Hotel websites commonly feature contemporary black-and-white color palettes that showcase the images of the rooms and amenities. Trust symbols and customer reviews are also important for hotel websites, as potential customers want to see the rooms and read reviews to make sure it will be a comfortable place to stay.
A great addition to your hotel website is a list of local tourist spots and sightseeing tours that are available near the hotel. We've reviewed small boutique hotels, rather than large chains to help small business startups build their own website. You can use our hotel AI website builder to quickly and easily create your website.
Zarla checks that sites meet basic web standards for mobile and desktop. We also use Google's PageSpeed Insights, and WAVE, a service that evaluates accessibility for individuals with disabilities. PageSpeed scores and accessibility are important factors for search engine rankings. PageSpeed scores may not match user experience and can vary substantially.
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Hotel Fusion is a Californian boutique hotel that blends Asian design with the modern creative style of the city. They have a restaurant on the premises and offer packages that include tours of the city. The website also features a lot of photos of the hotel and popular San Francisco destinations to get the viewer excited.
Prominent CTAs invite customers to make bookings, and visitors to the site will be excited to see deals and offerings, sightseeing and tour ideas, a list of amenities, and social media links for the hotel.
It's easy to find all the necessary information in this clean, modern design, including information on sightseeing tours and room amenities. WAVE reports no errors on the site and the sticky top menu aids in navigation.
Section headings are in a typeface that is difficult to read in the chosen color palette, limiting the legibility of the site. The site lacks any customer reviews or information on awards that may increase customer trust.
The desktop site features a sticky top banner with prominent booking CTAs and a hamburger menu to aid navigation. The site is beautifully laid out with large images and smaller text blocks to draw attention to the hotel itself, and the abundant use of booking CTAs encourages customers.
The choice of light gray text on a white background creates a weak contrast that sometimes makes it difficult to read the text, especially with certain typefaces used. Google's PageSpeed Insights report awards the desktop site a performance score of 99/100.
The mobile site has been well-optimized, with the images being perfectly resized to fit the smaller screens. The color contrast is stronger, and the mobile site keeps to a plain, bold, geometric typeface that is easy to read.
There are sticky top and bottom menus to aid in navigation and lead customers to view the rooms, images, and deals so that they will make a booking. The mobile site has an 89/100 performance score on Google's PageSpeed Insights report.
Butte, Montana, U.S.
The Hotel Finlen is a retro boutique hotel situated in the historic district of Butte, Montana. They feature historic buildings, including a tower and a turn-of-the-century motor inn, as well as historic ballrooms and dining halls for rent.
The touch of yellow-orange on the site accentuates the vintage, sophisticated charm of the business, and strong CTAs encourage bookings. The historic element is a unique draw for the hotel, and the "Our Story" page is a great addition to highlight this theme. The site also stands out with a local events calendar, encouraging guests to explore the area.
The site offers several stand-out features, including the old-world charm, local events calendar, and a sticky bottom banner for checking availability. The consistent branding across the site creates a professional, memorable aesthetic.
The site is non-compliant with assistive technologies, and WAVE reports a number of missing alternative text and contrast errors, where white text has been used over a yellow-orange background.
On the desktop site, the grid layout allows users to easily find all the information they need, from descriptions of the rooms and venues to information about the location and local events. The touch of yellow-orange shines, drawing attention to important information while adding that retro aesthetic.
It is simple for customers to book a room or check availability, as these features are highlighted on the site, but it is strange that users must first select the property before seeing the available rooms. While the yellow-orange does highlight important information, WAVE flags it as a contrast error, with the white text on this color background.
The mobile site is not well-optimized, as viewers need to scroll to the side to view the whole site on most devices. The color palette, grid layout, and navigation are kept constant across the desktop and mobile sites, and the images, except for some banner images, have been resized to fit the smaller screen.
The "Tap to Call" feature is a great addition to the mobile site, which has a 27/100 performance score on Google's PageSpeed Insights report.
https://www.theplainshotel.com/
Cheyenne, Wyoming, U.S.
The Historic Plains Hotel is a historic hotel built in 1911 and maintains its vintage look. The site features a classic black-and-white color palette that creates the modern aesthetic of a sophisticated luxury hotel, but the hotel's logo doesn't quite match this aesthetic, having a more rustic, historic look.
The "About Us" page is a great addition to give visitors the history of the hotel, but the structure of the text block is not consistent, which creates an amateur design look. The reservation CTA could be more prominent, but the list of room amenities for each room type is a nice touch.
The simple black-and-white color palette offers strong contrast and easy navigation. Dual menus offer visitors to the site ample opportunity to navigate to where they need to go without compromising scrolling time.
The site is only semi-compliant with assistive technology and WAVE reports a number of missing alternative text, empty link, and contrast errors. The typeface is not consistent across the site.
The clean design of the desktop website creates a contemporary look that contrasts the historic theme of the hotel itself. The grid pattern and the dual menus, both at the top and bottom of the page, make it easy for viewers to find the information they need. The images used are good quality and enticing, but the reservation CTA needs to be more prominent.
The text blocks and images of the mobile site are well-sized to the smaller screen and provide a good overview of everything available at the hotel. However, the layout of certain text blocks and images could be improved to eliminate unnecessary spaces and keep the look consistent.
The mobile site also has two menus available; however, where one is at the bottom of the desktop page, the mobile site's second menu is in the middle of the page followed by a small gallery of photos. The mobile site has a performance score of 66/100 on Google's PageSpeed Insights report.
https://www.thejouledallas.com/
Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Located in the heart of downtown Dallas, The Joule is a neo-gothic building that offers a boutique hotel, dining, and retail experiences. While the site is information-dense due to all the different departments and experiences available, navigation is simple with a clear menu.
Interactive elements, such as the 360° tour, enhance the user experience, while clear CTAs ensure the customers find all the information they need. The site also stands out with a list of experiences that take place within the hotel itself, but the site could benefit from listing sightseeing options in the surrounding area.
WAVE reports only a handful of missing label and contrast errors on the site. Short, concise text blocks keep navigation and the UX easy, while intriguing photos of interesting art installations help the site to stand out from the competition.
The site is only semi-compliant with assistive technologies. PageSpeed Insights reports that certain elements, such as images and text compression, can be improved for a simpler experience.
The desktop design shines with high-quality images and easy navigation that enhances user engagement. While the top menu offers a lot of pages to explore, the layout is clean and intuitive. Google's PageSpeed Insights report rates the desktop site highly, with scores in the 90s for best practices and accessibility, and a performance score of 88/100.
The mobile site makes use of the responsive design to deliver a great user experience, maintaining the clear navigation, high legibility, and quality images of the desktop site. Currently, the mobile site features an expandable pop-up advertising a deal on bookings, which increases the chance of guests booking on the mobile site versus the desktop, which lacks this feature.
The mobile site also features a sticky bottom menu with a link to call the hotel, see their location, or make a booking. PageSpeed Insights reports a slower speed index, leading to an overall performance score of 63/100.
Topeka, Kansas, U.S.
The Cyrus Hotel is a luxury mid-west hotel with a clean, minimalist aesthetic. The first thing the site does is highlight the hotel's Best Hotelier award, offering a trust symbol sure to attract customers. The reservation CTA is prominent on each page, opening a block where customers can check availability and earn rewards.
Visitors to the site can learn about surrounding tourist spots and the bottom menu includes a link to available gift cards, a stand-out feature in this niche.
The site features trust symbols and a minimalistic, modern aesthetic. It also highlights all the important criteria that a hotel website should have, including room information, images, and amenities.
The site is blocked on WAVE and is only semi-compliant with assistive technologies. Some inconsistencies in the background design of the site impact the professional appearance that is otherwise conveyed in this web design.
The desktop site has a simple UX but is quite info-dense with a lot of pages on the menu having their own drop-down menus to navigate. The text is kept short and to the point, with an enticing gallery of photos. However, the room descriptions could use more images of the rooms themselves.
The site is inconsistent with an argyle-patterned block on the left top corner of only some pages. It also appears that the booking system is currently glitching, with visitors unable to change the prospective booking dates. Trust symbols in the form of an award and customer reviews are a nice touch.
While the mobile site maintains the navigation of the desktop, the color palette is different, and it's missing the argyle block and logo at the top of certain pages that are present on the desktop. The addition of a call button is perfect for a mobile site.
The navigation is slightly different, featuring a sticky bottom banner with links to directions, the gallery, and the booking page. The booking system also functions properly on the mobile site, allowing customers to change the arrival and departure dates. The mobile site has a performance rating of 60/100 on Google's PageSpeed Insights report.
Hotel websites typically include images of the rooms and amenities, lists of what customers can expect in the rooms, information on events and local attractions, and a reservation option. Take a look at our curated list of hotel websites for ideas.
Hotel websites often use a modern black-and-white color palette and a grid layout that highlights images of the rooms, dining, and amenities. Short blocks of text are also present to describe what customers can expect at the hotel.
The idea of the "best" is subjective, but we've discussed some great boutique hotel websites and the content that works or doesn't work to attract customers.
When setting up your hotel, you should create a website so that potential customers have a place to read about your hotel's amenities, customer reviews, and pricing, and to see if their vacation dates are available.
Zarla's AI-powered website builder uses your description of your business to create a website with content for you in less than a minute. All the content can be customized for free, and Zarla will host your completed site for a small monthly fee.
Take a look at our article on hotel websites for some great examples of luxury hotel sites and why they work.
Use Zarla's AI website builder to design and build a simple hotel website. The AI will write content for your site and will include stock images that can later be replaced by photos of your hotel. Zarla's tech team will also help with any content updates you would like to do for a small monthly fee.
Yes, Zarla's website builder will create a website with content for you to customize to suit your business needs.
We've discussed 6 boutique hotel websites from across the U.S. for you to use as inspiration when designing your own site.
There are a few website builders that offer design templates for you to choose from, but typically the website builder hosts the site, rather than offering a download.
