Successful Hotel Website Design
Digital Hospitality has worked with hundreds of hotels across North America. Through
this, and our own extensive experience in the hospitality industry we have developed
a comprehensive approach to hotel website design. The most important step is to
sit down with our clients and get a feel for the unique needs of their hotel. Each
property is different, and a custom-tailored web marketing approach is the best
way to get the most bang for your buck. With hotel website design it is extremely
important to be friendly both to online visitors and search engines. After all,
if you have a beautiful website that no one can find, it’s almost as bad as having
a readily available but poorly laid out site. At Digital Hospitality, we know how
to give you the best of both worlds.
Target Market Research
The design process begins with research. Our creative team endeavors to use your
own experiences as a hotel owner along with our own research of your area to evaluate
what will be the best strategy for your hotel. Web design relies on having relevant
content and the best possible keywords to attract the maximum web traffic possible.
Over the years we have developed a highly effective strategy for determining which
keywords are useful and will help you rank, and which ones are less effective or
oversaturated. It’s all about helping your hotel stand out from the competition.
Graphically Appealing Website Design
Creating an appealing website layout that attracts and retains visitors will generate
increased online and offline revenues for your property. Our skilled team of graphic
designers will work with you to create an appealing layout that you and your customers
will love.
Our goal is to provide you with a unique look that reflects your hotel’s individual style, charm, and brand. We utilize clean, easy to navigate layouts allowing
your site’s visitors to easily find the content they are looking for. Each page
of your website will be directly integrated to your hotel’s online booking engine
to simplify the booking process and convert page visits to room bookings. Having
worked extensively with international hotel chains, we can guarantee that our layouts
will always meet your brand’s website standards while giving your hotel a unique
look and feel.
One of the most critical features of hotel website design is Search Engine Optimization.
In today’s hyper-competitive market it is imperative that your hotel rank well on
search engines like Google and Bing, which are the main way for travelers to find
your hotel. Since very few searchers are actually looking for a specific hotel,
it is vital to understand what keywords they are searching for, and build the content
of your website around these. It is surprising how many design companies still view
search engine optimization as an afterthought, and concentrate entirely on the cosmetics
of the site, but at Digital Hospitality we incorporate SEO from the beginning of
your hotel’s website design to ensure that your search engine rankings are maximized.
We also provide you with detailed analytics software to allow you to see just how
successful your new website is.
Web 2.0 Features
Today’s internet users are much more demanding than they were even a few years ago.
It is no longer enough to simply present them with information and hope they will
absorb it; it is important to engage visitors to your website with interactive content.
Not only does this encourage repeat visits to your site and longer time spent on
your site per visit, but it is instrumental in drawing new visitors based on peer
recommendation. Digital Hospitality is continually innovating exciting new features
to make your hotel’s website design more appealing and user-friendly. Since we design
and build all our value-added content in-house, all our components can be completely
customized to suit your individual requirements. Currently we offer:
- An enhanced Google Maps feature that can provide visitors with detailed driving
directions from their house to your front door.
- A fully customizable map feature that allows you to pin local attractions and driving
directions from your hotel.
- A state-of-the art photo gallery allowing you and your guests to upload their favorite
pictures of the hotel and surrounding area.
- Many other exciting value-added components. If you can imagine it for your website,
chances are we can build it for you!
If you’ve ever had to deal with website developers before, you’ll know what a hassle
it can be to get new content or updates onto your website. With our advanced Content
Management System software, we put the power to update your website back in your
hands. Easily update hotel packages, information on local attractions, and various
other facets of your hotel website whenever you want. No programming experience
is required – it’s as easy as typing in a word processor, and we’ll make sure to
give you a complete tutorial to get you started.
Hotel blogs are a hugely useful tool for both attracting traffic to your website,
and keeping people on it longer once they are there. Our hotel blog software works
just like any other popular blog tool, but it is directly integrated into your hotel
website layout. This means visitors are not navigating away to another website and
becoming distracted from your goal: booking rooms. Blogs, when properly maintained,
are a great way to improve your site traffic and search engine rankings. Think you’re
too busy to maintain a blog? Our team can arrange to update your blog ourselves
with weekly community events and attractions.
Our sophisticated email marketing software allows hoteliers to easily create custom
emails and send them to all their contacts with the click of a mouse. Creating custom
email marketing campaigns becomes easier than ever! Once an email is sent, real-time
statistics are available so you can track the exact success of your campaign.
Brand Standards
Many chains and franchises have hotel website design standards and guidelines to
help individual properties fit into the chain’s brand image. In many cases, the
individual hotels take this as a sign that they should use the cookie-cutter template
and end up with an entirely unremarkable website. At Digital Hospitality we have
worked extensively with a number of major hospitality brands, and we know how to
meet brand standards while exceeding your expectations for a unique, individualized
website.
Our ability to work effectively within brand standard guidelines has
lead to Digital Hospitality being named a Best Western Preferred Vendor for hotel
website design and internet marketing.
Virtual Tours & Hotel Photography
Perhaps the single most important element for driving conversions on your hotel
website is the use of appealing photographs. Visitors want to be able to see the
rooms they will be staying in, what the lobby looks like, if you have a nice pool,
etc. Great hotel imagery can make a huge impact on the number of bookings your website
generates. Digital Hospitality works closely with skilled photographers for all
your photography and virtual tour requirements. An experienced photographer will
ensure your hotel puts its best foot forward, and will provide you with top quality
images for use on your website. In addition, our virtual tours provide visitors
with a unique way of viewing your hotel, allowing them to experience your rooms
and public spaces in 3D!
Brand Booking Engine
Each hotel website designed by Digital Hospitality is created to integrate directly
into your franchisor’s online booking engine (if applicable). This eliminates the
need for costly third-party booking engines, saving you substantial expenses. In
addition, this removes the need to update rates and availability on a third party
site, which can be a tedious, time consuming, and expensive process. Simply update
your hotel’s GDS, and the rates on your own property website will be automatically
adjusted. When a client books on your property website, that booking will be instantly
downloaded into your PMS. This prevents the possibility of over-bookings, and equates
to substantial time savings.