Simple Hotel Website as a Strategic Instrument
Many hotels do not attract enough visitors simply because of the following: their booking websites are presented by a weak non-impressive design. Whether it is a small bed & breakfast, elegant boutique lodging, or a large hotel, few of them seem to truly master the art of an attractive website, which is a pity as it is one of the most essential elements of direct booking resource.
Social psychology is at the core of this matter, which in fact consists of 70 techniques of how to make the interaction experience more enticing, vivid and effective. Persuasive design adds psychological component to “gently push” potential consumers to the desired goal. There are however some hotels that provide good website examples that persuade customers to book. To help a designer enhance an appearance and an impact of a website, we explore some of the main elements of awesome hotel website designs and show how they help to convert online visitors into clients.
These techniques are used to establish credibility. Emotions are the main driver of the feeling of subjective well-being. Emotion based techniques serve to extract the desired emotional response in the process and trigger signals for action. So, let us consider some of the most frequently used best hotel websites design elements that attract customers.
High quality images
Good reservation website must attract attention with good quality high-resolution images. As soon as a user gets on the homepage, he expects to see pictures, so it is important that he likes them, especially the first one, for example a photo of a nicely styled entrance hall and fashionable furnishing. Each hotel must be presented to its advantage by means of high quality images. Hoteliers should use the images cleverly to encourage travelers to stay on the website. Only the best shots are to be published. A designer should make sure that pictures are also optimally sized for a website attracting even more full-paying guests. The style of the hotel should be perfectly conveyed in the images. Hotel website design ideas may comprise of interiors, buildings and surrounding areas – everything that conveys the particular character of a hotel’s hospitality.
Structure
For a designer, it is important to consider the outlook and the right placement of direct booking button. The website should combine an attractive digital look with an easy reservation process that stimulates direct booking. It should also be reinforced by the right placement of the picture gallery and clear well-organized construction of a homepage. Menu items should be clearly visible and descriptions should be crisp and captivating. These elements are mutually supportive and help to convince visitors to book direct. On most creative hotel websites the one can usually easily spot them.
Descriptions
Attractive descriptions are essential for emotional appeal to travelers. Most booking portals know how to handle words boosting the hotel business. Rather than mentioning the obvious, it is important to focus on writing emotional content that also provides potential guests with valuable information. This method of luxury hotel website design ensures that travelers can imagine a stay at this hotel. They are more likely to follow the link, explore the resource, and ultimately book instead of leaving the website.
Content should correspond with pictures, and it is important that it does not divert from them. Descriptions should get into the imagination of travelers. Make sure your simple hotel website has the same feeling. Insert a few colored rows in a modern, reader-friendly font that blends with other visual elements.
It could also be worth while to show how many rooms are available. If only a few are left, for user it is a direct trigger to action: I have to decide quickly!
Online visibility
Rooms’ availability on various best looking hotel websites plays a very important role. A user apparently competes with many others for a room in a much sought after hotel. At this moment, almost something like a “competitive situation” arises between this visitor and other users, who could also want to book a room in that very hotel. That’s another incentive for booking.
And if you buy both, you save
Some websites also stimulate visitors to buy additional services when the do the booking. For example by offering special rates for room plus transfer bundle. This can certainly be a great incentive for those in need of a transfer. Here you have directly “the best price”. So why continue searching?
Come back soon!
And of course, a long-term customer loyalty also plays a part in the persuasive best hotel website design. Things working in retail work the same on great hotel websites, and having the things that encourage clients to come again is a good thing.
Simplicity
Simple hotel website design’s layout has to reflect quality and affordability. The homepage should contain only information that potential guests would like to see. The structure should to be clear and refined, texts short and concise, and pictures attractive – all to help visitors realize why they want to book and that the direct booking is the best way to do it.
Picture sets
Booking website should contain picture sets for each of the available room types. Each room type is one-of-a-kind, and it is important to give guests an opportunity to see all of them in advance. When visitors know exactly what to expect, they feel much more comfortable with their booking decision. It is really easy.
Website designer should also include wide-angle images of every room type that can be displayed together alongside the respective room sizes and prices. This intuitive hotel website layout helps travelers know exactly what they’re looking at and makes sure they do not have to scroll through pages because it’s all in one place.
Trend Used by Successful Hotel Reservation Websites
Some of the successful and even some of the best hotel websites sometimes share a very similar web design layout. They focus on large, high-quality images, favorable booking impressions, attractive descriptions, simple layout and page areas where information about each room type is displayed. If these elements are integrated into a hotel website, good quality direct booking channel will be created that will help owners lower their bounce rate and increase direct bookings.
What about Usability?
Persuasive design implies convenience for users. When it comes to sales, Award winning hotel websites pursue multiple goals:
- Convert visitors into clients;
- Encourage clients to book additional services;
- Convert clients into repeat customers.
But: If a usability of a website is not there, persuasive hotel reservation website design alone won’t be enough. Likewise, the website that is easy to use won’t be sufficient unless it motivates clients to use it and do the booking there. Here usability and persuasive design really go hand in hand.
Perfect Visualization Is Your Key to Success
Comprehensible structure, good visualization and high-quality texts and photos are important elements that show hotel’s qualitative differences from others in service, nice hotel website design, and hospitality.
Guests don’t like to wait so a website should load quickly. The download speed of a website depends on the proper hotel website layout design and programming. It should also look well on all devices and adjust to different screen sizes automatically rearranging the order and sizes of blocks, in other words be adaptive.
In visual assessment no special tools are required – just look at it through the eyes of a guest – this is how amazing hotel websites are created.
It is also important to engage good professional developers for the technical part. If the website is designed right, its promotion will be significantly cheaper.
Would you like to share your ideas on persuasive hotel website design? We look forward to receiving your comments!
