What are the 5 steps to create a hotel website?

We don’t need to remind you that it is now essential for your establishment to have a website to drive direct bookings. It is the pillar of your online marketing. Indeed, your hotel website must be both efficient and attractive for your visitors in order to convert them into customers.

The question is rather how to do it. In this article we detail the concrete steps and technical elements needed to build a website. Where to start? How to understand the process of creating a website? You will have all the tools you need to follow the creation of your hotel website.

The specifications of your future hotel website

The specifications consist of a document gathering the different elements you wish to integrate into your hotel website. It defines the framework of your project and expresses your expectations to the creative team that will be responsible for building it. 

Specifications are an essential working resource for you, but also for the service provider who will create your hotel website. It allows you to have the guarantee to be delivered of all that is mentioned in it. But, it is also a support of exchange which allows you and your provider to bring the best of the advice and skills to carry out your project. It allows you to identify the scope of the project: 

• The constraints, the goals and the target customers of the future website
• The presentation of your hotel and if it proposes a restaurant, a spa or activities
• The description of the existing website 
• The functional and technical description of the future website (integration of a blog, languages, pop-ups, ability to create landing pages, newsletter subscription push, social media, customer reviews, button widget, etc.)

Although you are an active participant at this stage, your supplier will provide you with a template of specifications that you will not have to build alone. At WIHP, we guide you through the specifications to ease the exchanges between our teams and yours. The goal is to identify your needs and understand your requirements and constraints in order to best meet them.

The mock-up (first design)

A design serves a goal and must be adapted to your positioning. Therefore, the design of your website must reflect your brand image and correspond to the target you wish to reach. The architecture of your site must be built so that the customer path is fluid and user-centered to facilitate reservations from your future customers directly through the booking engine of your website. 

Today, a simple update of an old website is not enough. Indeed, technologies are evolving rapidly as well as browsing habits which are more and more on mobile, the expectations of Internet users on loading times and user experience are increasing and the level of security required by search engines is rising. For these reasons, the average estimated lifespan of a website is currently two to four years. 

Also, we recommend that you start taking into account that the design will ultimately have to adapt to mobile browsing for your potential customers. 

Finally, this first mock-up allows you to collect opinions and comments on the design of the website, its layout, its navigation, etc. The objective is to validate the design of the first pages so that we can duplicate them for the rest of the sections and move on to the next step, the beta version. 

The beta version of your hotel website

It is the transition from static to dynamic. It is the moment when the project becomes a web version and the design of your mock-up comes to life in a website.

The beta version (or preview) defines a version of the website before its official launch. Its main function is to validate that : 

• The textual and visual content is correct 
• The calls-to-action (CTA) are visible and well placed
• The pages animation effects work
• The customer journey is intuitive and fluid

As mentioned above, make sure that your hotel website is adaptive in order to offer the best experience to your customers on all screens and especially on mobile. Indeed, two thirds of online traffic is now on mobile. An adaptive or responsive design allows a better performance of your website and a more comfortable navigation for your visitors. 

The beta version of your website enables you to review all its features (graphics, sections, interface, etc.). It is an important step to envision the future navigation of your visitors on your website and to validate the navigation paths. We also test the current use of the website in order to be able to make potential content corrections before the final version is released online.

The pre-production

Once the beta version is validated, the pre-production is used to work on your website before making it available in production. Its main purpose is to make technical settings of your hotel website and then to make the final quality checks (testing redirection links for example).

During this step, we set up Google Analytics in e-commerce mode, necessary for tracking your performance. We also provide you with a Google Data Studio account to give you access to your data in real time and in a transparent way. 

One of the most important settings is the SEO one so that your website always appears in the first position of the search results page on your brand name: 

• Setting up title tags and meta description tags. 
• Setting up pointers from the old domain name to the new website in order not to lose traffic and to keep your ranking on search engines.
• Choice of languages to be inserted to cover the maximum of markets in adequacy with the customers. The goal is to offer relevant content to search engines.

Finally, it is important to choose a hosting service that allows you to obtain a dedicated space to access the SQL manager (the SQL language allows you to define, manage and protect data in a simple and schematic way), used once the website is online. 

The hosting service must also enable you to have a fast website. At WIHP, we use the Amazon Web Services platform to reduce the loading time of your pages as much as possible and guarantee a fast website, because every second lost represents 20% less conversions on your website.

The website online launching

Great news! The launch is the final step in the creation of your website and the renewal of your activity on the Internet. Congratulations, this is the result of a lot of work!

Your web provider will be in charge of publishing your website to ensure its online visibility, via a domain name. Once your website is deployed, it is necessary to promote it on search engines in order to appear at the top of the travelers’ search results. We also recommend you to keep your customers informed of the release of your hotel’s website. They will then be able to book directly on this channel the next time they stay with you. 

Your website is the backbone of your hotel marketing. To promote it, use the most channels possible: emailings, metasearch campaigns, posts and advertisements on social networks, SEA campaigns (search engine advertising). This will maximize traffic to your website and increase your chances of getting more direct bookings. 

Then, thanks to the monitoring tools set up previously, you will be able to control the performance of your website and track the KPIs and the goals you have set for yourself.

Finally, don’t forget that a website is a living thing, you have to update its content regularly so that the Internet users have access to the latest information about your establishment. This makes it easier for them to decide to book directly on your website. For example, make new photo shoots and update the photos of your property after it has been refurbished. Also share your new services, ongoing or exclusive offers on special occasions (Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, etc.).

Conclusion

These steps to create a website are time consuming and can become complex. If you have neither the time nor the technical resources necessary to obtain an effective hotel website that reflects your hotel’s uniqueness, entrust the creation to a specialized agency.  

Nowadays, two thirds of hotel searches by travelers are done online. Once your website is deployed, it will allow you to promote your establishment and attract future customers to increase your traffic. With a seamless booking path, you will convert your website visitors into customers and increase your direct revenue. 

Our team of hotel marketing specialists will help you implement your hotel’s distribution plans. Contact us to get the right support in creating your website.