Any business with an online presence needs to have a home. This is no different for hotels in Nigeria; hotel owners need to present their hospitality on their websites. This article explores the best hotel website designs found in Nigeria.
If visitors to a hotel website have a complementary homely experience, they are more likely to book a stay. Little changes like a rearrangement of the navigational bar or general colour palette can go a long way in increasing the revenues of hotels.
Hotel owners planning to build their websites do not need to reinvent the wheel. People already know what to expect from a website; the idea is to meet their expectations while adding some uniqueness of yours.
To do this, you need hotel websites to use as references; from these, you can pick individual features that add up to make your website unique.
This article explores the best hotel websites in Nigeria from whose websites you can choose features to use in your website.
What Makes a Hotel Website Design Great
To stand out among hundreds of hotel websites in Nigeria, your website must have unique features. However, there are some things you should put in mind to create one of the best hotel website designs in Nigeria.
Easy Navigation
Straightforward navigation helps your guests find what they need quickly. This could be further information about your rooms or suites. Excellent navigation is handy for websites with lots of pages, for instance, if the hotel has hundreds of rooms. Navigation helps retain visitors by making it easy for visitors to find what they need. Keep your navigation simple and similar across the website.
Mobile-Friendly Design
Over 50% of internet users browse on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Therefore, your website needs to be built with these users in mind. Speak with your web designer to make your website look similar and work appropriately across desktop and mobile devices.
Purposeful Content
Be it texts, images, or videos, the content of your website needs to help your visitors make profitable decisions for your business. For example, a hotel website works better with a great look and engaging content. In addition, it helps to use a convincing tone to persuade your visitors and convert them to hotel guests.
Simple Booking Process
One of the reasons you have a website is to get more guest bookings online. Make the booking process easy as ABC. If people need to contact your representative to book rooms in your hotel, place your contact details where people can easily find them. This can be a preheader on your website or a conspicuous ‘Contact Us’ button that leads to a page with your contact details.
Conversely, if you prefer people book without speaking with you, you need to create a seamless eCommerce experience where people can go through your listings and pay directly on the website. Again, it helps to make the conversion process quick and easy; the more barriers visitors have to surmount, the higher their chances of abandoning their booking.
Quick Loading Speed
People visiting your website expect your pages to load in under 2 seconds or 3 seconds at most. If your website speed exceeds 3 seconds, you will likely lose visitors (potential customers). Use the PageSpeed Insights Tool to find out your website load speed.
To reduce your website load speed, you need to optimize the size of images and remove unnecessary javascript in your code base. If your bookings have videos, it helps to upload the videos on video-sharing websites like Youtube or Vimeo. Then you can use an embed code to add the video to your website for visitors to play if they wish to see the videos.
Don’t upload videos on your website! It increases your website load speed significantly.
Top 7 Hotel Websites in Nigeria
Some hotels in Nigeria covered the principles above in creating their websites. Perhaps, they worked with a web designer in Nigeria who understands what makes a great website. So here are the top 7 hotel websites in Nigeria from which you can draw inspiration when planning to build yours.
1. Lagos Continental Hotel
This is a 5-star hotel located at Plot 52, Kofo Abayomi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos. It sells itself as the tallest hotel in Nigeria and West Africa, with over 350 rooms, 37 suites, and a presidential suite.
The hotel’s website contains a sticky header with a prominent ‘Book Now’ button which helps visitors book a room on any website page. Also, the design is simple, using two colours – deep blue and gold (white and black are neutral colours).
2. The Wheatbaker
Located at 4 Onitolo Road Ikoyi, Lagos, The Wheatbaker is situated near the best corporate business districts of Ikoyi and Victoria Island in Lagos. This makes it a prime place of rest for business travellers visiting Lagos from global companies.
First impressions matter in websites, and the Wheatbaker website knocks it off the park with a well-scripted video in the hero section. In addition, the website uses just two typefaces, one for headers and the other for paragraph texts. This is arguable one of the best hotel website designs in Nigeria.
3. Presidential Hotel
A 241-room hotel located along Port Harcourt to Aba expressway, Presidential Hotel is excellent for business travellers and leisure seekers in the Port Harcourt business district.
Their website is straightforward and functional. The most conspicuous colour is the burgundy brand colour used for headings and button backgrounds. Also, the web designer used just two fonts, one for primary headings and the other for paragraphs.
4. Heliconia Park Port Harcourt Hotel & Suites
This hotel is located at Heliconia Park – Port Harcourt Off Eastern By-Pass / Ogbunabali Road Amadi-Ama, around 30 minutes from the Port Harcourt International Airport, close to the Corporate Head Office of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG).
Their website design is simple except for where the designer flaunted the hotel facilities; in these situations, the flaunting was done with aplomb. Also, the header is sticky; hence, on scrolling, the menus stay enough to allow the visitors to click ‘booking’ to check out available rooms and become guests.
5. The Colossus Lagos
This is a 4-star hotel housing 85 fully-furnished hotel rooms and suites. It is located about 10 minutes from the Muritala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.
The website designed by Fresible Developers is simple and functional with simple branding with consistent dark gold colour. A grid arrangement of the content blends well with the custom photography of the hotel amenities. In addition, the website designers used minimal typefaces to keep the design simple.
6. The George Lagos
The George is located at 30 Lugard Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos. This makes it an excellent destination for guests with businesses at the corporate buildings close to Ikoyi and Victoria Island.
The website has a preheader that contains information the visitors need to know. Also, the website has a membership built-in; hence, new users can register, or past guests can log in. The website sections contain lots of whitespaces, making the columns of pictures and texts stand out.
7. Rollace Hotel
This hotel is located at 46 – 48 Awoniyi Elemo Street, Off International Airport Road Ajao Estate, Lagos.
The website utilizes simple animation to introduce the sections and contains embedded videos in vantage points to drive home the point.
Do You Need a Website?
In the expanding Nigerian digital economy, having a website for your business is vital. A website helps you add credibility to your brand and help convince visitors, converting them into buyers.
Since you now know the best hotel website designs in Nigeria, if you plan to build a website for your business, you are at the right place. Let’s discuss a website for your business today!
To ensure your website pays for itself and increases in value over time, you can hire SEO services. Also, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps your website rank above your competitors, driving quality traffic to your website and reducing the amount you spend on paid ads.
