Hotel Website Design

Decide the booking path first

The engine that takes payment decides how the rest of the site works, so settle it before you choose colours. There are three set-ups.

Our rule of thumb is to pick the second if your provider supports it, and the third for the search bar on every page, handing over to the engine for room and rate selection. Whichever you choose, check it with a real booking on a phone before launch.

Put the availability search on every page

Guests arrive on room pages, offers pages and blog posts, not only on the home page. A search bar or a sticky "Check availability" button on every page shortens the path. On a phone, a button fixed at the bottom of the screen works better than a bar at the top that scrolls away.

Pre-fill what you can: the next available weekend, two adults, one room. A guest who only has to change a default has less to do than one who starts from blank fields.

The room page does the selling

One page per room type, not a list of cards on a single page. Each should have:

• true photos of the room as it is, plus the bathroom, balcony and view
• size, bed types, maximum occupancy and what is included
• what the guest can and cannot do: smoking, pets, accessibility features
• a price shown the same way as in the booking engine
• cancellation terms right beside the price, not behind a link
• a clear button to check these dates

Mismatched prices cost you trust, and they have a second cost. Google's free booking links rank partly on landing page experience and historical price accuracy, as Google's help page lists them. A landing page that shows a different rate from the one in the search result harms both.

Photos: a budget, not a gallery

Hotel sites need big photos, and large image files are a frequent cause of slow pages. Google's Core Web Vitals "good" thresholds are 2.5 seconds for largest contentful paint, 200 milliseconds for interaction to next paint and 0.1 for cumulative layout shift, measured at the 75th percentile of page loads.

Here is a suggested weight budget for a home page on a phone. These are our own planning figures, not a Google rule, so adjust them to your own measurements.

Illustrative arithmetic: an 8 MB autoplay hero video is 8,000 KB. A 150 KB poster image in its place cuts the first load by 7,850 KB, about 98%. Test your pages with your own tools, as covered in our Core Web Vitals explainer.

Information that removes doubt

Before a guest pays, they look for things that worry them. Put these where they are easy to see:

• total price with taxes and fees, or a clear statement of what is added
• cancellation and payment terms in plain language
• check-in and check-out times
• parking, pets, children and accessibility
• the address, a map and honest travel times from the airport
• how to contact a person before booking

Schema.org's Hotel type has fields for check-in and check-out times, star rating, amenities and pets. Our SEO for hotels guide explains how to use it.

Languages and currency

Add a language version only for markets that book. Give each its own URL, translate room names and policies carefully, and show the currency the guest will be charged in. If you want a multilingual build quoted, start from our web design service page.

Accessibility

Good accessibility practice means readable text, strong contrast, labelled form fields, usable keyboard navigation and a booking flow that works with a screen reader. In the EU, e-commerce services fall under the accessibility act, which Cyprus implemented through the Accessibility of Products and Services Law of 2024, Law 57(I)/2024. It may well apply to you. The law defines e-commerce services as services provided at a distance through websites and mobile apps, at a consumer's request, to conclude a consumer contract. A direct booking engine appears to fit that wording, unless the hotel is a very small enterprise with fewer than 10 staff and turnover or balance sheet of no more than EUR 2 million. Confirm with a lawyer. Building to good practice now costs less than fixing it later.

What drives the cost

We do not publish prices, and we quote in writing. Ask for these as separate lines:

1. Design and build, by number of page types
2. Photography or image preparation
3. Booking engine integration, and the provider's own fees
4. Each additional language
5. Content writing for rooms, offers and experiences
6. Hosting, updates and support each year

Compare quotes line by line. A low total that leaves out the booking engine work or photography is not a lower price.

To discuss a hotel website, see our web design service, and read our wider guide to website costs.