Slow on phones
Large photos and heavy themes make the site slow on mobile, where most guests look.
Case study · Website design · Hospitality
A website that wins direct bookings for a boutique hotel
How we build a boutique hotel a website that sells the stay and takes the booking directly, instead of handing the guest and the commission to a booking site.
- Business type
- Hospitality · boutique hotel
- Service
- Website Design
- Starts with
- A free audit
Overview.
Guests often find a boutique hotel on a booking platform, then visit its own website before deciding. If that website is slow, hard to use on a phone or hides the price, they go back and book through the platform, and the hotel pays the commission. This is how we build a site that wins the booking instead.
The challenge.
Many small hotels have a beautiful but slow website with a booking button that opens a clunky third-party page. Rooms, prices and policies are hard to find on a phone, and nothing tells the guest why booking direct is better.
Booking friction
Too many steps between choosing dates and paying, on a page that doesn’t look like the hotel.
No reason to book direct
The benefits of booking direct, such as the best rate or a free extra, aren’t stated anywhere.
Our approach.
Foundation first, in this order, so each step makes the next one work harder.
Conversion architecture
Pages planned around the questions guests ask: rooms, prices, location, what’s included, and how to book.
Mobile-first design
Every page designed at phone size first, with dates and the booking button always in reach.
Speed
Images and code optimised and Core Web Vitals tested on mobile before launch, with a speed test the hotel can re-run.
On-page SEO and schema
The hotel, its rooms and its location marked up so Google and AI assistants can describe it accurately.
Tracking at launch
Booking starts, completions and enquiries tracked from day one, and 30 days of support after launch.
What we built.
A website that feels like the hotel and makes booking direct the easy choice.
01
Room pages that sell
Real photos, what’s included, the price from, and the booking widget on every room page, so guests never have to hunt for it.
02
Book-direct benefits
The reasons to book direct, stated plainly near every booking button.
03
Fast on mobile
Responsive images, light code and Core Web Vitals checked on a mid-range phone before launch.
04
Schema and tracking
Hotel and room structured data for search and AI assistants, and booking events tracked in GA4 from the first day.
How we measure it.
These are the numbers in the monthly report, each measured against the baseline from the first audit.
- Direct booking conversion rate, on mobile and desktop
- Share of bookings made direct rather than through booking platforms
- Core Web Vitals on mobile, checked monthly
- Enquiries and bookings traced to search, social and AI assistants
- Visibility for “boutique hotel in [area]” on Google and in AI answers
Your project could be next.
Start with a free audit, then see exactly what we’d build and in what order.
Free audit firstNo obligationPlain-English results