Hotel websites that guests love: 4 visual ingredients that will boost your hotel’s bookings
On a weekly basis, my team and I visit hundreds of hotel websites and study their galleries to get a better understanding of how hotels manage their visual content and of what quality the photographs are. In the process of analysing those websites, I noticed there are a few elements that all optimised, good looking hotel websites have in common. In today’s blog post, I will explain what ingredients are needed to make your website look even more captivating than it is already.
The direct correlation between bookings and hotel websites cannot be denied. Surprisingly, the quality of the design of the website has no correlation to the size or stars of the hotel. A small, 1-star boutique hotel, could have much more of a compelling website with great functionality and character, than a 4-star hotel that just missed the boat. Regardless of the size or stars of your hotel, it’s never too late to learn. To all hotel managers that are still struggling with their hotel website design: learn from the hotels that are already applying the following principles!
Ingredient 1: Fascinating visuals - lots of them.
One of the main purposes of a hotel website is to show visitors photos of where they will be staying. Essentially your guests visit the website to book, but they also want to see what the room is like and feel the overall atmosphere.
Poorly lit, grainy photos won’t sell your property, no matter how nice your story is or what price you are selling your rooms for. This should be your starting point. Besides that, it would be a shame if you put hard work and effort into designing a great looking website and then using outdated, poor quality pictures. See it like yin and yang. Fascinating websites go hand in hand with fascinating visuals.
Quantity matters too! Would you rather see 6 or 25 pictures of the hotel that you are interested to stay in? In fact, visitors are 150% more engaged with properties that have more than 20 pictures in their gallery. Show your visitors what your hotel has got to offer instead of hiding your beautiful facilities and features of your hotel!
Ingredient 2: Emotionally-connecting visual stories
We understand it is tempting to write a long text to describe how soft the pillow is, how spacious the rooms are etc., however, using 25 photos to show the characters of the hotel will have immediate connection rather than 2500 words. Especially when travelers are comparing your website with others at the same time.
“People don’t ask for facts in making up their minds. They would rather have one good, soul-satisfying emotion than a dozen facts.” — Robert Keith Leavitt
Begin to frame a guest experience. Grab their attention straight from the moment they enter your website. Use emotionally-arose visuals to give room for imagination for your guests: a feeling of what the hotel is about, what kind of staying experience to expect and so on.
How does this hotel front-page make you feel? Nothing like the usual hotel website you come across, right? Provocateur’s website style is simple and pleasing to the eye without intrusive pop-ups nor giant room price tag. To stand out in the hospitality industry and inspire potential guests to book with you instead of with your competitors, place compelling visuals that tell your story throughout the website. Show. Don’t tell.
Ingredient 3: Mobile-friendly images and easy viewing across devices
According to Skift, by the end of 2017, 40% of the online travel sales will be generated by mobile bookings. That’s a huge number, so make use of this opportunity! I’m not saying that you should directly opt for your own hotel app, however, your website should have an optimised version whether it’s on desktop, tablet or phone.
Ingredient 4: Immediate image loading, no delay in hotel inspiration
Website visitors have claimed that fast-loading websites are important for the loyalty to the brand, and mention they will leave the page after 3 seconds of inactivity.
Speed is important for the user experience; you don’t want to lose visitors because the page needs to load longer than 2 seconds.
Lesson learned — off you go!
All hoteliers should have the ability to promote their properties on the web, regardless of the number of stars the hotel has. Where previously it was only achievable by big hotel chains, small independent hotels have an online presence too. There are numerous hotel websites that have an out-dated look and don’t succeed in showing the hotel’s qualities to set it apart from the competition.
When you decide to invest time and energy in a website that offers smooth navigating experience with attractive features, make sure you take care of the “basics”: quality photography to tell your hotel story.
We’d love to know your ideas and feedback — write us at partnership@briefy.co if you do! Stay tuned for more blogs about how your hotel business can benefit from curated visual content.
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By Stefan Almuli, Hotel Partnership Team at Briefy.co
