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It’s important for customers to like your website design because the longer they stay, the higher the chance they will book.
Here’s what you need to do.
Welcome to another edition of Hospitality Property School.
I am your instructor, Gerry MacPherson.
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Website Design Introduction
The way to make visitors stay on your website is by giving them reasons why they should stay, be it information, good service, special price, etc.
- Keep your website design limited to make it look more professional.
- Your website design should be personal and appealing.
- You should provide a detailed description of your property and services.
- Your website should be simple and straightforward.
Your goal should be to make your hospitality properties website a pleasure to look at.
Whether you’re overhauling your property’s existing website or creating your web presence from scratch, you should understand the crucial elements of a clean and functional website so that it looks honest, professional, and well-designed.
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Here are 22 Details You Need to Consider When Designing Your Website
A website should be easy to use
If visitors are confused when looking at your website it will be a great way to dissuade them from making their booking decision.
Ensuring your website is easy to navigate around will keep your visitors on your site for longer and increase the chances of conversion. Test the ease of use yourself by seeing how many clicks it takes for you to find a piece of information, such as your room descriptions or your list of facilities – if it’s more than three clicks, it’s probably too many.
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Your homepage
First impressions count. You have less than 15 seconds to impress a visitor when they hit your website for the first time.
Your website needs to build trust and show a user that you’re professional. You also have to make it clear that every piece of information can be found on your property’s website, in an uncluttered way.
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The about us page
The ‘About Us’ section is the perfect place to tell your story, explaining why you love to host your guests, the kind of experience your property offers them, the history of your property, the local attractions, and a way to introduce your team.
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Delightful images
You only have to look at the statistics surrounding Instagram to realize how powerful images have become.
Delightful imagery is more than just a passing trend, and hoteliers are well-placed to make the most of their aspirational surroundings.
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Quality content
Content is king’ and your website needs lots of it.
Interesting content helps to keep your prospective guests on your website longer. Content increases the rate of conversion, especially if it’s authentic, accurate, and informative.
Ideas include:
- detailed descriptions of your rooms and other facilities
- local attractions
- history of your hotel
- an up-to-date blog
- guest reviews
- your bar
- dining room
- spa
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Information
Information about your rooms, rates, facilities and amenities, room availability, contact details, your location and proximity to attractions, and things to do, to name just a few. Most of this information is viewed as standard, but your property can stand out from the competition by going that extra mile and supplying a comprehensive guide to what’s offered locally.
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Direct bookings
You can have all the great elements of a beautiful web experience but without a place for your prospective guests to book, it’s essentially incomplete.
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Your site footer
You can use the footer of your website to repeat the main navigation bar of your website which can help create a better user experience, and also help prospective guests find what they’re looking for more quickly.
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Google analytics
Building a website that tries to be everything to everyone is not a great strategy. The key is to really know your audience.
- Who is visiting your site?
- Where in the world are they coming from?
- What pages are they most interested in?
- What do they click on?
Analytics can help you become more targeted.
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Knowing the jargon
When you’re thinking about building a website from scratch, you need to know the difference between your XML and your HTML, or you could find yourself in trouble during the early stages of your build.
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Internal links
Links are key to drive traffic around your site. They are a necessity when building a beautiful web experience for your guests to help them navigate around your website more seamlessly.
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Website responsiveness
It has been a decade since the smartphone has been released and eight years for the tablet and unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 10 years, you know that there’s not much we can’t do on a mobile device.
Searching for travel and hotel inspiration is a perfect example of how your guests are using their mobile devices. But when they use these devices, it can be annoying when the information they’re viewing shrinks down and looks too small.
We expect a web experience that responds to our screen size and making sure your website looks just as beautiful on a small screen is a key part of delivering a great user experience
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If these are making sense so far, let me know in the comments.
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The navigation bar
It’s probably the most important aspect of your website’s functionality. Not only does it guide people through the key areas of your website, it can lower your bounce rate.
If your navigation bar is clear and accurate, your users will start their web experience with a good impression.
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Organization
This is where your web design should start.
How many pages do you need?
What information will you place on them?
What web pages naturally belong together?
Map out your website, giving all your content a logical home – and don’t forget to use your data and analytics to inform your decision-making.
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Promotions
Creating special offers for your customers, not only increases guest loyalty but keeps your website fresh with interesting content.
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Quality over Quantity
We’ve all visited messy websites that are so mixed-up we have no way of finding the information we were originally searching for.
When it comes to the design of your website, you must think about quality over quantity. A designed to bring together everything your guests need to make that final booking decision online.
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SEO
You might have this beautiful online presence, but how do people find you? Search engine optimization (SEO).
We’d all love internet users to wake up in the morning and come directly to your website, but unfortunately, it does not work that way.
That is an aspect of web design that needs technical knowledge and is necessary.
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Your website’s theme
The theme of your website reflects your hospitality property’s personality and it shouldn’t be an afterthought in the design process.
- The colour palette
- Consider which of your property’s photos the best to complement your colour theme
- Think about your font style
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Calls to action
A call to action is a button that goes beyond the standard ‘click here’. It prompts and persuades users to hit that button and explore your web pages further. Your users are much more likely to click on a button that says ‘take a tour’ or ‘learn more about us’
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Videos
Creating video content is a necessity that cannot be overlooked and is an effective way to keep your visitors on your website longer.
Hospitality properties are in a great position to use videos as a way of showcasing what the property has to offer. There are plenty of ways to get started and create your first professional-looking videos – you can even do it on your smartphone for free.
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White space
I’ve already talked about a cluttered website but how do you declutter your website – use white space.
It’s important for usability and readability that your site has enough white space between the different elements such as graphics, columns, images, text and margins. White space allows your user’s eyes to relax and take everything in.
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Your Contact Information
Your contact information needs to be up-to-date all the time. You should list as many contact details as you can but make sure to only list the contact details for the communication that is active and manned by your staff.
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In conclusion
As an independent hospitality property owner or manager, it can feel like an uphill struggle to even think about having enough skills or resources to create the perfect website, but it doesn’t have to be if you follow to guidelines laid out in this episode.
Now it is time to step back and look at your website as your returning and potential guests would and to see where you could make changes to enhance their experience.
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Have you updated your website recently?
Let me know in the comments.
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You will have access to this episode for the next six weeks and then it will get locked in the vault for Hospitality Property School Group members only.
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To see all the other valuable material you’d have access to as a member of the Hospitality Property School Group, check out the short video in the episode post-show notes.
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In the next episode, I will talk about how to create a blog.
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That’s it for today’s episode,
Until next time, have a fun day.
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⇒ TO READ OR LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE ON KEYSTONE HOSPITALITY PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT:
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