As we bid adieu to 2020 and get ready to greet a more promising 2021, we should take stock of all we’ve learned over this past year of steep challenges (and new opportunities) to prepare for success in the new year. While the pandemic put a halt on travel, hotel websites continued to play a key role in communicating with customers during uncertain times and keeping travel dreams alive. As travel begins to recover over the coming year, a hotel’s website will play an even more crucial role in giving travel consumers the confidence to book.
So, for our final blog post of 2020, we’re taking a look back at our top three most-read blog posts for the year. They tell us that taking advantage of the downtime to improve their most important digital marketing asset (the hotel website) was on the minds of many hoteliers this year. Did you catch all three of our most popular web design posts of 2020?
#3 – Use Downtime Wisely to Review Your Hotel Website
Our third most-read blog post looks at taking advantage of quieter times to put some energy into evaluating and improving your hotel website. Going beyond content updates and COVID-19 messaging, the article delves into SEO strategy, website bookings, visual design and usability, providing a compass for identifying key areas to improve while one has the time to improve them. A winning website will be critical to maximizing bookings as travel recovers. Read the full blog post >>
#2 – 5 Hotel Website Mistakes that Kill Conversions
Published in February—the month before COVID-19 sent much of the world into lockdown—our second most-read blog post points out common hotel website design mistakes that cost businesses bookings, indicating to us that direct bookings were a priority for hoteliers before the pandemic hit. Now, the pandemic has only made direct booking strategies even more pertinent as cautious travel consumers seek reassurance from dealing directly with hotels, and hotels strive to improve their bottom line. Make sure you’re not making conversion-killing mistakes on your hotel website! Read the full blog post >>
#1 – Featured Design: Calaway Park
Our most-read blog post for 2020 was a featured design post, showcasing our website redesign for Calaway Park. A celebrated Calgary attraction, Calaway Park naturally draws attention and so it makes sense that, from a web design perspective, the Calaway Park redesign is a source of inspiration to other travel businesses. Designed with a mobile-first approach, the colorful Calaway Park website communicates a wealth of information—and sells online season pass sales and campground bookings—in a user-friendly and lively way that effectively conveys Calaway’s family fun experience. If you’re thinking of a redesign for your property’s website, read the full blog post and get inspired!
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for reading our blog. It’s been an interesting year (to put it mildly) and we hope that you have found our blog posts helpful as you strive to maximize conversions through your hotel website—an ongoing but very worthwhile task! All the best for the holiday season! Stay tuned for more web design tips and guidance on the WWT blog in the New Year…
