7 tips for your hotel website 2024
Magdalena Rungaldier and Pia Grimbühler have been working in the hospitality industry for over 20 years and have helped numerous award-winning hotels around the world to create a convincing online presence and supported them in creating a successful hotel website.
In this blog post, they share what they have learned and what is important for their customers in their work at Piquant Production.
1 - An individual design for a hotel website makes all the difference
The design of a hotel website is crucial as it has a direct impact on the user experience and booking rates.
The following applies here: If your hotel was not built according to a standard template, your website should not be either. Unfortunately, we see all too often that hoteliers and entrepreneurs resort to standard solutions for their hotel website and end up producing the same (or similar) as their neighbor.
RESULT: You stand out neither from the market nor from your competitors and the visitor (= your potential guest) does not know why she should book with you and not with another hotel. Our clear recommendation is therefore to focus on the unique - on the design tailored to your hotel. Piquant Production always creates a customized graphic design for hotels.
2 - Emotions are more important than information
After reading the first point, you may think: But when visitors read all my great texts and information, they will understand why I am much better than the competition.
Spoiler Alert: Not even 25% of visitors who come to your hotel website read your texts!
Not only we at Piquant Production say this, but also the latest scientific studies. This is because hotel websites are now mainly skimmed.
Means as much as: Emotions are many times more important than information. And you are well advised to invest in an emotional overall concept, coherent and professional hotel images and a modern website design. Piquant Production offers everything from a single source.
3 - Less is more!
Do you remember: only 25% of visitors to your hotel website actually read your texts. What do the remaining 75% do? They decide emotionally, not rationally. If they like the design and the images appeal to them, they start to scan the website. This means they scroll down and read the main headings and individual highlighted words.
This means that you decide what catches the eye of your potential guests and what they should know about you in up to ten seconds.
That's why we at Piquant Production say: Tell your unique story with your headlines, with highlighted AND outstanding texts that appeal to potential guests emotionally.
Then a visit to the hotel website can become a hotel booking and thus a "real" visit.
4 - One click more is one click too many
User-friendliness is still an important issue today. This means that the hotel website is easy to navigate, has clear menus and uses intuitive icons. But it also means that someone has thought about a logical and clear page structure in advance.
Piquant Production already concentrates on search engine optimization (SEO) at this stage, because the structure of the page structure is decisive for whether your hotel website is subsequently found, is well placed in the search results and achieves a high level of visibility and reach.
Important: Make sure that users can easily find what they are looking for. Because for many potential guests, one more click is one too many.
We create your hotel website
Still have questions? Or are you interested in a new website that tells your unique story?
A successful website combines all the elements of emotional storytelling: it tells a unique story in words and images and impresses with its authenticity. This makes it stand out from the competition and attracts your guests and customers.
5 - Clear calls to action
You determine how visitors move through your website when you incorporate clear calls to action. These calls to action help users to navigate through the hotel website.
The correct and strategic placement of booking and reservation buttons on the website, such as on the homepage and room pages, can become a critical success factor. And an additional tip: the clearer and simpler calls to action are formulated, the better they work: "Click HERE to book" vs. "more" or "next".
6 - Responsive is the key word
At Piquant Production, it doesn't necessarily have to be "mobile first". But "responsive" is a basic requirement for all our hotel websites.
Make sure the website is optimized for different screen sizes and devices, such as smartphones, tablets and desktop computers. A responsive design ensures that your hotel website looks beautiful, works well and generates bookings on all devices.
7 - The harmonious whole makes the difference
At Piquant Production, we believe that professional hotel websites represent "Emotional Storytelling at its best". Meaning?
With a successful hotel website, all parts of a unique and emotional story come together:
A unique design and website concept was developed;
An emotional and unique story is told harmoniously in words, images and sound.
Our experience at Piquant Production shows: The investment in such a complete product always pays off.
Our top recommendation for you
Include guest reviews on your hotel website to create trust. Because we are seeing more and more often that positive reviews win over potential guests. Guest reviews and testimonials should therefore be part of your hotel website. If necessary, make sure that they are easy to find.
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