Nine kinds of page
A hospitality website needs nine kinds of page. One of them is a template repeated for every room, pitch, tour or game, so a site with eight rooms and three tours may have thirty pages generated from records. Here is each kind, what belongs on it, and the order to build them in.
1. Home
Above the fold on a phone: what you are and where, one strong photograph of the real place, a date and party-size control that starts a booking, and the Book button. Then the two or three things you most want booked, linking to their own pages; a line on why booking direct is better here; reviews with space reserved so nothing jumps; where you are and how to get here; and the Book button again.
No slider. No autoplay video. The hero image prioritised so it paints early.
2. Book
The booking engine, on its own page, and almost nothing else. This is the only page carrying the engine's script, with its height reserved in the stylesheet and a preconnect to its domain. Beside the widget: the phone number for large parties and awkward requests, the deposit and cancellation policy in one sentence, and a line on what booking direct includes.
3. Rooms, menu or experiences (one page each)
The template that does the selling. A page per room type, pitch type, property, tour, vessel, game, session or desk tier, each with three to six real photographs, the inclusive price and what it includes, capacity and who it suits, the practical constraints, and a Book button deep-linked to that product in the engine.
Restaurants use this page kind for the menu instead: text with prices and allergens, editable in a minute, never a PDF. Cafés add pre-order and collection.
These are the pages that rank for what people actually search, and the pages guests send each other.
4. Prices
The rate table by season, the deposit and payment schedule, the cancellation policy, extras with prices, and any minimum stay, party size or group rules. Everything inclusive of tax and mandatory fees. This is the page people forward to whoever is paying, and it answers most of the phone calls about money.
5. Gallery
Built from the same images that live on the product pages, not maintained separately. Grouped by room, area or experience rather than dumped in one grid, lazy-loaded, with the Book button still in reach. Optional for small sites, where the product pages carry the pictures on their own.
6. Location and getting here
Address, map link, how to arrive by car, train and bus, where to park and whether it costs, arrival and check-in times, the door or gate to use, what is nearby. For campsites add the site map, the rules and what to bring. For boat charters add the meeting point and the weather policy. For tour operators add the start point with a photograph of it.
This page ends more phone calls than any other.
7. Reviews
Pulled from Google and the platforms rather than typed out as testimonials, with the overall rating, the most recent few, and a link to read the rest. Reviews also belong beside the Book button on the home page and on individual product pages, which is where they do the most work.
8. Gift vouchers
A voucher bought online, delivered by email, redeemable against a booking. Most engines sell them, and for escape rooms, restaurants and experience businesses this page pays for itself in one December. State the value options, the expiry, what it can be spent on, and how to redeem it.
9. Contact and policies
Tappable phone with the hours it is answered, email, address, a short enquiry form for the things a booking engine cannot handle (private dining, group bookings, weddings, corporate events), and the policies as plain pages: cancellation and refunds, deposits, house rules, accessibility, privacy notice, allergen statement. Structured data for the business lives here and on the home page.
Optional, by business type
- Private dining, groups and corporate, with a form that asks for date, numbers and budget.
- Local guides: what to do nearby, which B&Bs and holiday lets use to rank for the destination as well as the name.
- Offers and packages, where you run them.
- The hosts or the team, which matters more for small accommodation than for anything else.
- First-timer FAQ, for escape rooms, activity centres and anything a guest has not done before.
- Other languages, where a real share of guests do not read yours.
Leave off
A separate history page nobody reads. A news section that stopped two years ago. A PDF menu. A testimonials page instead of live reviews. A home page slider. An enquiry form standing in for a booking engine.
Building in stages
Stage 1, launch: Home, Book, the product pages for everything you sell, Prices, Location and getting here, Contact and policies. That is a complete site: a stranger can look, understand the price, and book.
Stage 2, first quarter: Reviews, Gift vouchers, Gallery, local guides, offers.
Stage 3, ongoing: packages, other languages, groups and corporate as demand appears.
The engine, the inclusive prices, the photography, the speed work and the tracking are in from stage 1.
The structure underneath
Rooms, tours, pitches, menu items and prices are records with fields and relationships, each holding its own images, its price, its terms and its identifier in the booking engine. The page renders from the record, the Book button is built from a field, and adding a room or a tour is filling in a form. That is what stops the site drifting out of date the first time a season changes.
Where this sits
These nine kinds are the page list for every hospitality business website we build at a fixed price, with the records, the engine integration, the inclusive pricing and the speed and tracking work included. Owners arrive wanting atmosphere and leave with a structure that takes the booking, with the atmosphere on top.