Is Your Hotel Website Costing You Bookings? (Free Checklist)

The brutal economics of a broken hotel website

Here's a scenario that plays out hundreds of times every day: someone searches for your hotel, lands on your website, spends 90 seconds looking around, then heads to Booking.com to complete their reservation.

You just paid 15-20% commission because your website didn't do its job.

We've audited over 50 hotel websites in the past two years, and the pattern is depressingly consistent. Beautiful photography, stunning hero sections, and then... nothing. No clear path to booking. Slow load times. Mobile experience that's borderline unusable. Pricing that's mysteriously absent or higher than OTA rates.

It's not that your hotel isn't good enough. Your website is just making it unnecessarily difficult for people to give you money directly.

The seven silent booking killers

After reviewing thousands of user sessions and dozens of audits, these issues appear repeatedly:

1. The booking button is playing hide and seek

Your booking engine should be visible without scrolling on every single page. Not "above the fold if you're on a 27-inch monitor." Actually visible.

We tested a hotel site where the booking button was pale grey on white background, positioned 1200 pixels down the page. After making it high-contrast and sticky to the header, direct bookings increased 34% in three weeks.

2. Mobile experience is an afterthought

67% of hotel searches happen on mobile. Yet most hotel sites are clearly designed desktop-first with mobile as an afterthought.

Common mobile disasters we see: - Tiny tap targets for date pickers - Booking forms that require horizontal scrolling - Images that take 8+ seconds to load on 4G - Pop-ups that cover the entire screen with no way to dismiss

3. Load speed that kills urgency

Hotels compete on emotion and urgency. That emotional connection evaporates when someone's staring at a loading spinner for 4 seconds.

We recently optimised a boutique hotel site from 4.2s to 1.1s load time. Same content, same design, just properly optimised images and lazy loading. Direct booking conversion rate went from 2.3% to 3.8%.

4. Missing or buried pricing

"Check availability for rates" is code for "go to Booking.com where you can see prices instantly."

If your rooms start at £120, say so. Transparency builds trust. Mystery builds abandonment.

5. Zero urgency or scarcity signals

Booking.com shows "Only 2 rooms left!" and "Booked 3 times in the last hour." Your site probably shows... static content that could be from 2019.

Real-time availability, recent bookings, and weather widgets all add urgency and context. Use them.

6. The photography doesn't sell

Gorgeous building exteriors don't book rooms. Guests care about: - What the actual room looks like (not the premium suite nobody books) - The bathroom quality - The view from their window - What breakfast looks like

7. Your checkout has more steps than airport security

Every additional form field is a 5% conversion drop. Every extra page in your booking flow loses another 10%.

Amazon's one-click checkout isn't an accident. Friction kills conversions.

The numbers that matter

Let's make this concrete with actual economics:

Imagine a 30-room boutique hotel: - Average room rate: £150/night - Current direct booking rate: 35% of total bookings - OTA commission rate: 18%

Scenario A (broken website): - 100 monthly bookings, 35 direct, 65 via OTAs - OTA commission: £1,755/month = £21,060/year lost

Scenario B (optimised website): - Same 100 bookings, but 55 direct, 45 via OTAs - OTA commission: £1,215/month = £14,580/year lost - Annual saving: £6,480

That's just from moving 20 bookings per month from OTA to direct. And we're being conservative—good hotel sites often hit 60-70% direct booking rates.

What actually moves the needle

Based on hotels we've worked with, here's what consistently improves direct bookings:

Quick wins (do these first): 1. Make your booking button high-contrast and sticky on mobile 2. Display starting room rates on the homepage 3. Add a live availability calendar 4. Show recent booking notifications 5. Optimise image sizes (most hotel sites have 5MB+ homepage images)

Medium-term improvements: 1. Reduce booking form fields to absolute minimum 2. Add guest reviews with photos 3. Implement one-page checkout 4. Create urgency with inventory levels 5. Add trust signals (secure checkout badges, awards, affiliations)

Ongoing optimisation: 1. A/B test your booking flow 2. Monitor mobile checkout abandonment 3. Review session recordings monthly 4. Test load speed from different locations 5. Update photography based on what converts

The rate parity trap

Some hotels hide behind rate parity clauses: "We can't undercut OTA pricing."

Fine. Then compete on experience and convenience: - Offer room upgrades for direct bookings - Include breakfast for direct bookers - Provide early check-in/late checkout - Add welcome amenities - Create member perks

Make direct booking the obviously better choice even at the same price.

Get the checklist

We've turned years of hotel website audits into a practical 27-point checklist. It covers everything from mobile optimisation and booking flow to photography and trust signals.

[Download the free Hotel Website Conversion Checklist →](/contact?interest=hotel-checklist)

Takes 30 minutes to complete, identifies exactly what's costing you direct bookings.

The bottom line

OTAs aren't evil. They provide valuable reach and fill rooms you might otherwise leave empty.

But they shouldn't be getting 70% of your bookings because your website makes direct booking unnecessarily difficult.

Every 10% shift from OTA to direct booking is worth thousands of pounds annually. The fixes aren't complicated or expensive. They just require actually looking at your site through a guest's eyes and removing the friction.

Your hotel is probably excellent. Make sure your website isn't the weak link in your booking funnel.

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Fix your hotel's booking conversion

LogicLeap specialises in hospitality website optimisation. We audit your booking flow, identify conversion barriers, and implement fixes that drive direct bookings.

[Get our free 27-point Hotel Website Checklist](/contact?interest=hotel-checklist) or [discuss your website](/contact).