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Web Design Workshop #33: Les Remparts
tuts workshop

Web Design Workshop #33: Les Remparts

on Mar 2nd 2013 with 43 comments

Web Design Workshop is our regular community project where we ask readers to submit their work for your friendly, constructive criticism. It’s the perfect way to learn, offer opinions and have your own work critiqued! This week, a bit of self-interest on my part..

Rules of Engagement

Play nice! We deliberately select work which will benefit from advice and pointers. If you can’t be constructive in your comments, don’t. Other than that, offer any advice you can give. Feel free to link to examples and images which back up your points.

The Design

Web Design Workshop #33
Big screen..
Web Design Workshop #33
..little screen

I launched this hotel website today so there’s a very good chance you’ll find mistakes! But who better to test it out and give feedback on the design than the global army of designers I deal with on a daily basis?!

The website needed to be simple, clear, responsive, atmospheric and free from nonsense. I don’t have many photos available at the moment, but they’ll be uploaded and refined once the weather here in Europe gets better. The site itself runs on WordPress, with WPML providing the localization (great for synchronizing content in multiple languages). Further down the line, I might well include more functionality such as actual room availability and online payment, plus I’d like to sort out some proper branding when I have time. Come on then – give it to me straight… Ian Yates

Looking for constructive criticism on your own work? Submit it for a workshop – most but not all submissions are published. Be patient though, there could be a queue..

 
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Hi there! My name's Ian Yates. Welcome to Webdesigntuts+ :)  

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  • andrew

    Very simple design fonts are easy to read always love the Helvetica fonts personally!

    What I would say is get rid of the background Image it looks terrible!!!Also because it looks like you have edited one of the original themes the background should be an original image and a better looking one at that!!

    Also you should maybe make your Site header a bit bigger so it stands out more and maybe some color when you put the mouse over the links rather than black ?

    Other than that good site and looks good on my laptop and phone

    • ianyates

      Not sure what you mean about editing an original theme (?) but your comments about the background image are perfectly fair enough! I’m getting a mixed reaction about the wallpaper – a lot of women I’ve showed this to like it, but it’s taken a fair bit of criticism too..

      Hover states on the navigation coule be clearer, as you say. Thanks :)

      • andrew

        Yeah it sort of looks like the 2010 WordPress original theme at full width with no sidebar was what I was meaning

        But that’s not a bad thing!!

        Good luck with the site as you have the main bits looking good just need a few touches to finish it

        • ianyates

          Aha… Thanks Andrew :)

      • http://www.facebook.com/CAWoodard Crystal Woodard

        Maybe you could try toning down the background by lowering its opacity.

        I’m not a huge fan of the wallpaper background, but it does give some visual interest to an otherwise very plain and simple site.

  • KenWestgaard

    Clean and simple look, and I like it. First thing I would do, is probably to put the name of the hotel and nav on the same line, with the nav to the left. I didn’t notice the nav right away to be honest. I agree on the background. One of the slides has been compress way to much. And I would think that people would want to see more of the inside of the hotel.

    • ianyates

      Interesting point on the navigation – I’m planning to change the logo very soon, so I’ll look into that.

      The slides are certainly poor, but I inherited them and at the moment I don’t have any better photos to work with. As soon as the weather improves and the trees are green again I’ll be getting the camera out. Thanks :)

  • rthor

    Looks good, though I’ld change the positioning of the mobile-navigation icon when in a mobile layout — it looks off in my opinion. Also I noticed a top padding of 1em and a bottom padding of 2em on the elem. which are, again in my opinion, totally unnecessary.

    Content-wise: More photos would I think attract more visitors. I wouldn’t make a reservation without a sense of “how” the stay would be.

    Good luck with the site :)

    • ianyates

      More photos are on the way; good point about needing them to get an impression of the place and ultimately make a reservation – when all’s said and done it’s about converting visitors into guests :)

  • http://twitter.com/skids89 skids89

    I don’t mind the background itself but it is so bright its contrast clashes with the rest of the site. You could put a reduced opacity white overlay on it and mute it a little! I Think the name of the hotel in the header is too small it doesn’t contrast in size with the nav menu enough to be seen as its own element at first glance. The Nav menu could also be offset by a horizontal rule or something just to make it a little clearly defined. I found a typo in the sentance talking about St Emilion. The non following the comma should be none. Great start to a clean simple site!

    • ianyates

      You seem to have echoed general opinion about the background and header – definitely two areas I need to focus on! And thanks for picking up on the typo :)

      • http://twitter.com/skids89 skids89

        Glad I could help! I didn’t want to kick a dead horse… or point the photo stuff out because of your description.

  • Selçuk

    I think slider needs a buttons :) and you should separate language selector from the navigation. Footer is very poor. Maybe you can separate from the white background and give dark color and also extend it.

  • Glynn Alexander

    There is so much that needs to be done here to make it unique, at the moment it looks like a pre-made standard theme, there are no real design elements that make it stand out from competitors, it could easily be lost amongst the thousands of other basic themes around.

    The wallpaper is definetly too much, it completly distracts attention from the main content.
    Something as simple as creating cirular options under the slogan area would get attention back to where its suppose to be.. on the content

    Although the header is nice, it does not say hotel to me, the angle looks as it could be of any house you might find, this might confuse users into thinking they have landed on the wrong website and concequently decide to leave.

    The overall structure of the site is very ‘boxy’, there is no fluid movement to take you from one thing to the other, you need to be clear on what you want your visiters to see and where you want them to go.

    The best thing you have included is the call to action button (check for avalibility)

    even when you are free of nonsence you still need it to appeal to visiters

    overall there is no theme and there is nothing that tells me you are a hotel until I hit the bottom where you have prices (as long as I get that far).

    really sorry as most of it is pretty negative feedback but I hope oyu can take this away to create somthing better.

    • ianyates

      All feedback is welcome Glynn (well, *almost* all…) I appreciate the comments and I’ll certainly take them into account – can’t have people not realising this is a hotel website :)

    • Rahul

      Spot on Glynn. Your comments are very informative for a complete noob like me. Can you explain what you mean by ‘boxy’ design and what would be an example of a design that is more fluid.

      • Glynn Alexander

        if you imagine squares, as a shape squares are confined into sections and your eyes lose focus on objects outside the box once you have looked at that section, concequently you lose interest in reading the rest of the website as there is nothing that naturally follows.

        one way to manage fluid movement would be to have some ggraphic element joining the boxes, like arrows for example, or use rounded shapes that make your eye follow on to the next content, as mentioned in my origonal comment, its not about nonsence or clutter, its about movement of the eye so the visiter looks naturally on wht you want them to look at.

        You can however go overboard with this concept so be careful, its one thing to grab attention by using contrasting colour (colours that stand out againd your color scheme) and completly another to create something that is simply a strain on the eyes, too much and your eyes will leave the content and get lost in irrelevent information on your site only intended to be there for informational purposes but has little relevency to what the site is about so the reader might completly miss your message or sales patter altogether.

  • Gabriel

    I particularly like this selection because it is indeed horrendous, yet a good example to use for figuring out exactly why it is horrendous as it has many of the elements of a good design if described but not seen.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jesus.bejarano.948 Jesus Bejarano

    I know what you tried to do with the header but from that perspective looks more like a church than a hotel, i con even imgine the cross on the roof.

    The background give me a weird feeling that the hotel’s owners are old fashioned siniors (not necessarily something wrong about that, but i just wanted throw that out) ;).

    The site logo/heading should be a little bit more bigger and outstand the navigation (maybe setting the navigation links in a darker grayish color).

    I think that the price ralated and the about related section should be replaced one with the other, when i am on travel and i want to find an hotel to pass the night i usualy want to know 4 thing at first (name , localitation, availability and price).

    I know that i am not giving you alot but seriusly the desing looks like a one or two hour made child theme from wordpess twenty ten theme. Altough a like that is simple and responsive.Cheers

    • ianyates

      Hi Jesus – the slider photos *will* be updated! You’re right about them being a bit unclear owing to odd cropping.. The background is certainly getting a thumbs-down response, but it does actually reflect the hotel and clientele fairly accurately; this is not a modern hotel experience in a buzzing and vibrant city, we do attract people looking for peace and quiet (not a great stag party location!)

      And it’s funny how many people have mentioned the twenty ten theme – I hadn’t even noticed, but I can certainly see it now :)

  • flpespinoza

    i like the background but it distracts attention when you scroll the page, maybe try with a fixed position on the background and you can try this on the spanish translation:

    Les Remparts es uno de los puntos de interés de la villa medieval de
    Gensac, situado junto a la Iglesia de Nuestra Señora, del siglo XI, en
    el casco antiguo del pueblo. El hotel está situado a apenas una hora
    de Burdeos y a 40 minutos de Bergerac. A poca distancia del hotel se
    encuentran muchas atracciones, como la pintoresca ciudad de St Emilion,
    una de las favoritas de los amantes del vino.

    El alojamiento en Les Remparts ofrece simplicidad en un ambiente
    tranquilo. Sea para sólo para pasar la noche o unas vacaciones mas largas,
    aquí podrá encontrar el perfecto balance. Todas nuestras habitaciones
    están decoradas en armonía con el edificio y cuentan con cuarto de baño con
    ducha y / o bañera. Cada habitación cuenta con teléfono y televisión.
    Por favor, tenga en cuenta que no se puede fumar en las habitaciones.

    • Stephanie

      I agree! I really like the background, but it does feel distracting when scrolling. I second the idea of making it a fixed position background.

    • ianyates

      Brilliant – thanks for the linguistic tips!

  • Ryan Galbraith

    I like it!
    I think it achieves what it sets out to do in that it has a clean modern design but uses a vintage wallpaper theme to remind you of the hotels origins.
    It’s honest in its presentation.

    Obviously as designers we would all want to do something a little differently. I personally love the outside, worn and distressed look of the building. Perhaps a hi-res close up of this texture in its native faded cream would make an interesting alternative to the wallpaper for the background?

    I also spotted the large (what looks like wood) sign saying “hotel” above the entrance…that makes me think there could be other interesting elements that could work well as photographic backgrounds? Perhaps black and white photos of the village streets or village clock tower might work well as backgrounds to immerse the user in the french atmosphere; creating an emotional link to the french lifestyle? I guess this also depends on the project limitations and resources.

    If you are keen to run with the wallpaper design maybe experiment with making your buttons the light pink that is used in the wallpaper as well as using the darkish blue for your intro heading to link the design. I love that the wallpaper is very french in its palette but agree it could benefit from being slightly lighter to not discourage the user by making them think the rooms will be dark. I obviously link wallpaper to walls and on a hotel website this will make me think the rooms are designed in this way with similar wallpaper…so lighter is good.

    I would also investigate adding a human element to the site – probably in the first slide of the slideshow. Most likely of happy clients (target audience age range) moving bags from a car/taxi to the hotel…cliche I know but this would tell the potential client that people use the hotel, it is a happy experience, maybe there is a taxi service to the hotel, it also illustrates there is parking…all in one slide.

    I’m not sure if you need “welcome” as an option. I would try the site with menu options…”home” “location” and ”contact”. Languages can work nice as a simple flag in the top right corner or block capital initials of the country in a white/smoke circle to remove the vivid flag colours?

    I would definitely repeat the “contact” at the bottom of the page so the user can read the details, check the prices then click contact to make their booking all in one fluid motion. I like the booking page, simply and clean. A date picker could be great here for adding the dates? A modal style contact/booking form could look awesome.

    Anyway as mentioned I think it is honest and looks great on the ipad ;-)

    • ianyates

      Hi Ryan, perhaps you could be a bit more thorough with your feeback?

      Lame joke :) Thanks very much for the detailed analysis. I appreciate your use of the word ‘honest’ as that was a large part of what I wanted to achieve. Instead of recreating what’s typically expected from a hotel website I wanted to simply and clearly present what this is.

      You picked up nicely on what’s actually a wrought iron sign; a detail I might well try and incorporate. There are plenty of other textures besides the wallpaper too, so I’ll look into an alternative which doesn’t cause quite so much offence!

      Adding a human element. Good one *check*. Fluid motion by adding navigation options at the foot of the page *check*. Date pickers are already present in the form :)

      Thanks a lot for your comments!

      • http://livelymind.net/ Ryan Galbraith

        haha sorry for the overwhelming feedback :) I have to admit I didn’t play with the booking form so I missed the date picker first time around, looks great! One last thought; don’t be too quick in changing the wallpaper texture…at the end of the day you are a designer and know the client, brief and target audience a lot better than us thus brining you to the creative solution we see. I think with a few tweaks it could work for the genre of site. Good luck with it mate!

  • dougieladd

    I agree with a lot of the points here… but I’ll add a few of my own… I like the fact you can read the text (that’s important). The background, whilst I agree it’s a little ‘busy’, I don’t actually mind so much, because it’s colour is nice… what would be good would be to incorporate some of the colour (from that background) into the actual page design. Like maybe a subtle colour or texture on the main body (where the text is). Or maybe some colour repetition on other elements such as the ‘rates’ table heading bg… this could reflect the kind of muted teal colour in the back ground. At the moment it looks like two separate things that aren’t related. Bringing in some colour, texture, repetition to other aspects would bring it on a bit and make it consistent.

    I agree the language link should be separated from the main navigation (top right?). And one other thing that could be improved is the main image in the header area… especially in the non-mobile version (first image) – at the moment about two-thirds of it is trees, doesn’t show much of the product (the hotel). The bottom image at least shows a little more…

    Aside from that… I’ve seen a LOT worse and if this is the first attempt then I think it’s a job well done… it’s only a case of tweaking to make it work really well and make it look less like a template page. The structure is sound from what I can see it’s just the styling that needs improvement.

    • ianyates

      I did actually take the main CTA button background colour from the rose colour present in the wallpaper, but I could certainly have taken that further and used more colours and textures elsewhere. The photos will be improved as soon as the weather get better and the trees etc. are more presentable. I’ll make sure the photos compliment a long, thin landscape format. Cheers :)

  • Erik

    If I could change one thing, it would be the colour of the header. The hard dark grey colour is such a contrast to the soft pastel colours of the background image. If you change the dark grey to for example the blueish colour of the background image it would look more like ‘one design’.

  • naman34

    I’ll try to make this easier to read.

    1) The background: I can see what you’re going for here, and after consideration, it’s probably not ugly on it’s own. It’s just that it’s distracting from the content. You should try to either fade it till it’s more subtle or maybe not use it for the page background, and use it for page breaks and other elements.

    2) The mobile view looks much better and gives me better understanding. Maybe incorporate more of that for the desktop view. Break down the large text into smaller units, and use more images. Maybe make the Name of the hotel more prominent.

    3) I don’t know the exact emotion you’re going for but except for the background, the website gives me a calm and modern feel. There’s nothing trying to shout at you or attract your attention. But it all looks pretty good. (except for the background) Make sure, you are sure about what you want your users to feel. And what the Hotel offers them. A calm getaway or a luxurious experience…

    Needs a little more thought and work. This is could be one of the better website for hotels. Too often hotel sites are too complicated and a pain to use. Give users a easy experience, and you’ll have a winner.

  • Jason Rose

    I figure I’d jump in here given I design, art direct and create UX for hotel sites on a regular basis. Since most of the comments here are aesthetic related, I’ll speak directly to immediately critical usability and conversion items.

    First and foremost, I would address your rate availability UI. Currently you’re forcing the user to advance (click) to another page for a task that can be accomplished on your first page; as you’re only allowing availability queries by contact form. Currently your ‘contact’ button accomplishes the same thing. (This is confusing to a casual user and redundant) If you maintain this format, change ‘Contact’ in the header to ‘Check Availability’, ‘Book a Room’, or ‘Make a Reservation’. (or call-to-action verbiage most apropos to your target user). Then, rather then redirecting to another page, utilize page anchors (#) to make the page jump or scroll to the contact/availability form. Preface the form with the rate chart, or better yet align them side by side.

    However, I STRONGLY suggest you look into a true availability calendar and jQuery pop-up calendar w/ rates, sold out dates, etc. There are many inexpensive or free revenue management systems available to hoteliers these days, and some can even be managed using smart phones. Ignore any company that wants to charge per reservation fees or ‘build your site’, e.g. Buuteeq. Even if you don’t set up an interface that is managed locally and updates automatically for visitors, at a minimum create a jquery calendar on your site that displays availability and rates by day.

    I would imagine you’re losing significant conversions w/ your current contact form setup (review your bounce rate). Given the emergence of sites like AirBnB for properties like yours, unless you’ve completely sold the visitor on your property, most users will likely ‘check elsewhere’ before coming back to fill in the form.

    If you do end up building a true rate query system, add the ‘Check for Availability’ button into your header. (or date query fields) If you’re dead set on the verticle scroll, I would suggest exploring a ‘sticky header’ (ignore design, great examples can be found on inspiration sites across the web)

    If you don’t go that route, look at using something like jBar or WHOAbar to place the call to action of rate query in the header for the ‘check rates’ button.

    I certainly have a lot of more input, but this is the most pressing item.

    Btw, contrary to comments here, I really like the background. With a revised look at your typography, page widths, branding etc, I think it can be made awesome. I would imagine it’s probably on-brand and reflects your and emotive feel of the property. The awesome Drake Hotel in Toronto uses what I feel to be an awkward brick repeating background on their website , but I immediately conveys and represents the ‘feeling’ of the property.

    Stick with it, and good luck!

  • Gavin

    Really just seems like a wordpress 2011 basic theme with the background changed… Not much going on from an aesthetic design perspective. Agree with so many of the comments below so its pointless to repeat it. Totally don’t get any feeling of a hotel kinda site. Think a good option would be to first have a look at hotel based sites out there and learn from the one that have good design elements. Ask yourself what makes this website so appealing and see how you can “not copy” but implement the same kind of stratagy into your own design.

  • Gavin Wood

    Really just seems like a WordPress 2011 basic theme with the background changed… Not much going on from an aesthetic design perspective. Agree with so many of the comments below so its pointless to repeat it. Totally don’t get any feeling of a “hotel” kinda site. Think a good option would be to first have a look at hotel based sites out there and learn from the ones that have good design elements. Ask yourself what makes these websites so appealing and see how you can “not copy” but implement the same kind of strategies into your own design.

    • ianyates

      Hi Gavin – I was actually trying to avoid creating a generic hotel site, more going for an honest representation of what this hotel is. Simple content, straight-forward presentation.

      I guess what you’re suggesting hinges around the ‘richness’ of many hotel themes? I’ll certainly be looking into developing the styling a bit more, but I have to be careful I don’t create a false impression – this is not luxury accommodation!

      Thanks for your thoughts :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/mariekegerda Marieke McClure

    suggestions for the Dutch version: In the first line please delete the word “gerund” and just stick with familiehotel, like in the next sentence. Delete the word “Controleer” from the availability button. In the intro please replace “samen met” with “alsmede”. Next paragraph: replace “aandachtspunten” with “bezienswaardigheden” and in the last paragraph please replace “in harmonie van” with “in harmonie met” …….

    In addition, comments on the Rates section, probably in all languages: I’m a bit confused with the layout of the 1st march, 31st April. Is that supposed to be 1st March – 31st April ? or are they only open on the 1st of March and the 31st of April? Either way, you can remove the s from 31s april in the Dutch version. Finally a comment on the English version: Within a short distance of the hotel lies many attractions……. surely lies should be lie.

    About the site itself – love the simplicity, don’t care for the wallpaper…… But yeah – I get distracted on websites by grammatical and other language issues. :-) (I’m Dutch, currenlty living and working in the US)

  • jakub

    I like background pattern as it is, mainly because it gives some personality to site, overall design is OK and is perfectly adequate for small hotel. But I see total lack of information – how many rooms are there? How many beds in room? Are rooms small or big? How do they look like (photos needed)? Is there hair dryer in the room? Is the hotel pet friendly/baby friendly? Is there some outdoor terrace or something? Are there some restaurants around? What about parking? And mainly, reasons why should I choose this hotel and this area for holidays? What activities does this area offer?

  • Jason Rose

    I figure I’d jump in here given I design, art direct and create UX for hotel sites on a regular basis. Since most of the comments here are aesthetic related, I’ll speak directly to immediately critical usability and conversion items.

    First and foremost, I would address your rate availability UI. Currently you’re forcing the user to advance (click) to another page for a task that can be accomplished on your first page; as you’re only allowing availability queries by contact form. Currently your ‘contact’ button accomplishes the same thing. (This is confusing to a casual user and redundant) If you maintain this format, change ‘Contact’ in the header to ‘Check Availability’, ‘Book a Room’, or ‘Make a Reservation’. (or call-to-action verbiage most apropos to your target user). Then, rather then redirecting to another page, utilize page anchors (#) to make the page jump or scroll to the contact/availability form. Preface the form with the rate chart, or better yet align them side by side.

    However, I STRONGLY suggest you look into a true availability calendar and jQuery pop-up calendar w/ rates, sold out dates, etc. There are many inexpensive or free revenue management systems available to hoteliers these days, and some can even be managed using smart phones. Ignore any company that wants to charge per reservation fees or ‘build your site’, e.g. Buuteeq. Even if you don’t set up an interface that is managed locally and updates automatically for visitors, at a minimum create a jQuery calendar (some great ones on Github) on your site that displays availability and rates by day.

    I would imagine you’re losing significant conversions w/ your current contact form setup (review your bounce rate). Given the emergence of sites like AirBnB for properties like yours, unless you’ve completely sold the visitor on your property, most users will likely ‘check elsewhere’ before coming back to fill in the form.

    If you do end up building a true rate query system, add the ‘Check for Availability’ button into your header. (or date query fields) If you’re dead set on the verticle scroll, I would suggest exploring a ‘sticky header’.

    If you don’t go that route, look at using something like jBar or WHOAbar to place the call to action of rate query in the header for the ‘check rates’ button.

    I certainly have a lot of more input, but this is the most pressing item.

    Btw, contrary to comments here, I really like the background. With a revised look at your typography, page widths, branding etc, I think it can be made to look awesome. I would imagine it’s probably on-brand and reflects your and emotive feel of the property. The killer Drake Hotel in Toronto uses what I feel to be an awkward brick repeating background on their website, but it conveys and represents the ‘feeling’ of the property.

    Stick with it, and good luck!

    • ianyates

      Absolutely knockout feedback there Jason – thanks very much! (Ever thought of writing a tutorial on Hotel UI specifics?!)

      Shamefully, the practicality of using an actual booking system came down to the simple question of time; I’m pushed for time to work on the site at the moment (we open in two weeks!) and there was also the question of duplicating efforts. For example, we need to make sure our availability is registered and maintained with booking.com, plus our own system of course. To then be maintaining a third calendar for the site seemed counter intuitive, but I couldn’t find a solid way of combining the workflow.

      Also, many of the booking calendar solutions I looked into (for WordPress) display availability on a per room basis, whereas (given that our rooms are all pretty much the same) I’d prefer a calendar to display ‘rooms available’ or ‘fully booked’. Any advice there?

      In terms of all your comment on the UI, wording and conversion potential – all sound advice, thank you. And the Wythe Hotel website; awesome.

      • Jason Rose

        Thanks!

        Here’s some additional thoughts based on your comments. (I also serve as a consultant to hotels on their revenue management, yielding and online marketing strategies.)

        As you’re probably aware, your primary goal w/ your vanity hotel site should be to convert visitors rather then having them book on third party channels like expedia.com, booking.com, etc. – as you’re paying them commissions upwards of 25%. That’s found money if you convert them on your website.

        For most smaller operations I recommend a product like EZYield (Google). For a small monthly fee, their software will be a one stop shop for unifying a singular calendar and yielding and modifying your rates on one system. They offer free demos and webinars. Def. check them out. Once you build out and design the UX side of the jQuery date picker, you’ll be able to dump to either their booking engine (fee based) or one of your own that would interface w/ their software.

        Unfortunately, most WP plugins or widget solutions for Hospitality don’t manage the inventory or rates the way a proper channel management program would. (not to mention most of their interfaces are clunky and more trouble then they’re worth). If I were in your shoes I would really recommend reaching out to a company like Synxis and let them get you set up. (The Wythe is using their software) I’ve worked with their system on over a dozen of properties. You get full control of the visual appearance on the front end (they provide you the jQuery variables, links, etc. and you can style the date picker, calendar etc.) They will also skin the entire booking page and calendar results page to your liking to match your site (or you can send them a mock-up).

        (btw, I love your current date picker / calendar on the booking inquiry page. Clean, simple, good contrasting colors, easy to use. Well done!)

        If you want to implement a simple color coded Vacancy / No Vacancy type system, you could utilize one of the plugin or free systems available (no real recommendation here, as I’ve only played with and have never implemented) and ‘trick’ the system by creating a single room type for the resulting search. I’m sure with a few hours paid to a developer tweaking the code you could put together something that works nicely. (You would essentially just strip the results in the variables down to a few options)

        That said…your point about ‘our rooms are all pretty much the same’ should be carefully approached given the size (and apparent uniqueness) of your property. You might find some benefit in exploring the unique elements in each room type and branding them individually online. (room names relative to the location, history, et. al) This would translate wonderfully online.

        Check out the Longman Eagle in Chicago. (using Synxis! Although it looks like the CSS is missing from the booking results page…) They have only 6 rooms, and although each is rather unique, they make it fun (and interactive) for the visitor to ‘explore’ each room. A heavy focus is placed on the fact that their are ONLY 6 rooms, better get one now! The sense of urgency conveyed by showcasing the lack of rooms, coupled with the huge Availability button most likely pushes their ‘look to book’ rates well above the industry average. Even if your rooms are all very similar, hold your cards to your chest and turn it into something special.

        Some long winded pro-bono work; but I have an almost fanatical passion for this stuff. Hope all of this helps!

        • ianyates

          You’ve given me *a lot* to think about Jason – thanks again :)

          • Jason Rose

            My pleasure, good luck. Feel free to email me at jason (at) cunningfox.co should you have any additional questions.

  • http://www.facebook.com/CAWoodard Crystal Woodard

    I’m sure most of this has been said already, but I still wanted to give my two cents :]

    1. I’ve mentioned this already in a reply to another comment, but I’d consider lowering the opacity on the background. I think I understand what you’re trying to go for by having it, but it’s a bit overwhelming.

    2. I’d make the name of the hotel much more prominent. Do they have any type of logo or branding? I really think that needs to be included as well. They way the header looks, it gives me sort of like an article vibe and not really a website header.

    3. I’d consider making the “Book Now” button part of the navigation at the top, that way that can access that button wherever they happen to be on the site.

    4. The site needs a lot more imagery in my opinion. I’d try including pictures of what the inside of the hotel look like. What do the rooms look like? You mention is has a bar…what does that look like? As a potential customer, those are the kinds of things I want to see, and just telling me it has it, isn’t really going to cut it.

    5. I’d consider combining the “Useful Links” section with “Location”. I think that information belongs together.

    6. The “Facilities” section is really lacking. I’d have a section about “Our Rooms” and then a section about “Our Hotel” and include pictures!

    7. I’d also include a stronger footer…the page is just sort of floating and it doesn’t really seem grounded.

    • ianyates

      Yep – all perfectly valid points, thanks Crystal. I have a lot to crack on with now :)