your website to rank for local searches related to your hotel’s service area.
- Consistent name, address, and phone number across the site and major directories
- Localized content, like blogs and a location landing page
- Local schema markup
Hotel Website Analytics Checklist
Finally, include some analytics platforms on your hotel website to help you understand how it’s performing. Here are our favorite recommendations.
- Analytics platform, like GA4, set up with:
- Page view tracking
- Events for booking funnel steps
- E-commerce / conversion tracking
- Heatmap / session recording, like HotJar
- Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to view search performance
Professional Website Design Based in Philadelphia
A website is a vital part of your hotel marketing strategy. But this hotel website design checklist may seem overwhelming, which is natural. A high-performance website is so complex that Forge Apollo breaks it up across a team of seasoned experts. If you need help with your next hotel website, reach out to our website development team in Philadelphia. We’d be happy to hop on a quick strategy call to discuss the best approach for your website.
