Are these the best 12 hotel website designs in 2015?

Lees Ferry and the Cliff Dwellers Lodge is located at Marble Canyon, Arizona.

Scott Williamson

Not only does the auto-play video in the header make an instant impression upon loading the homepage, this site uses the mosaic-like feel to great effect by mixing several different types of content: colour photography, multiplied photography, and solid colours with text on top.

This mix of content and visuals helps to convey a great sense of what Lees Ferry is actually like in a very fluid un-compartmentalized way, which is interesting given that the site is literally based on a strict grid structure. The site feels like it is showing you a story, and giving you a taste of what Lees Ferry is like, rather than directly trying to tell you. And in the end, everything pertinent is there and works together in a surprisingly cohesive way.

Taylor Hand

Sold.

John Speed

Looks like a love fest is happening for this. I had seen this pinned before but never visited the actual site. It’s better live. This is how do an engaging grid. I guess you can count me in on the lovefest.

Daniel Hildreth

Super site! Very simple, feels very clean and structured. I like the staggered loading when going to a new page as well. A very colourful site, but PDF menu again….

Ace Hotel is a chain of hotels, with locations in New York, Downtown LA, Palm Springs, Portland, London, Panama, and Seattle.

John Speed

I’ve actually visited a couple Ace Hotels in NYC and Palm Springs so I can understand the direction they took. I like the collage/curated feel of it, however for such a taste making hotels chain I kind of wanted more from them. Being in the lobby at the ACE NYC, or sitting by the Pool in Palm springs is really a scene to remember. The site… almost does that I guess.

Taylor Hand

My OCD is going crazy, but I’m surprisingly really pleased with whatever is going on here. I love the sporadic short gifs throughout the framed images. And the beautiful distressed text and illustrations are just soooo nice. What I’m not loving is how long some of the pages get. The small menu that hides with the rest of the floating content gets lost and I’m still here scrolling and scrolling.

Scott Williamson

I don’t think this site would be for everyone, and that’s because the entire design seems to be focused on setting a tone through photography and short looping video clips. And for the most part, they all have a personal or artistic touch to them. Nothing feels ‘perfect’. Being such a long and scrolling site is something many hotel websites tend to avoid, but for Ace Hotels it works.

The photography and video clips dispersed throughout each page are weaved around the more specific text content, and in combination with each other sort of work to take you on a journey of impressions. In some subtle way, the site almost asks you to buy into a certain mindset or lifestyle as much as they are asking you to book a room.

Daniel Hildreth

I have to agree with Taylor, the layout partially drives me crazy, but I really like the style they achieved with the textures, type and stamps. I like the individual hotel pages better than the main page. Favourite elements are the stamps. Great style.

Constance Hotels & Resorts operates luxury hotels on islands in the Indian Ocean.

John Speed

This site feels very on trend to me. Very 2015… with it’s bold use of black and white, big photos, interesting shapes. It’s definitely designed to feel well designed.

Taylor Hand

Agreed. This design is no doubt following the fads right now – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s not too overdone and is clean and simple to navigate through with its great photography and use of icons.

Scott Williamson

This site feels like the prototypical hotel website right now, so I agree with John and Taylor. Perfect photography, visually dynamic design, easy to understand, well organized, but not a terribly high amount of personality.

Daniel Hildreth

Ditto to everything you guys have said above, but to comment on something new – I like how they integrated social sharing into their content and I’m also really liking the design for a video header (click to play) although I wish it were a little more obvious that it will be a video.

Cheval Blanc, St-Barth Isle de France is an iconic, exclusive property set on the Flamands beach in France with just 40 rooms, suites, and villas.

John Speed

This site is beautifully simple. This isn’t easy to do, I think this was designed very well. I love the proportions, I like the nav, the whole site is deep and yet very cohesive. It’s a well done project through and through.

Scott Williamson

Beautifully simple is a good way to sum this site up. I might lean towards almost being too simple or bare in terms of how each page is structured, but there is something to be said for consistency as well. I was a little confused by the left/right arrows beside the mobile menu in each header, but I like the idea that you can skip to new pages using them. The drop-down menu is also gorgeous.

Taylor Hand

It is just so lovely and clean. I don’t think there is anything else to say.

Daniel Hildreth

Awesome and unique menu system! Never seen that before! Fluid, and easy to navigate. I’m digging the type hierarchy and the simple icons used, each page is very simple and structured allowing the user to know where key information would be page-to-page. I like how different and unique this site is.

Palais Coburg is a five-star hotel located in Vienna.

John Speed

I think the culinary section of this site is a little cooler than the hotel side, and I’m not completely sold on navigations where it feels like a page by page slideshow BUT… I really, really like the design of this site. It had me from the header.

Scott Williamson

This site is marred by inconsistency and to me requires too much work for the user to uncover the information they are looking for. The typography is generally nice across the site, and the pages are well designed visually, but as a website not fun or easy to browse.

John Speed

@scott haters gonna hate.

Taylor Hand

Oh jeez. Okay well I am deeply loving this one. The use of the full screen for clean text and subtle details has me leaping for design joy. I love the photography slideshows between informative scrolls. and the overall classic, to modern feeling they have going. BUT chevron. I have a strong distaste for anything chevron and I’m pretending that it isn’t there, and everything is perfect again.

Daniel Hildreth

Although, yes, it is somewhat of a maze to navigate and I’m not crazy about the slideshow-esque fixed-scrolling I do really like their type and the colours used. The page designs also transition to mobile rather nicely as well.

Christchurch Harbour Hotel & Spa is a relaxed coastal spa retreat located in Dorset, United Kingdom.

John Speed

This site isn’t the most ‘pinnable’ design around. It’s simple, usable, and if you actually browse the site you learn to love it because it’s not trying to be too much other than a nice, clean, hotel website. I particularly like the way the offers are integrated into the header, it’s a nice feature and keeps the offers up top.

Daniel Hildreth

Looking at the screen-cap, I wasn’t expecting much from the actual site – but once on it and browsing and clicking through, I was impressed. The large full screen headers feel trendy, very immersive. Also the interactivity is subtle but a great touch. A very image based hotel site.

Taylor Hand

I’m swooning over just how excellent they showcased their hotel. It is incredibly simple to navigate through, while indulging in on just how perfect and clean the space looks with their use of photography, subtle interactive features and clean text. This site is one of my favourites.

Scott Williamson

The interior pages on this site are incredibly simple, and I found myself thinking how incredible it is that many hotel websites don’t use a consistent locked sidebar for their pages. It takes up a lot of space, but when your website or page is trying to sell one thing in particular, it’s worth it in my eyes.

Regnum Carya Golf & Spa Resort is a five-star luxury hotel in Belek, aimed towards leisure, golfer, and business guests.

John Speed

I like how the content below the masthead is merchandised. Makes it feel like a more robust experience, with he golf, soccer, and helicopter rides. The site fell a little flat for me when browsing though as the images were long to load, and I was hoping for some more video content.

Daniel Hildreth

I am only a fan of the home page and especially the content below the header like John said – it’s cool looking. Really like that section and I feel that all the interior pages are slacking compared to it. Really slacking.

Taylor Hand

This hotel to me, seems like any generic hot-spot resort that blends in with the rest, with only a little more, extra something, more design-y, somewhat interactive website than the rest. Good for them!! Guys let’s be proud that they’re trying.

Scott Williamson

This site has a nicely defined aesthetic, and I actually think that the interior pages were quite well done. For example, landing on one of the Entertainment pages and seeing “Entertainment” on the header image followed by the highlighted tab of the page you’re on is very easy to understand and it gives you an immediate sense for the structure of the section itself and what content is available for you to browse.

The Chess Hotel is a contemporary, design-focused hotel in Paris. It opened in 2014.

John Speed

Visually this is one of the more interesting designs here, it took me a while to get my bearings in terms of the navigation though. Theres the show/hide burger menu, tabs in pages, expanding panels etc. I have to think that a more traditional nav would have improved the experience and wouldn’t have taken away from the design.

Daniel Hildreth

I’m not a big fan of this site – not sure if it’s the crazy backgrounds which make my eyesight go funny or if it’s the navigation method. I do however like the typography when overlaid on an image – that looks really modern.

Taylor Hand

After deep research within the contents of this site and the different menus, I found out that the illustrations found throughout are actually painted on a large wall as a main focus of the hotel. This being said- I’m liking the edgyness they were trying to go for, however, there is a way to use main backgrounds, and there is also this way, haha. For the homepage, it may be okay to slide. However with the other pages with information a busy background like such is probably not the best idea.

Scott Williamson

I actually really like the navigation and had no trouble understanding it; I just question whether or not the burger menu was necessary. It could have been showing by default and stayed in that position. It’s interesting that they chose to show it by default at first and then hide it as you scroll … maybe they’re doing designers some good by teaching people what the burger/mobile menu symbol means!

Hotel Escencia is a 50-acre estate in Mexico, originally the private hideaway home of an Italian duchess. Now, it is a hotel popular with honeymooners.

Taylor Hand

This design I absolutely adore. They went in a completely different direction than any other hotel website I’ve seen and I think it really does put itself in a different category. It’s fun, simple, not over-done, showcases their style and attracts an audience. Love it.

Daniel Hildreth

Loving this site! The subtle animated headers are fantastic and fun. The colours are great. At times it feels like the content is a little floaty in space but I still like it. Really liking how simple and straight forward the design is.

John Speed

It definitely has personality and some charm to it. I kind of wish they found a way to promote the actual photography a little more though. At first I thought, it must not be a great hotel product because it’s so hidden away but once you browse the photos the place looks great. Am I supposed to have to hunt through the site to actual uncover the goods? Like it for what it is, but I’m missing photos on this one.

Scott Williamson

Agree completely with John on this one. The personality and charm this site has is the best thing it has going for it, but the photography is not easy enough to access. It’s one thing to want to break free from other conventional website designs, but in the end, users still have expectations when they browse a hotel website. And photos being front-and-centre (or close to it) is one of them.

Babington House is a country hotel set on 18 acres in Frome, United Kingdom

John Speed

This site starts off so strong, I really like the grid approach but just wish there were additional font treatments or overlay options for each grid item. It becomes a little too repetitive, and with some additional variation it could really be a winner.

Scott Williamson

Absolutely agree with John. It has potential, but it eventually ends up feeling too monotone and bloated. Some variety in the treatment of each grid item would have done this site some good.

Daniel Hildreth

Other than the overlays, I like the grid system happening on this site, I also browsed their sister sites as they have 13 locations globally, they all feature the same overlays but different colours – overall, I would have expected way more from SoHo House sites. Surprised. Imagery is great though

Taylor Hand

Okay, I am really liking the main header and how simple it is. But then everything else is kind of a let down for me. I think with a powerful top half, some nice clean white space would have been really powerful for this particular design. It just seems so jam-packed for such little detail within the space.

Vesper Hotel is the first boutique hotel on the Dutch coast.

John Speed

If the main goal of a hotel website is to get you to want to book. Mission accomplished. This isn’t just one of my favourite hotel websites, it might be one of my favourite websites period. It’s fast, fresh, and easy to browse. Good stuff.

Scott Williamson

One of the cool things about this site is how the Rooms are presented with colour-coded blocks corresponding to what size, major amenities, or features they have. It’s immediately understandable and informative. I also enjoy that they are not afraid to use elements like the mobile menu for desktop to protect the cleanliness of the header, and that the are not afraid of white space when displaying photographs as you scroll down pages.

Taylor Hand

I’m a huge fan of white space, however there is something off about this design for me and I can’t quite put my finger on it. I am deeply in love with the fonts and use of slow videos to evoke a certain feeling that the hotel holds. But I’m still trying to figure out why I can’t fully commit to loving the whole thing. I think it may be the baby shampoo colours floating around there, maybe… probably.

Daniel Hildreth

Ah! That’s what a little off with it Taylor, the very baby ish toned colours, to me the colours instantly felt a way too young, childish and expected in a nursery. However I really really like this site. The video header, navigation, button styles with the arrows and even the sliders are nice! BUT! PDF menus, no no. Overall A+ in my books.

Blue Lagoon is a hotel set in the heart of a stunning lava landscape in Grindavik, Iceland.

Taylor Hand

The bright blue photography really holds this design together. The hotel is set to be a refreshing destination, and with the excellent choice of imagery you definitely get the sense of that right off the bat. The homepage is a great example of a clean and straight to the point design, the information pages however, fall short of being as impactful as the homepage for me.

Scott Williamson

Like Taylor mentioned, the incredible photography and video of this location is really what holds this one together. However, it’s also backed by a simple, easy to understand structure, and subtle, but nice easing effects on the content. The pictures used for each drop-down menu item are also a nice touch.

John Speed

The animation holds this one together for me. The animated builds on each section helps keep me interested as a browse. I kept wondering if this was a shampoo site or something just by the tone of it. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Daniel Hildreth

I’m personally not too crazy about this site. Not sure what about it is not sitting with me well, just not a big fan. Maybe after seeing John’s comment about the possibility of it being a shampoo site changed my perspective – messed me up as that’s what I saw. However, the imagery is really good for what they want to achieve.