Hotel webdesign lessons from the Tradewinds Hotel

November 3, 2017

Twice a month I share with you a hotel website design worthy to look at. I tell you what’s good about the webdesign, how it could be improved and share some key take-aways. Of course: this is all subjective and based on my own knowledge and opinion. Questions, opinions? Feel free to leave them in the comment section!

The Tradewinds Hotel

The Tradewinds Hotel in Australia has a website design we should all take a look at. As a hotel you want as many direct bookings as possible. To achieve this you want your call to action to be highly functional. The Tradewinds Hotel managed to do this. Okay, this is not that special. Many hotels have a “book now” option on their homepage. So, what’s good here? It’s the way they do it.

Loud and aggressive

Many hotel’s call to actions are loud and aggressive. As soon as you enter the website the “Book Your Room Now” is right in your face. Screaming for attention. This is annoying.

The Tradewinds Hotel is subtle. Their call to action is clear, but friendly. You don’t have to book a room now, you’re invited to explore more of the website. The website is extremely structured. You just can’t get lost. And when you are ready to book, you now where to go. You just click the upper right link in the menu.

Bonus points

Another good thing: upon entry there’s a pop-up for their newsletter, which will give you a 10% discount on your first booking straight away + this pop-up shows how, with this discount code, a direct booking is cheaper than booking via Booking.com and Expedia.

Overall design

The overall design manages to be playful without being chaotic. How they do this?

First of all, the color palette. It’s rustic and matches the hotel’s desired ambience and feel.
The fonts, which are Brandon Grotesque Regular for the body text and Kort Bold for the titles. They go very well together and give a slightly fancy look to the site.
The photos. Well-lit, wide-angle photos, displaying the different rooms of the hotel exactly like normal hotel room photos should. The beds are clean, the lights are on. The only thing missing for me is a better picture of the window views (or the balcony, which some rooms have).

To improve

If they were to step up their game, I’d say: video. I miss a video of the hotel, some moving imagery.
A good photo of their bar & bistro with its “sensational Swan River views”, as they mention on their site.
More pictures of their pool and fitness area. Travelers love these, they want to know where they end up.

These are important points to pick up on. I think the website is losing potential bookers to websites like TripAdvisor and Booking.com because they might start searching for more pictures elsewhere. And by doing so, they probably forget to book directly. You want to keep your potential visitors on your own site.

My final thoughts:

Your potential client should be able to stay on your website and find every bit of information they desire right there – without the website itself becoming a labyrinth. A few more photos or a short video would do the trick for the Tradewinds Hotel. Other than that, a small round of applause: this is a well done website and I’d rate it with an 8.

And your thoughts?

Do you agree with me? Disagree? Feel like sharing another website? Please feel free to do so in the comment section below!