Comments on: How to make a really bad hotel website in ten easy steps

By: Jill Starley-Grainger

Jill Starley-Grainger — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:59:27 +0000

I wish EVERY hotel would read this and take heed. What’s astonishing is that they seem to be getting WORSE and not better. Those wanky flash intro screens piss me off before I’ve even started trying to figure out where the heck your room rates are and what the rooms look like.

As for the cut-and-paste of addresses, that’s not just a journo issue. Most people need to do this to email the address to friends and family, or to put into their own Word doc itinerary. It’s beyond annoying.

Hotel website designers, please take note!

By: Diccon Bewes

Diccon Bewes — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:26:59 +0000

Great post! Especially the bit about pictures vs info, but having said that it is really important to have at least one pic of a typical room. I hate sites that don’t manage that.
And when trying to make an online booking, having to click on through calendars to get to a check-in date six months away, and then click through them all again to put in the check-out date.

By: Why it's wise not to password protect your media section

Why it's wise not to password protect your media section — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:54:10 +0000

[...] funny anymore! I have ran across several websites lately that had such a marvelous strategy, but this post reminded me of it and of my needing to address the [...]

By: Matthew Teller

Matthew Teller — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:26:24 +0000

Does anyone NOT click ‘Skip Intro’?

By: Paul Scarrott

Paul Scarrott — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:20:40 +0000

Couldn’t agree more. I still don’t understand why people do entire websites in Flash nowadays. Apart from the fact they are slow, bulky, cause problems with SEO, reduce accessibility, annoying and pretentious, there really isn’t any need any more. With effective use of AJAX and Javascript a good designer can create a modern, attractive and interactive site without all the problems caused by Flash. Flash has a place, for compressing videos for streaming, but as far as i’m concerned, that’s it.

I am a bit concerned that you still haven’t spotted the English option on the Las Letras site mind, it’s at the top of every screen, just below the logo (albeit in pretty small writing.)

By: Mary Novakovich

Mary Novakovich — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 08:19:23 +0000

Agree heartily with all of the above. My biggest bugbear is not being able to find the rates. I know a lot of hotels have deliberately complicated room rates according to the season, a full moon or if the manager’s in a good mood. But there’s still no reason why they can’t have even the vaguest list of tariffs. And don’t even get me started on the music…