7 Website opportunities hospitality businesses miss out on

Most hospitality businesses that have decided to invest in a website have done a good job. They’re likely to showcase what they sell, have some decent photos, and have enough information for potential customers to understand who they are. But in today's climate, is that enough?

In an industry where competition is fierce, and the experience customers expect needs to be unique. Failing to turn your website into a sales conversion machine is more common than you would think. Have a quick Google and browse some of your local cafes, bars and restaurants. There’s a reasonable chance that their websites (if they even have one) are not providing what a website should deliver, which may ultimately result in a loss of sales. Something that most businesses cannot currently afford to lose. 

Why is it important for hospitality businesses to have a website?

The simple reason is that without one, your customers are less likely to know who you are and what you do. And without customers, you don’t have a business. Couple that with an industry that is constantly evolving to fight for every pound a customer has to spend, not having at least a basic information website will mean that it’s very likely your business will fall behind the competition that has more of a visual presence than you do.

This is even more important when customers’ disposable income is tightening and business costs are increasing. In fact it was estimated that from April 2025, the hospitality industry’s annual cost to businesses was set to increase by £3.4 Billion. By not having a website that works for you, you’re simply leaving money on the table.

What are the most common opportunities hospitality websites miss out on?

Having audited numerous hospitality websites, we’ve identified significant opportunities that will have a massive impact on how your website can work for you. The great news is that the majority of them can be easily remedied, and should have an immediate improvement to your customer experience and ultimately sales turnover.

Here are the top 7 opportunities that will improve the effectiveness that your website will make to your business:

• Experience an increase in online presence

• Maximise the impact of your sales and marketing strategy

• It’s the best opportunity to flex your brand

• It shows off your unique experience 

• Support your online advertising and social media strategy

• Trust and credibility from your customers will improve 

• You’ll keep up with the competition

Experience an increase in online presence

For hospitality businesses, your website isn’t just a digital brochure, it’s your online stamp on the internet. A study in April 2024 showed that 30% of those surveyed said they’d do a ‘general internet search’ and 20% said they regularly use the ‘Google near me’ search tool.

More and more customers begin their search for venues by visiting them online and use the information that they gather to make their decision. If your business either doesn’t show up or stand out, you’re losing customer visibility from the very first step of the customer journey.

A professionally built and maintained website will significantly improve your chances of being found on Google especially when paired with basic SEO best practices like keyword optimised content and good mobile responsiveness. A strong online presence also means that your venue can be shared on social media (more on that later), linked to local directories and mentioned in blogs, reviews and articles. It creates a ripple effect that will drive traffic to your business, even when you’re not actively marketing.

So without a solid web presence, you’re effectively invisible to customers that are digital-first, many of whom won’t visit without first checking you out online. Can you really afford to miss out on this crowd? Probably not.

Maximise the impact of your sales and marketing strategy

Although having a website is far more advantageous than not having one, your website should be more than just a static page, it should actively support your goals within your sales and marketing strategy. Many hospitality businesses that have a website simply use it as a digital flyer, and miss out on its full potential, driving bookings, interacting with customers and upselling services. 

An effective website does a lot of the work in your sales and marketing strategy. It can capture leads through contact forms, booking enquiries and signups to emails. Each of these touchpoints can collect valuable customer data which can be used to shape and personalise your strategy to improve customer experience and sales turnover. You’ll also be able to get valuable data about your visitors such as click through rate from searches or social media advertising, and insights into how long visitors stay on your page.

It’s the best opportunity to flex your brand

Your website is the perfect space along the customer journey to show off your brand and how its values relate to the customer. It’s where you can show off your brand, what it stands for through the visuals and language, and what the overall experience the customer will get from visiting it. However many hospitality businesses play it safe and miss out on the benefits of showcasing their brand. 

Why do customers visit your venue over your competitors? It could be a number of different possibilities, however one of the key reasons will be because they associate themselves (whether they realise it or not) with your brand.

An effective brand strategy is a key asset to have in your business and aligning it with your target audience is vital. Your website is one of the key places to showcase this, and a well planned website will give your customers an insight in to what you stand for and why they should come to you.

It shows off your unique experience

Linked to promoting what your business and brand stands for, you also get the opportunity to showcase your unique experience that separates you from your competitors. Having an experience that stands out is one of the most important things you need to have and every opportunity to show customers what that is should be taken. 

As part of your unique experience, it’s likely you will have a planned rhythm of the week, where you are giving customers multiple reasons to visit throughout the week. Think:

• Monday Madness

• Taco Tuesdays

• Wing Wednesdays etc

You’ll probably be advertising these through POS within your venue, but customers would love to know about them as part of their website experience so they can plan their future visits. Add this to both your increased online presence and brand visuals, and you’ve created a really informative website experience.

Support your online advertising and social media strategy

Unsurprisingly, one of the key components to running a successful online advertising campaign is having a website to link to. This is especially true if your website has a role in online or direct bookings or enquiries. 

All advertising either through social media or Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns on Google need to have a destination that is trustworthy, on-brand and designed to convert. Competition for click throughs from campaigns is tough. According to Plausible, on average, hospitality websites have a bounce rate of between 40%-60% meaning customers don’t engage with what they are seeing. If they do click through and then land on a clunky or confusing website, chances are they’ll bounce as well, meaning your ad spend goes to waste.

With PPC campaigns, a well designed landing page that compliments your ad message can dramatically improve your conversion rate. This will work even better if you create product specific landing pages that work with your specific ad and deliver exactly what your ad promised.

As we said above, your social media ads will also heavily depend on your website. Your ad will catch your customers’ attention in their feed, but it will be your website that closes the loop and convinces them to take action. An effective website will also be able to track your traffic from individual campaigns to give you data on what ad is/isn’t working.

This is one of the most important opportunities that your website must be effective in, to ensure that your advertising budget does not go to waste and to maximise the opportunity to understand how well your ads perform. An opportunity not to be missed.

Trust and credibility from your customers will improve

As we’ve mentioned, your website should build the trust and confidence that a customer will instinctively want before they spend their money with you and not one of your competitors. 

However on the flip side, an outdated design, old, missing information or a poor experience, especially on mobiles is likely to raise red flags about your business and push customers elsewhere. Customers expect that your website will be fully up to date with the correct information and this is seen as the standard, so any reduced experience will just lead to a dent in the reputation of your business. As far as websites go, the expectation is that it works well. Anything less will leave a poor impression of you.

You’ll keep up with the competition

Finally, paired with the above point, as the expectation is that your website will give customers what they are looking for, if you don’t, your competitors surely are. 

We said at the beginning that the competition is tough and your customers will likely have a number of different options to spend their money. They expect a seamless journey through your website before making a decision and any interruption to that journey will likely put them off, meaning not only do you lose out, but your competitor will gain. 

Once a customer experiences an issue with you, they are far less likely to give you another shot, especially if your competitors give them the experience they were looking for. 

As we’ve seen, your website is more than a digital presence, its a key player in your success. It will support your business in a number of different ways to help you attract and retain your customers and give them a better experience. 

If you’re not using your website to its full potential, it’s time to rethink your approach to how it helps your business.

Want to level up your online presence for your business? Rogue State Studio’s website design services can help you create a website that really gets your brand and digital presence working for you. We offer both simple 1 page websites for independent single venues to full custom websites for growing brands looking to create a more unique user experience.