Websites for hotels and guesthouses: show the rooms, take direct bookings
Guests often discover a hotel on a booking portal or in Google Maps, then visit the website to check rooms, location and prices. If they can book quickly there, you save the portal's commission. If not, they go back to the portal. A hotel website is therefore above all a sales channel, and only then a business card.
The booking engine is the heart
A hotel website without live availability and instant booking is a brochure. Integrate the booking engine of your hotel software or channel manager so dates and guests can be entered right on the home page and the booking flow keeps the website's design.
Test the booking path on a phone: how many steps to confirmation, which payment methods, is the cancellation policy clear before payment? Every unnecessary step costs direct bookings.
Show rooms, prices and location honestly
Guests compare. Give them everything they need for that:
- A page per room category with real photos, size, bed type, amenities and view.
- Prices from, with or without breakfast, and what tourist tax or parking cost on top.
- Location with distances to the station, old town, trade fair or beach, not just a map.
- Accessible rooms, pets, EV chargers, check-in times.
In Germany, Section 13 of the Price Indication Ordinance requires accommodation businesses to display a price list with room prices and, where relevant, the breakfast price. When you show prices online, give final prices and clearly point out extras such as tourist tax.
Multilingual and built for search
International guests book in their own language. Plan language versions with their own URLs instead of automatic browser translation. For search, Hotel structured data with address, amenities and reviews helps, as do pages for occasions such as conferences or weddings and a maintained Google Business Profile linking to direct booking.
Guest data and registration forms
Since 1 January 2025, accommodation businesses in Germany no longer need registration forms from German guests; for foreign guests they remain mandatory. A digital check-in can handle this. Only ask for data you really need during booking, and name the booking engine, payment provider and channel manager in your privacy policy.
A hotel website with room pages, an integrated booking engine and two languages starts at €1,800 with us; integration with your hotel software is scoped in the quote.
Frequently asked questions
- Do we need our own booking engine or is a link to Booking.com enough?
- A link to the portal gives away the direct booking and pays commission. Almost every hotel software offers a booking engine that can be embedded in the website.
- How many languages does a hotel website need?
- As many as your guests actually speak. Check where your bookings come from; usually German and English plus one or two main guest languages are enough.
- Can we maintain offers and packages ourselves?
- Yes. Packages, seasonal offers, images and text are edited in the editor; prices and availability come from the hotel software.
Sources
Tell us about your property, hotel software and main guest countries. You get a page plan and a fixed price.
Request a hotel website