Should my hotel redesign its website?
Short answer
Redesign your hotel website when the problems are structural — an outdated platform you can't edit, a poor mobile experience that can't be fixed in place, a booking path that can't be improved, or a brand change. If the issues are slow images, thin room pages, unclear calls to action, or broken tracking, targeted fixes are usually faster, cheaper, and less risky. Before deciding, measure how the current site performs. If you do redesign, treat it as a migration: map old URLs to new ones and redirect them, or you can lose search visibility.
By Lodging Engine Editorial Team· Reviewed by Eric Zwanenburg· Last reviewed
Signs a redesign is justified
- The platform is unsupported, insecure, or impossible for your team to update.
- Mobile experience is poor and the theme can't be fixed.
- The booking engine integration can't be improved on the current setup.
- A rebrand, new ownership, or major repositioning.
- Accessibility problems built into the templates.
Signs targeted fixes are enough
- Pages are slow mainly because of large images or a few heavy scripts.
- Room and location content is thin — a content problem, not a design one.
- The booking button isn't visible enough.
- Analytics are broken, so you can't tell what works.
Measure first
Before deciding, record:
- Search Console: clicks, impressions, top pages, and queries.
- Analytics: booking-engine visits and bookings by channel.
- Core Web Vitals on mobile.
- Your list of URLs that get traffic or links.
This baseline tells you what's working, what to keep, and later whether the redesign helped.
If you redesign: protect what works
Google's site move guidance applies: map old URLs to new ones, use permanent redirects, keep redirects for a long time (generally at least a year), and expect some fluctuation while Google recrawls. See protecting rankings during a redesign.
Also keep:
- Detailed room and location content.
- Titles and structured data.
- Language versions and hreflang.
- Tracking, tested before launch.
Questions to ask before committing
- What specific problems will the new site solve?
- How will we measure success after launch?
- Who will maintain content afterwards?
- Who owns the domain, hosting, and content?
See choosing a web design agency.
Common mistakes
- Redesigning for looks while ignoring content and booking.
- Launching without redirects.
- Changing URLs, content, and design all at once without a plan.
Checklist
- Problems listed and classified as structural or fixable
- Baseline measured
- Redirect map prepared if URLs change
- Content and tracking carried over
- Success measures agreed before launch
Sources
- Site moves and migrations — Google Search Central
- Web Vitals — web.dev (Google)
- SEO Starter Guide: the basics — Google Search Central