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Hospitality Net
26-05-2025
- Business
- Hospitality Net
Conversion-First Design: What Every Hotel Website Must Fix in 2025
Intro In today's highly competitive hospitality market, a hotel's website is far more than a digital brochure. It is a key sales tool, brand ambassador, and often the first impression a guest has of your property. This article covers common web design and content mistakes and offers practical solutions to improve conversions of your website and boost your online presence in 2025 and beyond. Technical Foundations: Speed, Mobile, and Security Ensure Fast Loading Time Studies show that websites loading longer than three seconds experience significantly higher bounce rates. Many hotel sites still use large, uncompressed images or outdated booking engines that slow them down. Compressing images using modern formats like WebP and implementing lazy loading can speed up your site and improve guest retention. Ensure Fast Loading Time— Source: Exely Optimize for Mobile Devices Over two-thirds of bookings in Asia come from mobile devices. Websites that are not fully responsive or hard to navigate on small screens lose potential revenue. That's why mobile-first design, with thumb-friendly buttons and simple booking steps, is extremely important. For example, some hotel groups saw nearly 20% more mobile bookings after making navigation easier to use. Optimize for Mobile Devices— Source: Exely Secure Your Site with Certificates Security warnings scare off potential guests. Still, many hotel websites in CIS countries don't have proper SSL/TLS certificates. By automating certificate renewals and ensuring all third-party widgets use secure protocols, hotels can prevent browser alerts and build trust with visitors. Secure Your Site with Certificates — Source: Exely User Experience: Navigation, Booking Engine, and Scarcity Signals Create Clear, Intuitive Navigation Confusing menus make visitors give up. Research shows many hotel websites bury crucial information like room rates under multiple clicks. Using sticky menus with persistent 'Room Rates' and 'Special Offers' tabs helps guests find what they need fast and without hassle. Integrate the Booking Engine Booking engines that redirect guests to external pages or look different from the main site lead to lost bookings. Embedded booking widgets showing real-time availability and matching the website's style make the process smoother. For example, some hotels managed to increase booking by more than 30% after investing in a booking engine. Use Genuine Scarcity Signals Messages like 'Only 1 room left!' when plenty of rooms are available hurt trust. Synchronizing scarcity cues with PMS data makes urgency credible and encourages bookings without pushing guests away. Content Strategy: Localization and Visuals Localizate for Markets Many travelers want to see prices in their local currency and read content in their local language. Offering geolocated content that switches currency and provides payment info based on where guests come from significantly improves user experience and boosts conversion rates. Leverage High-Quality Visuals Professional photos matter. According to the study, hotels that show more than 20 high-quality photos per room see up to 136% more bookings. Pictures help guests imagine their stay and often make them willing to pay more. Adding video tours and virtual walkthroughs further immerses visitors and deepens their interest. How to Make Your Hotel Website Special Even with a fast and easy-to-use website, standing out in crowded markets requires creativity. Here's how to make your property different. Create Location-Specific Guides Build free practical guides that solve guest pain points. City hotels: Offer downloadable PDFs like '5 Hidden Cafés Locals Love' or 'Weekend Walking Tour Map.' Beach resorts: Share guides on snorkeling spots, sunset views, or family activitie. Example: A hotel in Baku increased bookings by 18% after adding a '24 Hours in Baku' guide with metro tips and restaurant highlights. Highlight What Makes You Different Most hotel websites use the same words like 'luxurious' and 'excellent service.' Instead, highlight what makes your hotel special. Heritage properties: Share the building's history in a video. Eco-resorts: Show certifications like Earth Check or Green Key and explain how guests support local communities. Boutique hotels: Introduce staff, for example, with a 'Meet Our Chef' activity Leverage Local Partnerships Guests often book tours through others that you can offer yourself. Work with local businesses and share special deals. Mountain hotels: Promote private hiking guides with lunch packs. City hotels: Partner with museums for skip-the-line tickets. Resorts: Offer discounted spa packages combined with nearby restaurants. Conclusion Improving your website's technical performance matters, but true success comes from creativity. Unique content, personalized experiences, and genuine local partnerships turn your site into more than a booking tool. They help you engage guests, build excitement, and earn loyalty. Focus on these elements to make your hotel stand out and attract more bookings. At Exely, we specialize in creating hotel websites that combine effective conversion strategies with memorable branding. Whether you choose a template site or custom development, we make sure your website captures the unique spirit of your property. Anna Belash Chief Marketing Officer Exely
Skift
09-05-2025
- Business
- Skift
No More Hidden Hotel Fees? New FTC Rule and Legislation Target Price Transparency
Hotel and online travel companies have issued their support for the FTC's rule, and some brands — including Airbnb — have begun complying with it. A new Federal Trade Commission rule requiring transparent prices for hotels, online booking sites, and short-term rentals takes effect May 12, and Congress is moving to make portions of the rule permanent. The House passed the Hotel Fees Transparency Act on April 28 and the Senate companion bill (S. 314) advanced out of the Senate Commerce Committee in February. The legislation and the FTC rule would require online bookers and hotels to include a total price upfront that includes charges or fees for mandatory goods or services, excluding taxes. The legislation and the FTC final rule have the backing of online travel companies and hotel groups, and some have already begun complying: Airbnb announced in late April that it was showing the total price without taxes worldwide on the first view – no need to toggle to see the all-in cost including fees. 'Our bipartisan bill will lower costs for hotel rooms and short-term rentals by increasing transparency and banning hidden fees, and I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to bring it to the Senate floor,' Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said in a statement after the House bill passage. Hotel and online booking trade groups say the legislation creates a unified national standard as more states pass their own differing laws on hotel pricing transparency. So far, California and Minnesota have passed similar hotel transparency pricing laws. The FTC rulemaking and the federal legislation are 'complements' to each other, said Laura Chadwick, president and CEO of the Travel Technology Association, which represents the online travel sites like and 'Transparency breeds competition, we take no issue with hotels charging these fees, but we have long held it should be included in the full price,' Chadwick said. While the FTC rule doesn't prohibit the charging of any fees, it requires certain disclosures and prohibits misrepresentations to prevent unfair or deceptive pricing practices. In addition to hotels, short-term rental, and online booking companies, it is also directed toward live-ticket sales sites too, like LiveNation and Ticketmaster. The rulemaking process started in 2023 under the leadership of the Biden Administration's FTC Chair, Lina Khan. It was finalized last December in a 4-1 vote, with current FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson voting against it not on merit, but on the principle that he didn't support the Biden administration moving forward on rulemaking during the end of its term. FTC rulemaking sets the standard for the states to follow, but states can set stronger transparency laws. The federal bill would set a national standard that preempts existing state laws that have hotel or other short-term rental fee disclosure requirements that conflict with those in the bill. The American Hotel and Lodging Association, which represents more than 1,000 large hotel chains, also backs the legislation and FTC rule. Matt Carrier, AHLA's senior vice president of federal affairs, policy and research, said many of its hotel members have been doing all-in pricing for several years, but they support the rule and federal legislation because it sets a level playing field. "Even though the FTC rule will shift the industry to all-fee inclusive pricing, what the law would then do is lock that in for the benefit of both consumers as well as businesses on what is the definition of a total price," Carrier said. Chadwick said she's 'hopeful' for Senate floor action soon. However, a spokesperson for the Senate Majority Leader declined to comment on the timing of a Senate floor vote. Rebecca Kern is a freelance reporter based in Washington, DC, who previously wrote about tech and energy policy at Politico and Bloomberg Government. She also briefly worked in communications for the Federal Trade Commission writing about privacy and data security actions.
