a) that most of these designs are purely picture-approached and over-evaluate the force of an image-based design. Not all in the target group are art lovers and I don't need to have pictures repeated over and over again. The main point is how to group the pictures and to think carefully about what senses/wishes/usp's to attract. I would fairly say that at least 75% of the examples given would fail my humble jugdement.

b) it is surprising that obviously a given picture-link to a facebook page, a youtube channel and a twitter account still make a good "viral" impression. I think they don't. When I look at a lot of these hotels profiles I see that I am kind of right - no real involvement, more or less a blank repeating of helplessly targeted offers by a coffee-fed marketing crowd :-). I got the impression that a lot of these agencies creating these site don not really have a profound insight into what's really possible in combining a facebook account with a website. this goes as well for other social networks and channels on the internet. also the placing of these links still seem to follow the rule, the smaller the better and let's best put them to the footer. that's a bad strategy and using analytics for years now I can tell that for any business clicks under the crucial 40% top of a website get (all 60 bottom %) no more than maybe 20% (and if so assume yourself a lucky guy!).

c) the pricing models online still follow the good old printing times scheme as well as the booking systems and formulars. there's so much more possible...especially there would be in case of the listed companies. i see more potential lost here than value gained.

I didn't intend to be harsh just critique. Hotel website and hotel web marketing - to be more concise - is just still a field which needs more innovation. also crucial migt be not to only rely on a good designer but to have someone handy who broadly deals with the internet, viral marketing, new media techniques and stuff. Looking at the majority of the examples here I doubt that this happens most of the time.

Saludos!

See also http://www.saintjohn.gr/ This one is in Mykonos Greece

I saw and tried a hotel website builder, I liked that too with hotel design templates that fit almost all the hotel's needs. I think their sites structure is the best in my opinion, pretty professional and in one glance your customers get to know what you're offering, I think they get a feel of your hotel, motel or b&b etc. The thing I like about that builder (http://www.roomjack.com) is that their control panel / website builder I found super easy, much modern as well. They have a free trial too for someone interested to check it out. I was inspired by their capabilities. Thought of sharing it in case someone might be looking to revamp or get a new hotel website for theirs.

Anyways, thanks for sharing the inspirations.

Only word of advice to smaller hotels is DONT do it yourself. Get a pro in. If you could see how many bookings the good looking sites produce vs how many are produced when "my kids do the site", you would make the small investment required.