One benefit to being an independent hotel is the freedom to choose – in this case, the freedom to choose a content management system for your hotel website. With more than a handful of content management systems to pick from, making the right choice can be intimidating. We’ve highlighted what to consider when choosing a CMS for your hotel website.

Evaluate your Needs

When selecting a content management system for your hotel website, evaluating your needs is key.

• Consider what integrations you may need in order to not only maintain but increase your online revenue. What content management systems support your booking software, live chat systems, etc.? 
• Who will be managing your website content? How flexible do you need the editor to be?
• What level of analytics integration are you looking for your CMS to support? 
• What additional features will you need in a content management system? 

What separates design from art is that design is meant to be… functional.”Cameron Moll

Calculate Costs

Building a hotel website comes with many costs – some up front and some ongoing. Create a realistic budget that factors in all facets of a hotel website redesign. 

• Will the design be custom or templated?
• Will the build require a website developer?
• Will it need customizations?
• Will there be an ongoing hosting cost?
• Will I need to pay someone to make frequent updates?
• Will you need new photography or videography?

Weigh the Pros and Cons

We’ve made it easy to choose a content management system by comparing three of the most popular website builders.

Jump:

WordPress

SquareSpace

Wix

WordPress

Pros 

• User Friendly 
  • This intuitive content management system makes it easy for a site administrator to organize, edit and update content without prior knowledge. They even offer free resources you can find here. 
• Plugins
  • WordPress offers the ability to modify or improve your website experience with more than 50k plugins – many of which are free to install. Check out our list of the top ten WordPress plugins for hotels.
• Optimization
  • At TravelBoom, we know optimizing your hotel website for search is crucial. With comprehensive SEO plugins like Yoast, WordPress makes it easy – even if you’re a novice.

Cons

• Performance 
  • WordPress requires frequent updates and ongoing maintenance. If you aren’t maintaining the health of your CMS, performance will likely suffer. In addition, out-of-the box WordPress themes often rely on a horde of plugins and other unnecessary elements that may impact performance if not removed. 
• Security & Vulnerability
  • WordPress maintenance is manual versus some other hosted solutions that would automate these processes. Further, be mindful of what plugins you’re adding in an effort to minimize vulnerabilities on your hotel website.

SquareSpace

Pros

• Simple Yet Sophisticated
  • SquareSpace is quick and easy to set up – making it a favorable choice for beginners – and they offer a variety of visually-stunning design templates to choose from. 
• Straightforward Pricing
  • SquareSpace is transparent in their all-in-one pricing model, which means you don’t need to pay to host your hotel website elsewhere.

Cons

• Performance
  • In many cases, SquareSpace load times leave something to be desired due to bloated stylesheets and Javascript that weigh down templates.
• Unintuitive Interface
  • SquareSpace might be easy to set up, however it isn’t the most effortless content management system out there. Keep this in mind once you’ve determined who will be responsible for making changes to your hotel website. 
• Cost
  • Though SquareSpace pricing is clear-cut, the ongoing fees can add up. Be sure to compare this to the continued costs of alternative hosted solutions.

Wix

Pros

• We love elegant, effective hotel website designs that deliver. Wix offers artificial design intelligence – a unique system that provides a custom website design based on a questionnaire + your own personal design preferences. In a matter of minutes, Wix ADI creates a site that is tailored to fit your needs.
• Not only is it easy to get started, but Wix is easy to use and maintain, as well!

Cons

• While Wix does offer a free plan, it’s not ideal and we recommend upgrading to one of their paid packages. The Wix free plan limits access to online sales and analytics, includes on-site advertisements and minimal customer support.

Once you’ve selected a content management system that suits your needs and your hotel website is up and running, consider adding Clarity, Microsoft’s revolutionary user behavior analytics tool, to gain insight into user behavior online. This powerful tool can be used to help hoteliers find missed opportunities and ultimately drive revenue for your hotel.

If you can’t decide on a CMS for your new hotel website, TravelBoom can help. Contact us today to get your business booming.