What is a hotel CMS?

A hotel CMS is a content management system that allows you to manage your hotel website easily, without any technical skills such as coding.

‘Content’ includes all the elements of a website – pages, images, text, and videos. With a good CMS, you can organise all of these elements easily and quickly with no website design experience.

Hotel content management systems also make it simple to manage and modify your content whenever you want. For example, you can instantly update hotel room images without incurring any extra costs.

Why is a hotel content management system important?

Having a hotel content management system is vital if you want to impress travellers with your brand and also take more direct bookings online. A website without aesthetically pleasing or properly organised content will look unprofessional. It will also be harder for potential guests to find the information they’re looking for. This can lead to a large volume of abandoned bookings.

A content management system helps you improve the design, functionality, and utility of your hotel website. 

The bonus is that it does this at low cost and also saves you time. Being a small property, you are likely working with a restricted budget that should be spent on things other than setting up, maintaining, and editing your website. A hotel CMS allows you to easily update your website on the fly, without having to hire a website developer to build all the elements you need. In the long run, this saves you a lot of time and money.

How does a CMS for hotels work?

A hotel CMS will usually have templates, themes, and plug-ins available for you so that you can make your website content appealing and unique.

You simply need to upload your images, text, videos, links, and the system will organise it based on the theme or template you have chosen. If you need additional pages or sections, such as a blog it also makes it easy to add these and customise them.

There’s no need for you to type code or understand any of the technical aspects of the process. Add your content as you want visitors to your site to see it, and it will appear!

For example, if you use Little Hotelier’s website builder everything is controlled from one dashboard. 

Image showing the dashboard of Little Hotelier's hotel CMS

To get up and running, the general process includes:

  • Choose your theme – there are currently four to choose from
  • Set up your homepage with images, text, and your logo
  • Input your property information so guests know how to find and contact you
  • Connect your booking engine so guests can book directly online
  • Add your social media links
  • Launch your site!
Image showing how to upload photos on Little Hotelier's hotel CMS
Creating an image gallery is as simple as dragging and dropping photos

You can copy and paste most information from your device into the website builder and the CMS software will do the rest! Of course, you can add additional pages using the same process, change your desired theme at any time without needing to update your content, and set up the languages you want to be available to guests.

Here’s what your website might look like when you’re done:

Example of a hotel website using Little Hotelier as a hotel CMS
Snapshot of a hotel homepage using Little Hotelier – this is what travellers will see when they first land on the website

Choosing the best content management system for your hotel website

Your CMS will be the core of your small hotel’s website, so it’s important that you know all of the features you want and need, making sure that it’s equipped to help you sell your rooms online.

Have these seven basic functionalities on your checklist:

Simple to use

With a user-friendly CMS, you won’t need to hire anyone else to update your website for you, saving you time and money. This is key, since the main reason you would invest in a hotel CMS is to make your life easier.

Mobile friendly

The number of travellers browsing and booking travel on their mobile device is growing all the time,  so it’s crucial that your website content is functional and optimised for mobile. A good CMS will have this built-in.

SEO friendly

All of the technical bits such as checking your page is well optimised, allowing you to rewrite URLs, and making sure your page’s loading speed is up to par should be taken care of by your CMS provider automatically. The best content management system for your hotel website should also update over time to ensure it is keeping up with the latest search engine algorithms. Essentially, it should be evergreen and you shouldn’t have to worry.

Booking engine integration

Being able to sell your rooms online directly via your website is a necessity if you want to keep extra profit in your pocket and build strong guest relationships. Your CMS should allow you to seamlessly link your booking engine so that potential guests can easily check your availability and make their reservations.

User roles

It should be a given that your hotel CMS allows multiple people to manage the content on your website. If only one person can make updates this could cause delays and create customer friction.

Security

Protecting yourself from cyber-attacks is crucial for maintaining the integrity of your brand and also keeping your customer safe. Be sure you check with providers what assurances and security measures they have.

Free period

Being able to try the software for a period of time for free is required for your peace of mind. You can make sure the tool is right for you knowing that you can cancel anytime and you aren’t locked into a contract.

CMS hotel management made easy with Little Hotelier

If you’re looking to easily manage your website content, take direct bookings, and make your running your property easier than look no further.

Little Hotelier is an all-in-one software solution designed specifically for small hotels and accommodation providers. With a simple interface and user-friendly features, you can be in complete control of your business.

Part of Little Hotelier’s offering is a website builder which makes content management a breeze:

  • No web development required – It’s ready to go on day one
  • Modern and responsive – Optimised for all devices and search engines
  • Uniquely yours – Easily add and customise your own content and website pages
  • Multiple languages and currencies – Attract and win guests from all over the world

All this and more on top of naturally integrating with the booking engine, channel manager, and front desk system. You have everything at your fingertips, with data updating automatically in real-time so you never miss a beat.

By Dean Elphick

Dean is the Senior Content Marketing Specialist of Little Hotelier, the all-in-one software solution purpose-built to make the lives of small accommodation providers easier. Dean has made writing and creating content his passion for the entirety of his professional life, which includes more than six years at Little Hotelier. Through content, Dean aims to provide education, inspiration, assistance, and, ultimately, value for small accommodation businesses looking to improve the way they run their operations (and live their life).