Posted on January 18, 2007 in Design-Showcases, with 3 comments.

Amateur Web Design Tip #538: Before designing a site, go and explore other sites that are in the same industry.

This is something I find myself doing time and again. As an amateur I don’t design all day, every day, so it’s vital that I understand at least a little about the industry to which the site will belong. The bed & breakfast industry is a perfect example of that.

Soon I’ll begin working on a site for a local lodge house in the country, so I spent a couple days going over tons, and tons of independent hoteliers, and bed & breakfast sites, to try and get a feel for the nature of the beast.

Before I get to the best examples this is what I learned from my scouting session

• Different industries require different technologies. Bed & breakfast tend to be small, and efficient, but they all seem to work better with some kind of reservation/availability system. In this case, there are numerous services ranging from $13 dollars/month, to thousands a year that you can custom tailor to your sites design, and free you up from having to create one yourself.

• Simple is better. With a site in the lodging industry people are not going to spend a ton of time surfing the property’s site. Most of the time they’d like to see a few pictures, get some info (directions, pricing, maps, etc..) and maybe book a room. That’s it. Only add as much functionality/interactivity as needed.

• Contact info should be big, clear, readable, and on every page. In a small business model, people are going to be less eager to book online, or even trust the site with their info, so the site acts more like a business card or a brochure than anything else.

• People love pictures. If you’re a small b&b and most of your business is from out of town/out of state, then have as many pictures as possible. Period.

So these are the best of the bed & breakfast sites. If you know of a good lodging site, or have designed one yourself leave a comment with a link.

Gruene Mansion Inn

My favorite of the bunch. I like how quickly it loads, and the theme of old-worldly sophistication.

Sugar Hill Harlem Inn

Nice, simple, fast loading with attractive photography of the property. They even have a fairly relevant blog.

Andon Reid Inn

Good design, ncie layout, and pictures galore.

Candle Light Inn

Flash intro a bit much in my opinion, but the awesome yellow and black is very striking.

Milliken Creek Inn

The most modern, and attractive of the sites, the dark background makes the photographs really stand out. Simple, small.

Adagio Inn

A fairly attractice color pallete, and good use of space. Although the trend may be dated a bit, it does everything right.

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