How to Create a Boutique Hotel Website With Squarespace
Note: This blog post contains affiliate links, however, I only recommend brands that I use and love.
It is so important to have a website for your vacation rental so that you can establish your online presence aside from popular vacation sites such as Airbnb and VRBO. It gives your rental a lot of credibility and the freedom to brand your property to your own personal liking. If needed, you can also use your website to sync booking between apps and calendars so there is no overlap between sites. Having a personal website is also great to showcase sites around your rental or hotel! In this blog, we are going to dive a little further as to why a personal website can be so beneficial for your property.
Create a Brand for your Vacation Rental
Having your own personal site is a great way to create a unified brand for your rental or hotel that can carry over into many different aspects. Having a unique name makes your rental much more memorable. Use this same branding to get fun materials to support it such as towels or tote bags and make it fun for your guests. When you have a fun and unique brand it compels people to interact and share your space online. Creating a strong brand will make your rental space feel more like an experience than just a place to stay.
Showcase Images
When building your own website, it is important to showcase images. While other rental websites showcase your property in a very specific way, you can use your own website to set up your property to be viewed in a way that you want. To set up your own gallery in Squarespace click Pages in the Home Menu, then click +, then click Gallery. The layout of your gallery is dependent upon whichever template you select for your website. The pages can be slideshows, grids, stacked, or carousels. Tropic Shores was a fun apartment complex we worked with to create a beautiful imagery layout through Squarespace that fit their branding and style.
Make It Easy to Book
Another important aspect of building your own website is to make it easy for people to book or get in touch. If potential customers have to search to find a contact or booking there is a good chance they will never get to that point. Have the primary call to action be above the fold so that no matter what page you are on, you can have an instant contact or booking tab. Also, make the “Book Now” prominent on the site. Give it a standout location, color, or size so that it cannot be easily missed.
Incorporate Customer review
One helpful thing to include on your site is customer reviews. Not only does this add a lot of credibility but can also boost your SEO and overall reputation. To get reviews, kindly ask for ratings from previous guests, or, if you are having a hard time getting any responses, you can run a promo for a certain percent off their next booking if they leave a review!
Implement Lodgify
Use Lodgify to allow booking directly on your website! If you want people to book seamlessly on your site, use Lodgify to sync between your calendars to ensure no overlap in the booking. Lodgify’s coding allows all bookings to be connected to the same platform where users can see rates and timelines as well as make instant payments. This feature can be implemented on a variety of website platforms aside from Squarespace alone.
Need some inspo for your website? Here are a few examples of websites and brands we have created for boutique hotels that we love!
