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Checking in Hotel Web Design: 50 Cosy Hotel Websites and Trends

Hotels go to great lengths to provide the perfect ambiance and atmosphere for their customers. However, most hotels overlook the importance of having an accessible website that serves as an alternative gateway to draw customers’ interest in staying at their hotel.

Hotels mostly cater to an international crowd. Other than the frequent business executives who practically live in hotels most of the year, majority of their clientele have never stayed at their hotel before. The only thing these hotels can do to attract online customers to make a reservation with them is to ensure that they have offer an online booking experience that differs from the others in a positive way.

Hotel Websites
Image credit: Ayla87

In this article, we take a look at some beautiful and innovative hotel websites that are currently floating in cyberspace in the hopes that other web designers can draw inspiration for their next hotel project.

What makes an Excellent Hotel Website?

There are many factors to consider when creating an excellent hotel website. It must not only have an attractive design, but must also maintain simplicity of navigation, provided succinct and relevant information and, above all else, easy functionality. All these work together to help create a pleasant experience for the user which may very well be the deciding factor customers consider when making a reservation.

Visual Attraction

A picture paints a thousand words. Photographs of the hotel grounds, rooms and even location maps will allow customers to get a better idea of what to expect of the hotel. For some customers, appearances are everything and a pretty picture of their vacation lodging can help nudge them into a decision.

Hotel Guarda Golf
Hotel Guarda Golf has a large gallery of photographs that allow customers to look at what they are paying for from various angles. This will help customers to get a sense of security when deciding if it is the right place to spend their money on.

Hotel Guarda Golf

Social, Social, Social

Not everyone you know gets to travel around the world, as such, the best way to get feedback regarding where to stay on your travels is through reviews from satisfied customers. Reviews are the modern day word of mouth recommendation that can be a big factor customers consider before making any hotel reservations. Social media and viral marketing have become so powerful that even the rich and famous rely on them to make a decision on where to stay away from home. Advancement in web technology allows hotel guests to give feedback after their stay with the hotel.

In fact today, guests can even subscribe to hotel RSS feeds or follow the hotel’s social networks like Twitter to stay updated with the hotel’s latest promotions and events.

MGM Grand
MGM Grand allows their visitors to obtain updates from popular social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.

Mgm Grand

Functionality

The website of a hotel needs to attract customers visually, but also ensure that it is not a hassle to get the basic information they seek while deciding which hotel to make a reservation with.

The loading time of each webpage should be fast if not customers might get frustrated. And appealing to more than one of our senses can help customers get a taste the quality of service the hotel offers. While customers scroll through pretty photographs of the rooms and hotel’s grounds and services, they can be treated to pleasant and soothing music as well.

Having an online booking system is important as it allows the busy user to quickly make the necessary reservations without the hassle of waiting for a phone operator to attend to them. A powerful booking system will help ensure that it can handle large numbers of booking traffic without any problems and allow the hotel to enter the next technological era smoothly.

Atlantis The Palm
Beautiful and large scrolling images that don’t require any reloading time allows the visitor to enjoy the visual treat on the website. Altantis also has a comprehensive online booking system that makes it very easy for visitors to use.

Atlantis The Palm

Multilingual Websites

Hotels hope to target the international market and although English is a widely spoken language, hotels should cater to the needs of customers whose first language isn’t English. If the same information given to English speaking customers is also provided in other languages like French, Japanese, and German etc without having to exit the website, it will greatly increase the chances of the customer choosing to make a reservation with the hotel.

Albert Hotel Riga
Albert Hotel Riga is one such example in which their website allows the customer to choose between languages like English, Russian and Latvian without having to exit the site.

Albert Hotel

Ease of Use

Clear and simple navigation should be one of the priorities when designing any hotel website. It is one of the push factors for visitors to make the decision to make a reservation with the hotel. Important information like location, contact details, and booking methods, should be easy to find and simple to use. This will ensure that the prospective customer does not get frustrated and leave the site without making a booking.

Grand Hotel Tremezzo
Easy to navigate, the Grand Hotel Tremezzo website allows the visitor to quickly obtain important information as they are listed neatly and prominently on the navigation bar.

Grand Hotel Tremezzo

Detailed Service

It is important for customers to know the various services the hotel can offer them during their stay. Knowing more about the hotel and their policies will help customers gain a sense of security and build confidence in the hotel they are considering to book with. Relevant details should be easily accessible and in given in a reasonable font size for customers to read with ease. Information given on the website should be valid and there should not be any misleading or hidden details kept from potential customers.

Capella Singapore
Capella Singapore is a six star hotel with numerous facilities like their spa options and four different dinning venues as well as activities like their signature tours and cruises. These are available for visitors to take a look at on their site, thus giving them an extra edge over other hotels.

Capella Singapore

Choice of Colors

Colour schemes used in hotel websites play an important role. Warm and sensual colours are often used as they create a homely and comfortable feeling for their web visitors. After all, a hotel stay is one’s home away from home. Hotel websites usually have a colour scheme of white, blue, black or green because of the symbolic connotations of these colours. White is associated with elegance and purity. Blue is calming and sensual. Black adds a sense of mystery and Zen-like feeling. Nature’s green helps the busy traveller unwind and refreshes their senses.

Hotel Missoni
Hotel Missoni website design stands out from the others because of its unique concept and excellent use of colours.

Hotel Missoni

50 Beautifully Designed Hotel and Resort Websites

Shown below are some beautifully designed and current hotel and resort websites, feel free to browse through their websites if you have the time.

41hotel
41hotel

Alexander Hotels
Alexander Hotels

Banyan Tree
Banyan Tree

Bauer Venezia
Bauer Venezia

Bellagio
Bellagio

Christophe Harbour
Christophe Harbour

Hilton
Hilton

Hotel Arcaluinoe
Hotel Arcaluinoe

Hotel Dion
Hotel Dion

Hotel Grand Pacific
Hotel Grand Pacific

Hiranoya
Hiranoya

Hotel Terra Jackson Hole
Hotel Terra Jackson Hole

Jumeirah
Jumeirah

Kahala Resort
Kahala Resort

Kiwi Collection
Kiwi Collection

Lion Sands
Lion Sands

Leonia
Leonia

Mansion Hotel
Mansion Hotel

New York Palace
New York Palace

Narutis
Narutis

Palazzo Las Vegas
Palazzo Las Vegas

Paro
Paro

Preferred Hotels
Preferred Hotels

Peninsula
Peninsula

Raffles
Raffles

Ritz Carlton
Ritz Carlton

Sanderson London
Sanderson London

Seoul Plaza
Seoul Plaza

Shangri La
Shangri La

Sheraton Walker Hill
Sheraton Walker Hill

Shilla
Shilla

Sofitel
Sofitel

Altira Macau
Altira Macau

Stonewall Resort
Stonewall Resort

Swissotel
Swissotel

The Benjamin
The Benjamin

The Clarendon
The Clarendon

The Dorchester
The Dorchester

The Hotel
The Hotel

The Plaza
The Plaza

Thistle
Thistle

Trump Las Vegas Hotel
Trump Las Vegas Hotel

Tivoli Hotels
Tivoli Hotels

US Hotels Group
US Hotels Group

Venetian
Venetian

Vila Vigor
Vila Vigor

Waldorf Astoria
Waldorf Astoria

Wynn Las Vegas
Wynn Las Vegas

Westin
Westin

Woodfin Hotels
Woodfin Hotels

Checking In Soon?

I hope these hotel websites were able to whet your appetite for a much needed vacation for yourself or your family. And if you see any other great hotel websites or have something to share about their site designs, do drop us a comment below.

Posted on: November 21st, 2009

Aidan

Aidan Huang is a web enthusiast and blogger who loves all things design and technology. He is also the chief editor at his creative blog - InspireMonkey which shares new, exciting and informative discoveries found from surfing the net.

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74 Comments & 30 Pingbacks | Add a Comment

  1. November 21, 2009 at 5:53 pm

    Great article! Although I will probably never design a website for a hotel, these are still some great tips to implement in other industries. Oh, and the examples are all really nice!

  2. November 21, 2009 at 8:29 pm

    great

    thank you

  3. November 21, 2009 at 8:33 pm

    Really nice collection...amazing draw grid system in all hotels. that´s what im looking for... :D

  4. November 21, 2009 at 8:50 pm

    I personally love this one: http://www.hubertnz.sk/
    But I agree, great article :)

  5. Adam
    November 21, 2009 at 9:11 pm

    Nice collection, but...

    "Multilingual Languages"? Oh, really?

    I think it should be either multiple languages or multilingual sites... or multilingual itself :)

    • November 22, 2009 at 12:58 pm

      Hey adam, thanks for the feedback.

  6. cybersage
    November 21, 2009 at 9:24 pm

    I like this one: http://www.felixzawojski.com/
    Made in the most famous russian studio.

  7. November 21, 2009 at 9:33 pm

    Nice collection.

  8. November 21, 2009 at 9:44 pm

    Great article. I really like Cappela and Mansion ones. I made a simple but smart one for a local b&b: http://www.mineheadguesthouse.co.uk/

  9. November 21, 2009 at 9:50 pm

    Well, your post is great! As the list of all the hotels and resorts is simply mind blowing. I absolutely liked all of the hotels websites and felt that they were successful enough to create an ambiance of their actual hotel environment. All the sites gave a feel of relaxation and luxury. Good collection!

  10. November 21, 2009 at 10:39 pm

    Don't forget the "Faena", in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
    http://www.faenahotelanduniverse.com

  11. November 21, 2009 at 10:56 pm

    A lot of smaller hotels and resorts are starting to use WordPress to build and regularly update their sites.

    La Orquidea (the Orchid) in Spain http://www.laorquidea.co.uk is a good example of a clean design with a unique template.

  12. November 21, 2009 at 11:37 pm

    I wonder if the author has seen the web-site for the first 5* hotel in Moldova, http://www.clubroyalpark.md :)

  13. RonL
    November 21, 2009 at 11:52 pm

    Too Many of these examples look like ready made template design.

  14. November 22, 2009 at 1:23 am

    You got the Sanderson in there, but check out the Sanderson's parent company, Morgan's Hotel Group: http://www.morganshotelgroup.com/

  15. November 22, 2009 at 3:59 am

    Great work thx mate

  16. November 22, 2009 at 8:06 pm

    Thank you for the inspiration! At a former job I worked on 4 hotel redesigns.

    One I had free reign on and it turned out great. Except now they use a photo of the hotel on the landing page that looks awful (hotel is framed by a black entrance with a big plaque from a historical landmark (not the hotel), black windows, and plastic chairs and tables from a snack bar in the hotel). It's literally why would I want to stay there?!

    The other three...well one was a Template Monster template (and I'm quite sure the owners didn't know it and were charged premium for it), and the other I still want to barf when I think of it, including what they were charged. The fourth also wasn't what I would have done.

    My former employer just did not, and still doesn't, understand that ambiance is so important in hotel/resort design.

  17. November 22, 2009 at 10:28 pm

    What a great collection of inspiration, forgive me I couldn't help but to think that these tips aren't just for the hospitality industry alone. They could in fact be applied to any industry.

    what a great collection of these examples.

    --

    Thanks and Regards

    Noel for Nopun.com

  18. November 23, 2009 at 12:08 am

    Great examples! I'm working on a hotel project now and these are exactly what I'm looking for!!

  19. November 23, 2009 at 1:11 pm

    Thanks guys for all the other recommendation of hotel sites. Keep them coming.

  20. November 23, 2009 at 2:08 pm

    I wonder how may of those nice designs and sites are SEO friendly enough to beat the competence in Search Engines.

    • November 23, 2009 at 4:05 pm

      Hi Ani Lopez, in fact many of the hotel sites ranked poorly in major search engines and are hard to locate them.

      • November 23, 2009 at 9:53 pm

        Turn off your Flash plugin in I.E and have a look at peninsula.com again - this is how search engines see this Flash site - very SEO friendly! If a site is developed properly there is no reason why even full flash, content managed websites (peninsula.com runs on Sitecore) can't be SEO frinedly.

        Rgds

        Ed.

        • November 23, 2009 at 11:02 pm

          Hi Ed, why would anyone want to use I.E anyway?

  21. November 23, 2009 at 6:00 pm

    Some really cool websites, it's funny, but if I'm unsure which hotel to book I always go with the one that has the better site!

  22. November 23, 2009 at 8:28 pm

    In general, too many hotels and hotel chains put design before usability, when designing their websites.

    KR

  23. November 23, 2009 at 9:50 pm

    That's a great collection of sites you have. You might also want to look at these:
    http://www.wolganvalley.com/
    http://www.al-maha.com/
    http://www.themirahotel.com/

    • November 23, 2009 at 10:17 pm

      Thanks Ed for the recommendation.

    • January 20, 2010 at 3:09 pm

      I luv wolganvalley man, natural color, simple and clean
      nice site

  24. November 23, 2009 at 11:26 pm

    Thanx Dude, this is awesome !

  25. November 23, 2009 at 11:36 pm

    great article !!
    nice collection

  26. November 24, 2009 at 1:15 am

    Great article, Lots of nice designs here. i Think it is important that a hotel website should be clear and welcoming.
    Thanks for sharing.

  27. November 24, 2009 at 1:49 am

    You should also look at B&B web sites. Many of those are much better then the hotel sites you are showing.

  28. November 24, 2009 at 2:13 am

    Such an awesome collection. Thanks for the work you put into it!

  29. November 24, 2009 at 2:27 am

    Very nice website I love the look and feel of most of them but I agree with Ani Lopez what good is a beautiful site if no one can find you for the keywords your site is relevant for. Design with SEO in mind is the ultimate challenge most of us face and also understanding that there are two audiences humans and robots. Achieving a technologically sound design with SEO in mind is not only about keyword density its about cross browser compatibility and making sure your site validates across the CSS / XHTML standards in web 2.0. Google Webmaster Tools is also a must to take advantage of all the resources and site diagnostics.

  30. Eric
    November 24, 2009 at 5:24 am

    While all these sites look pretty, I wonder how they stack up in terms of measurable ROI, leads generated, etc.

    Pretty sites definitely look nice, but it's 2009! Everyone knows a lot of these hotels have seen their bookings get clobbered by the recession. If it don't make dollars, it don't make sense.

    The Donald Trump Vegas one at least has some direct response elements....

  31. November 24, 2009 at 7:11 am

    Many of the hotels listed here have brand recognition and in all likelihood have large marketing budgets (web/print/TV).

    For very high end accommodations the client isn't the person doing the booking. It's most likely a personal assistant, executive assistant or a travel agency that they work with.

    Bookings and recommendations come from a variety of sources such as TripAdvisor.

  32. GGastis
    November 24, 2009 at 8:28 am

    Good post, thank you. Check out http://www.21cMuseumHotel.com, in Louisville, KY of all places.

  33. Gianluca
    November 24, 2009 at 8:48 pm

    Great article, inspiring! :)
    I'd suggest also this wonderful 5 stars Hotel in the Amalfi Coast:
    http://www.hotelpalumbo.it/

  34. Scott
    November 24, 2009 at 11:55 pm

    Great article - one of best I have seen is http://www.spaces42.com

    All contemporary homes to rent and the images are great.

  35. November 25, 2009 at 12:34 am

    Dear Aidan, thank you very much for the mention of our website Hotel Guarda Golf & for the great article. Cheers, Daniele

  36. November 26, 2009 at 11:32 pm

    Great article,
    I suggest http://www.dulacetduparc.com/en/ a nice Resort on Lake Garda (Italy)

    Thanks and Regards

  37. November 27, 2009 at 12:17 am

    Excellent selection guys. Definitely a lot of hoteliers could benefit from this sort of inspiration

  38. November 27, 2009 at 1:10 am

    An interesting article and some good looking websites. You have mentioned ease of use and navigation (usability) yet, most of these sites seem to be a pretty picture and little else.

    Yes you need to impress your customers, but an Internet based customer will only wait 10 seconds or so for a website to download, they are impatient. Having massive pictures on the front page may not be the answer.

    Also, you mentioned most hotels are catering for overseas customers. Even with broadband a connection over the Internet from overseas will not be as fast as a local connection. So the size of pictures should be addressed. Small and well placed pictures may be a better option.

  39. Anne
    November 27, 2009 at 3:46 am

    What a nice website gallery!

    I like also http://www.pupp.cz

    Beautiful place, traditional hotel, excellent services ...

  40. November 27, 2009 at 8:15 am

    Great article, thank you for these inspiring websites.
    I recently found this website of the hotel Hollmann Beletage in Vienna, Austria:
    http://www.hollmann-beletage.at

  41. November 27, 2009 at 5:46 pm

    I agree in this article. The way to make a customer decide which hotel to choose is the simplicity of Web Design. Easy to navigate and less hassle. When I looked at the collection, I love them all. They are all creative and artistic yet so simple.

  42. November 28, 2009 at 4:22 pm

    Nice selection Aidan, definitely some good pages there. However, I also have to agree with some of the previous posts - a great looking website isn't always the one that is easiest to navigate, quickest to load or best at converting lookers into bookers. We specialise in hotel and travel websites, and while great design is important, we prioritise a number of other factors as well when building sites.

    Another issue is the booking engine - you can build a great site only to have to bolt on a booking engine that looks terrible, or one that looks great but takes ages to load and confuses the hell out of the average visitor, preventing the site from getting the bookings it should.

    Anyway, let me suggest a candidate for your hotel web design selection - they are not one of our clients, either! A small hotel in Romania, and a lesson on keeping things simple - an entire hotel website in what is basically 7 pages. Disastrous from an SEO perspective though.

    http://www.hotel-oxford.ro

    Thanks,

    David

  43. December 2, 2009 at 3:53 pm

    I came across an awesome looking website, too. I have also stayed at the hotel, so I know their potential as a strong hotel. The design is also good. I hope you like it

    http://www.hotelrio.in

  44. December 3, 2009 at 4:47 am

    Nice websites! Very inspirational :)

  45. December 3, 2009 at 3:16 pm

    I am really glad to have gone through the post, its amazing I was trying to see whether it will be of any use me and I am sure going to use for future reference.

  46. David
    December 16, 2009 at 1:16 am

    I stayed in this Hotel in Killarney Ireland - http://www.MuckrossPark.com - and just liked the easy navigation of the site...plus some of their promotional images are excellent.

  47. December 18, 2009 at 3:32 am

    That's a great collection of sites you have. You might also want to look at http://www.murmuri.com - Hotel in Barcelona (Spain)

  48. December 29, 2009 at 12:54 am

    Wow, some awesome examples of really great hotel sites. Thanks!

  49. Carter
    January 9, 2010 at 7:24 am

    Good stuff guys... check out http://www.citycenter.com also a great hotel site.

  50. Mike
    January 23, 2010 at 5:51 am

    I spend about 250 days a year in hotels, it's not a misery I would wish on my worst enemy. With that being said I spend more time on Travel Websites than I would care to admit. First rule, if you have a flash website, I will be off that site faster than it can load. Nothing worse when I am trying to book a room, and the hotel company wants to show me a 3 minute flash video of their site.
    Speaking of which Marriot just got an upgrade to their site which is much more user friendly . Lastly I would be remiss if I didnt mention my new favorite kid on the block. http://www.hoteltattler.com Enjoy!

  51. January 25, 2010 at 3:11 pm

    Its really helpful and informative , Amazing work...

    Way of explanation and pictures presentation is attractive.

  52. January 27, 2010 at 10:08 am

    Hello Aidan!
    I m a freelance web developer and I am quite happy to found you like guy on the web. Right now I am designing a hotel website by reading your post as inspiration. it is coming at http://www.vijieya.com

  53. January 27, 2010 at 6:02 pm

    I think this Hotel Rate indiciator is a great idea!
    We have been slowly creating our own hotel review site for our local town to ensure everyone gets the best hotel to suit them.

  54. January 28, 2010 at 1:29 pm

    Excellent read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch because I found it for him smile So let me rephrase that.

  55. February 5, 2010 at 6:01 pm

    wow, that's really a nice collection! ...a lot of inspiration...
    thanks for posting this article!

  56. February 24, 2010 at 6:48 pm

    yeah, that's really cool inspiration! thanks for this collection!
    my Favourit is "banyan tree". Greetings, jakob

  57. February 28, 2010 at 6:25 am

    Stunning collection of sites. Trully inspirational.

  58. March 5, 2010 at 11:27 pm
  59. March 22, 2010 at 9:23 pm

    Usability is equally as important as the looks of a hotel website. A stunned visitor will want to do what he came for and quickly otherwise, the other websites are only a click away

  60. March 24, 2010 at 4:44 pm

    Some great websites here! This one will be nice when its finished: http://www.oldpostofficeguesthouse.co.uk/

  61. March 28, 2010 at 3:03 am

    I've been trying a way to figure out how to implement a good design and site for my motels, I found this article through google. good tips !

  62. April 20, 2010 at 2:52 am

    Check this website out. Great post by the way

  63. April 22, 2010 at 6:56 pm

    Gr8 article thnx man...

  64. April 24, 2010 at 8:25 pm

    Great list, designing a hotel website & this will help for sure

  65. July 22, 2010 at 3:34 pm

    i suggest the new Grand Hotel Gardone Riviera in Italy - Garda Lake
    http://www.grandhotelgardone.it

  66. August 28, 2010 at 5:19 pm

    wow my mouth drops to see so many nice hotel websites...really great photos, might need to be inspired by this hotel sites. hopefully i can find a good Marmaris hotels websites.

  67. August 31, 2010 at 10:53 am

    This is a wonderful blog post. really cool to see how they all have that complete unique template. Luxury hotels really make a nice impression.

  68. lhe
    September 2, 2010 at 11:46 pm

    This is such a great article to read. I'm working on a growing hotel website as well, and this helps me compare the best with our website. I'm very impressed and will definitely bookmark this post for reference and inspiration!

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