7 Hotel Website Design Trends that Convert to More Guests
Visiting your hotel’s website has become an almost mandatory part of a traveler’s booking process. It can often be the deciding factor in whether they choose to stay with you. This makes maintaining a fast, efficient, and intuitive website crucial, as it represents the first interaction between you and potential customers. Equally important is the appearance and technical performance of your site.
A modern web design in line with current trends can help convert travelers into customers, increasing your volume of direct bookings. Here are 7 design trends for 2023 that will give your website a boost and make it more attractive to internet users.
The Challenges of Designing Your Hotel Website
Your website’s branding is a key element in your marketing strategy. It shapes your hotel's visual identity, making it essential to choose your graphic charter, design, and logo carefully to reflect the atmosphere and values you want to convey to travelers.
If you take over a hotel, don't hesitate to rework these visual elements by creating a new website to give the establishment a fresh identity aligned with your objectives. The same applies when launching a new hotel: a strong focus on web design is crucial as it becomes an indispensable tool in marketing your services, making your hotel easily recognizable and enhancing your digital distribution.
7 Web Design Trends for Your Website
1. Think Mobile First
Today, 70% of internet users visit your hotel’s website on mobile devices. It’s essential to have a mobile version of your site that is as polished as the desktop version. Implementing an adaptive design layout ensures smooth, pleasant navigation for travelers on any device. Unlike responsive design, which adapts content automatically without considering display, adaptive design manages how elements appear and are arranged based on screen size and format, delivering an optimized user experience.
2. Focus on Experience
With the rise of technology and artificial intelligence, centering your website’s communication around the hotel experience and the user is paramount. Life-like photos illustrating your offerings can help travelers project themselves into your hotel, adding an authentic, real-life dimension. Directly addressing visitors on your site can also foster a closer relationship.
3. Bring Your Website to Life
Engaging web users is crucial in the decision-making process. Interactive design elements, like hover effects on buttons and images, can arouse curiosity and modernize your site’s appearance. Keeping the “Book” button visible on every page facilitates easy booking.
4. Use Videos to Enhance Visualization
The video format is gaining ground in the hotel industry. Short, captivating videos can increase the time visitors spend on your site. High-quality videos and photos create a storytelling aspect, engaging travelers and helping them visualize their stay. Consider adding a video to your homepage to immerse visitors in your hotel’s atmosphere.
5. Create an Inclusive Website
Inclusivity is increasingly important, allowing you to reach a broader audience. Adding alternative text to images and using high-contrast graphics benefit users with disabilities while improving your SEO. Transcribing videos and media files enhances accessibility and broadens your reach, especially if done in multiple languages.
6. Maintain Clean and Impactful Designs
In the hotel industry, a simple and uncluttered web design with consistent fonts and fluid navigation is key. Use space intelligently to avoid visual overload, guiding travelers naturally to call-to-actions like the “Book Now” button. Minimalist, elegant designs focus on user experience, facilitating the decision to book directly on your site.
7. Design Compelling “Room” Pages
“Room” pages are where visitors spend the most time. A visually appealing experience with detailed, relevant information can significantly impact a potential customer’s decision to book. Highlight each room’s features, using pictograms to illustrate information for a better user experience.
Conclusion
These 7 design trends are gaining momentum this year, but it’s up to you to adapt your website to suit your branding and the image you want to project. The choice of colors, photos, and structure should align with your digital hotel marketing objectives. By implementing these trends, you can elevate your website, attract more visitors, and increase your direct bookings.