94% of the first impression consumers make of a brand comes from its website design. Especially when considering a hotel website design, brands should strive to make their website as nice as their accommodations to make a good impression.
But how can you achieve a design that accurately reflects the feel of your hotel and draws guests in?
Today, the experts at hotel website design company Forge Apollo are sharing our best tips and tricks to help you find success online.
1. High-Quality Imagery
When evaluating a website’s design, 40% of consumers value the imagery the most, and another 21% value video the most.
Forge Apollo’s Graphic and Website Designer, Michele Kusmanick, says, “It’s so important to make a great first impression with high-quality imagery on your website. This may be the first place people come to see what the hotel vibe is and what it has to offer. The imagery needs to be impressive and give the right vibe since that will be how many guests make their decision to stay or not.”
Ensure that your brand utilizes high-quality still images and videos of your properties (not stock)Â across your website to make the right impression. A video production company, like Forge Apollo, can provide one shoot to capture both types of assets.
2. Stay On-Brand
Color comes in second place for what consumers value most in a website design, after imagery. Keeping your colors and font on-brand helps establish your hotel’s vibe before someone ever sets foot in the lobby.
Imagine if you wanted to book a relaxing, peaceful getaway at a spa resort and then visit their website to find it designed in red and orange with Comic Sans text. That doesn’t communicate peace, right?
Your brand puts in a lot of work to curate a specific experience in your properties. Your website should convey that same feeling.
3. Prominent Testimonials
72% of consumers report increased brand trust after reading positive reviews. A travel website design should prominently feature positive testimonials to establish trust from the first time a potential guest visits the website.
4. Easy Navigation
38% of consumers first look at a website’s navigation when visiting for the first time. Navigation gives visitors an understanding of your site and helps them quickly find what they want.
Design a primary navigation and drop-down menus that are clear and easy to use. As a test, consider a few things a potential guest may want information on, like room types or amenities, and check that it’s easy to find that information via the navigation.
5. Easy Booking
Almost 60% of people who make hotel bookings do them online. Easy booking should be top of mind in the travel website development process. A “Book Now” button should be easy to find on every page.
Ideally, it should lead to a booking engine that’s also easy to use to reduce the friction someone has to go through to complete a booking.
6. Responsive Design
Mobile devices produced over 65% of website traffic in 2023. Create a hotel website design that is responsive to device size so it still looks beautiful and is easy to navigate on any screen.
7. Accessibility
Your hotel accommodates guests of various abilities, and your website should, too. Follow accessibility guidelines, like using proper contrast and alternative text, to ensure that users with disabilities can access the information they need.
Similarly, make sure the accessibility features of the hotel itself are easy to find and in a format that screen readers or other accessibility tools can read.Â
Create a Hotel Website Design that Converts
Poor website design causes 42% of visitors to leave a site. If you don’t want your hotel’s website to meet that same fate, you need a hotel website design that wows. The website design and development team at Forge Apollo has a track record of successful projects. Contact us today to start discussing your website design.
