How To Create The Best Motel Website Design

What is motel website design?

Motel website design is the art and science of building an online presence that captures the essence of a motel’s brand and offerings. It’s more than just a digital brochure; it’s a strategic tool that can amplify your motel’s visibility, facilitate bookings, and ultimately, contribute to your bottom line.

The key to motel website design is user experience. This involves constructing a site that’s not just visually appealing, but also straightforward to navigate. It should offer easy access to essential information, such as room descriptions, amenities, high-resolution images, and pricing details.

But what sets motel website design apart is its focus on the unique selling points of motels. This could mean emphasising aspects like easy roadside access, ample parking, or affordable rates. The aim is to create a vivid and enticing online portrayal of your motel, persuading potential guests to choose you over the competition.

By prioritising professional motel website design, you can make a strong first impression, attract more guests, and propel your business forward.

Why is motel website design important?

As a small motel owner, you must understand the importance of a well-functioning, optimised website for your business success. If your website is experiencing low traffic or poor conversion rates, it’s time for a change.

First impressions matter. If your website takes more than three seconds to load, potential guests may leave before even seeing what you offer. Even if they stay, a slow, confusing, or non-mobile-friendly website can lead to abandoned bookings. Improving your website design is crucial to increasing conversion rates, boosting direct bookings, and enhancing profitability. But how can you achieve this?

Traditional web designers and agencies can be costly and time-consuming, often requiring constant communication. A more efficient solution is to use a software tool that allows you to quickly and easily build a user-friendly website. 

A solution like Little Hotelier offers a fully integrated, easy to use website builder, complete with full search engine optimisation and content-ready templates. All you have to do is add the specifics, and start enjoying a better performing motel website.

How to get started with motel website design

Motels are the perfect option for budget-savvy travellers who are looking for a comfortable place to sleep on their adventures. But as a motel operator, how do you promote your accommodations, prices and amenities to these particular people?

The best way to do this is to invest in a website, which allows you to reach out to travellers from across the globe. Without a website, you won’t be able to compete with the other motels in your region who are connected to customers online.

Here’s how you can build the best website for your motel:

Step 1: Pick a Content Management System

This is a specialised software system that allows you to manage the content that is on your website, without needing the skills of a professional web designer.

The content includes the photos you display, the videos you post, the text that you add, and the pages that you create for your website.

You want to select a content management system that is simple and secure, and it should be compatible with mobile devices. Additionally, you want to make sure that SEO is a top priority.

Step 2: Use Website Design Best Practices

As a motel operator, you want to focus on promoting your overall brand and the traveller experience.

You can do this by showcasing large, high-resolution photographs that feature people enjoying your motel.

Include photos of the rooms as well as the amenities that you offer at your small motel. You need a responsive, mobile-friendly website, or you will get docked in the rankings on the search engine results page.

Another important element on your motel website is the booking button; you should place a “Book Now” button in a prominent place and ensure that it’s easy for your customers to make a room reservation online.

Step 3: Complete Your Website With an Online Booking Engine

A booking engine is the only tool that will allow you to accept online reservations. You want to have a booking engine in place that automatically updates and displays your live availability, as well as one that is simple for the end user to operate.

Your booking engine should fit in with the overall design of your website, providing a seamless appearance to potential traveller guests. It also needs to be optimised for all mobile devices, and it should be responsive based on the device that the particular visitor is using at the time.

Safe, secure payment processing is essential and should be considered before selecting an online booking engine.

The best option is to select an online booking engine that also offers additional features that improve the way you run your business.

Critical elements of effective motel website design

Creating an effective motel website design involves more than just a visually appealing layout. It’s about incorporating key elements that enhance user experience, drive bookings, and showcase what makes your motel unique. Here are seven critical elements to consider:

1. User-Friendly Navigation

Your website should be easy to navigate, with clear menus and intuitive design. This ensures that potential guests can quickly find the information they need, whether it’s room descriptions, pricing, or booking details.

2. High-Quality Images

Invest in professional photography to showcase your motel in its best light. High-quality images can give potential guests a clear idea of what to expect, making your motel more appealing and inviting.

3. Mobile Responsiveness

With more and more people browsing and booking on their mobile devices, it’s crucial that your website is mobile-friendly. This means it should look good and function well, regardless of the device used to access it.

4. Interactive Location Map

As a motel, your location is a key selling point. An interactive map on your website can help guests understand your proximity to local attractions, transport links, and amenities, making it easier for them to choose your motel.

5 Clear Call-to-Action

Every page on your website should have a clear call-to-action, guiding visitors towards making a booking. This could be a ‘Book Now’ button or a prompt to check room availability.

6. Guest Reviews

Displaying guest reviews on your website can build trust and influence booking decisions. Positive testimonials can reassure potential guests of the quality of your motel and the experience they can expect.

7. Comprehensive Amenities Information

Your amenities can set you apart from other motels. Be sure to provide detailed information about what you offer, whether it’s free parking, complimentary breakfast, or Wi-Fi access.

By incorporating these elements into your motel website design, you can create a platform that not only looks good but also effectively drives bookings and contributes to your business’s success.

Finding the best motel website design provider

Naturally, before any serious software purchase you make for your motel, you’ll be doing a lot of research and assessing many different options. Sometimes it can be hard to differentiate between products and find the most value for your business.

To make sure you don’t miss anything and that you have all the information you need to make confident, strategic, investment choices, there are a few questions you should ask potential partners. These include:

• Does it provide an instant, uniquely branded, hotel website that can be up and running in 24 hours?
• It is designed to increase web traffic and direct bookings?
• Does it integrate with your online booking engine?
• Is it mobile responsive and optimised for guests?
• Will it help attract international guests to your property?
• Does it offer multiple design options that you can customise and are suited for all travellers?
• Will your website be secure and searchable?

You might also ask how flexible the product is and how easy it is to use. This is vital since you want flexibility so you can:

• Stand out from your competition
• Appeal to your target market
• Reflect your brand identity accurately
• Add, delete, or update content at a moment’s notice

At the same time the product should be easy to use and have some boundaries around what you can do so you don’t get lost or confused in too many possibilities.

Happily, Little Hotelier can answer in the affirmative to all of the above.

What to expect of motel website templates

Another advantage that motel website templates hold over services such as freelance web designers or agencies is that the pricing model, setup, and function is incredibly simple.

All you need to expect when it comes to paying for website template software is a small initial setup fee, and then a flat monthly fee. If you choose to be charged annually you will even get a discount. 

With Little Hotelier, you can make as many changes to your website every day, week, or month and never incur an extra charge beyond your monthly payment. This is in stark contrast to a designer who will charge you every time you need an update.

A high quality website builder and editor can be secured for as little as under $40 per month, with the price depending on your property size. 

Once you sign-up to the service you’ll be contacted within one business day to get started. The great news is that setup for Little Hotelier’s website product is very minimal. All your existing website content will be taken and plugged into the new design that you choose, and you can then optimise it from there. 

You’ll be given a rundown of how to make changes on the backend, such as creating new custom pages and adding promotions, etc., but the process is so simple you need very little training to be up and running!

Support is obviously vital for your ongoing peace of mind and to continue achieving results. Your provider should have dedicated support available that supports your local language and can be accessed around the clock.

Using a mobile website template for free

Little Hotelier’s website software is mobile optimised, purpose built so the templates respond to any mobile device a guest may be using. It is also one of the top providers to offer a free trial of its product. 

Truly free technology for your website won’t be a reliable or consistent method to use. Since high quality software takes a lot of resources to build and continue to develop it has to be paid for – but the results more than cover the cost.

During the free period you can enjoy the full benefits of a brand new website without committing any budget or signing a contract. At any time you can stop using the service and you won’t be charged. You can experiment with different designs and themes, making sure the templates are mobile-friendly and that guests are getting a better user experience. Seek feedback and analyse the results so that by the end of the trial you know whether to make the investment or look elsewhere.

Why Little Hotelier can offer the best motel website design

The reason you shouldn’t be investing in other web design software for your motel, or simply searching for ‘best website makers’, is that most options are not created with the hospitality industry in mind.

Many may claim their web design technology is purposed to suit any business but have they built their tools specifically with motels, hotels, and B&Bs in mind? The answer is no.

Software like Little Hotelier exists ONLY to serve small accommodation owners. Every development and update is made with this customer base in mind, taking and acting upon feedback to make the best solution possible for motel property owners/managers.

Here are just a few of the benefits of making your motel website with Little Hotelier:

• Industry-specific solution. Little Hotelier is designed exclusively for small accommodation providers, including motels. Every feature and update is tailored to meet the unique needs of this sector, ensuring that your motel website design aligns perfectly with your business objectives.
• Out-of-the-box functionality. With Little Hotelier, you can instantly create a unique, search engine optimised, and mobile-friendly website that’s accessible worldwide. It’s fully customisable, Google integrated, and compatible with online booking engines, enabling you to hit your brand website goals right from the start.
• Effortless updates. Little Hotelier’s dedicated team of developers continuously work in the background to keep your website up-to-date. This allows you to make changes to your content or site structure whenever you want, without having to wait for any work to be completed.

Using our software, our users have experienced up to a 63x return on investment and up to 43% more bookings – and our website builder is a massive contributor to that level of success. Want to learn more?