Ugliest Websites of World’s Top Hotels

Yeah, Kevin, thanks. Fixed it now

I don’t know, what Hotel like this generates the majority of income from an own website. Whenever people spend money on high class hotels like this, they either have their clerks or office to do it, and those service people just reservate, by phone oder fax or email or the international booking systems for travel professionals and never care how the website of any hotel they work with looks, also not their clients. The other part, the people who are not hiso, they book on expedia.com and other sites like this, they book the discounted luxury specials and also never visit the homepage directly, and if, would not say, those are bad sites. So who cares how their sites look at all? No one. When it comes to the first on the list, from 1990, same thing, those small hotels live from word of mouth marketing and existing returning customers (same as any other hotel too) and phone bookings, no one needs a fancy website in that niche. And the rest of these hotel sites, again, a hotel is a hotel and not a online business needing a strong website to produce strong income or to lift the revenues….;)

YeahSure, ok maybe so - let’s assume the hotels like this don’t need websites. In this case why do they have websites anyways? Not to mention the marketing value of website, if the hotel does have a website at all than why not make it good? Flash or non-Flash, but if you have a website there’s always a chance someone will see it, and once seen the website will form an opinion. That’s what matters.

Well, we did google more than enough - what can be more descriptive than “the savoy hotel” query? http://www.google.com/search?hl=en-US&q=the+savoy+hotel

But you know what? It feels good to be wrong about things like this We really hope that the rest of the guys on the list also secretly have good websites

If I were one of these hotels, I wouldn’t even think twice about this article/posting. This article/posting has it’s own shortcomings itself…as previously stated….the first hotel on your list is not “GoldBear Hotel” (like the link says). And the last hotel (Bellagio) you can’t even see because the link goes to mandalay bay. So, hotels on this list, don’t feel bad, everyone screws up…even people knocking you.

I believe is easier to judge, criticize, and conclude about how sore these website are, than to imagine the pains, and collaborative efforts it takes to create these projects. If any one has worked in a corporate, semi-structured environment where the marketing department has some control over the vision of the project, as well as other departments, then you’d surely understand the limits of creative control. That is in addition to deadlines, and other factors that can diminish the quality of the end result. These projects, you got to understand are not templates, nor simple template designs, most are fully functional websites. Designing a template, specially one that where anyone has complete creative control, without the functionality is much easier than putting a full project together. Now, am not defending the obvious shortcomings of these projects, for there are, at least, certain web standards that should be followed for exampled standardized menus, etc..etc…, Am trying to make the point that template design, theming, skin design, are simply much more easier than putting together a fully functional website that involves the collaborative efforts of a team, or group of departments.

Most hotels are not interested in a website besides for (online) reservations, so i guess it’s more a practical approach rather then PR purpose. They don’t need to get any higher sales from it.

Joe, being rude was not the purpose we used the word “ugliest”. But saying that these websites are the ones that “could be improved” would not exactly be the way it is in the reality. In the reality every single website is the one that could be improved - the audience is too diverse and too much rapidly changing for the website to be perfect even two days after the launch.
These hotels’ websites were in fact designed either a very long time ago or without a proper design goal of making it a comfortable website (or without design skills). Either way it’s inappropriate because the WEBSITE HAS TO DO ITS JOB. Otherwise what’s the point for it to be out there?

Unfortunately YOUR category throws a 404

I must agree with Joe, comment 13. I have been purchasing your templates for years, but I might not be making the most beautiful websites with your templates. All the experts of the field laugh at me BECAUSE I use your templates. I suggest you could offer a free makeover to one of these hotels website, and do a before after, if you want to show how good you guys are. Having your logo on the bottom right for 3 months would very well pay for the work, and I think you would sound less cocky.

Keep sending this type of article…………………………… Waiting!!!!!!!!!

I’m using templates when designing websites pretty often and never being laughed at just because of that. The fact that you are not using templates in your work doesn’t make you a top web designer automatically…

Savoy sucks, both versions…

Regarding the Savoy site linked to in this article, I have the same opinion as with the Belaggio site. The author of this article doesn’t seem to understand the concept of a Luxury Brand. Over-the-top design doesn’t always equate to good design. Savoy and Belaggio both succeed in establishing a LUXURY BRAND in their designs through simple, elegant, minimalist, photographic-intensive style. The Belaggio in particular has perfect use of margins, texture, line, and colors. I think the site is near flawless, and I’m astounded that it’s being compared with some of the other sites on this list.

Thanks for the article, it’s a real eye opener. I think it is very important for these hotels to have a spectacular website to match their reputation (even if they are not generating revenue via their website). These hotels really care about their image and presence at their physical location, why should they not care about their online presence. The fact of the matter is, that most people these days like to see where they will be staying at, especially if it is a reputable hotel. You will never see the staff at these hotels with dirty uniforms and give bad customer service. A website is an extension of your business, it should always look presentable with staff that provides excellent customer service. By having an ugly, outdated website with links that do not work, you are giving a bad presence and poor customer service. I really hope someone from these hotels takes a look at these reviews.