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Great use of full screen images in hotel website design

19 April 2011 | Kate Waite

We’ve recently just finished sourcing over 400 images for a new website for Mahindra Homestays which will be launching soon. With their selection of 300 beautiful Homestays offering an alternative to boutique hotels across India, images form an essential part of the website design, selling not just the destinations but the properties themselves.

For many guests a hotel’s website provides the first impression and it is the perfect opportunity to reflect the ambiance and atmosphere of the property. In a competitive marketplace having a well designed and easy to use website can really boost bookings.

There are many factors which contribute to a great hotel website but in this post I’m going to focus on the use of imagery. For some guests the appearance of the room and property will be the motivating factor as to whether they make that all important reservation. People like to see what they are booking and feel reassured that it will live up to their expectations.

Here are some great examples of hotel website design making strong use of imagery with full screen photography dominating the design.

Hotel Missoni

This website really stands out and ties in the colours of the images with the navigation. While I can’t overlook my pet peeve of sound playing on load the whole website feels fresh and innovative tying together good use of video with stylish navigation.

Sanderson London

With a quirky and eye catching image dominating the homepage as you explore the hotel you are treated to get more full screen images. The photography is excellent and really put to good use. In addition this hotel has one of the clearest booking systems I’ve seen. Despite using a lot of Flash the site still looked good on my iPhone and was fast to load too – top marks!

Hard Rock Hotel

You would expect an eye catching and vibrant website from this hotel and it doesn’t disappoint. A strong colour theme and once again the use of full sized images dominating the site creates a real impact, although the numbered navigation over the top of the images is sometimes hard to see.

Four Seasons – Bora Bora

With a location as stunning as Bora Bora it’s not surprising that destination shots dominate this luxury resort website. The background slide show seems to cycle with endless images with the main site navigation running unusually along the bottom of the screen.

Faena Hotel and Universe

The text on this site is a little small and I struggled to read it but strong images which pick up on the red and dark website tones ensure it is eye catching and will stand out to potential guests.

Hoxten Hotel

The fantastic Hoxten Hotel website not only makes use of beautifully shot full screen images, it makes them part of discovering more about the hotel and accommodation. Roll over hot spots on the images to find out all about what you can expect from a stay, from mattress details to breakfast this is a really innovative way to show off a hotel. Hoxten, I might never get lucky with your famous £1 room sales but I still love you anyway.

Have you got a travel related website you would like to see featured in our blog? We will be doing regular reviews and critiques of websites and featuring collections of our favourites so sign up to our newsletter to find out how yours can be included. Have a hotel website design project? Let us know as we would love to help!