Mobile-First Website Design Strategy
We are witnessing continuous year-over-year growth in the mobile device categories, while the desktop continues to lose ground.
Mobile-First Website Design Strategy

Mobile-First Index is Approaching – How Can You Prepare?
In 2019, nearly 27% of bookings and 24% of room nights came from mobile devices (smartphone and tablet), compared to 21% of bookings and 17% of room nights in 2019.
As we continue to see the travel planning process become increasingly complex, hoteliers need to find ways to engage their best potential guests across multiple touch points and across all devices. Today’s typical travel consumer is exposed to more than 38,983 micro-moments in a 60-day timeframe and visits an average of 18 websites via multiple devices across eight sessions before making a hotel booking (Google Research). This journey results in serious competition for the travel consumer’s attention and has become increasingly dominated by mobile micro-moments and touch points.
We already live in a mobile-first world. Mobile devices dominate the travel planning journey: 40% – 50% of desktop bookings worldwide are preceded by a click on a mobile device, and 94% of leisure travelers use multiple devices (mobile, tablet, desktop) when planning and booking travel (Criteo). [view stats source]
eMarketer projects that, in 2018, online bookings are expected to exceed $190 billion, of which 40% is slated to be purchased on mobile. In hospitality, 20-30% of hotel bookings are made on mobile devices, with the percentage dependent on property type (branded or independent), location (rural or metro area), complexity of hotel product (golf resort vs. major city hotel), availability or lack of a loyalty program, and composition of its customer segments (business vs. leisure; transient vs. group).
The hospitality industry has less share of mobile bookings compared to the overall projections for the travel industry. This is due to the complexity of managed corporate travel and corporate and SMERF group segment procurement, such as mandated GDS bookings for managed corporate travel, and offline RFP process for group travel.
Hoteliers face a major challenge in creating and managing a robust digital presence in an increasingly mobile-first environment. They must invest in mobile technology and marketing that enables the best possible user experience and maximum engagement, regardless of device. This explosion of mobile customer engagements also creates a tremendous opportunity for smart hoteliers who invest in and take advantage of this rising tide of mobile-obsessed travel consumers.
The shift toward the mobile-first world continues year-over-year:
We are witnessing continuous year-over-year growth in the mobile device categories, while the desktop continues to lose ground. The most notable developments in 2017 compared to 2016 were:
What should hoteliers do about this mobile-first digital world?
Here are the top two action steps hoteliers need to undertake to address the shift to mobile-first user behavior:
Hoteliers need to keep the property website, which is the foundation of their digital marketing and distribution strategy, up to the mobile-first standards that travel consumers now demand.
It is staggering how hoteliers often fail to understand the crucial role the hotel website and its user experience (UX) plays in the overall health of the property and its bottom line. With nearly 59% of website visitors now viewing the property on mobile devices, a fully responsive, mobile-first website design is a must.
There is a very simple litmus test to determine how good is your property website in this new mobile-first world we live in: invite friends and family to visit the property website on their smartphones and get their feedback as to how user-friendly the site is, how good and useful the content is, and, overall, how mobile-ready your site is. Another approach is to ask yourself: how old is the hotel website? If it is older than two years, it’s due for a re-design. Websites older than two years often lack the latest best practices in technology, design, and UX, such as a mobile-first design, reservation abandonment applications, merchandising applications, Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages), schema, technical SEO, and more. An outdated website leads to lower conversions.
Website download speeds across various devices inevitably affect conversion rates on the hotel website, while fast download speeds drastically improve the user experience and increase the user’s desire to transact on the site. According to Google, 53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than three seconds to load. Mobile-first responsive website with cloud hosting and Content Delivery Network (CDN) provides far better server response times and faster download speeds.
The property mobile-first website must be backed by a Website Technology Platform that includes mobile-first functionality specific to the needs of hoteliers, such as:
Mobile-first website strategy recommendations:
The property website must incorporate the right balance of beauty and science: excellent design combined with state-of-the-art website content management system (CMS) technology, supported by a merchandising strategy, and engaging visual and textual content, all while providing an optimum user experience from top to bottom on every device (mobile or desktop). This type of website will result in a boost in conversions and revenues from the direct online channel.
As mentioned, the average travel consumer goes through multiple touch points and uses multiple devices when planning and booking a trip. Keeping the consumer engaged and reaching them at various touchpoints throughout their journey requires integrating all screens (desktop and mobile) and consumer touch points in the hotel’s marketing strategy.
These multi-channel, multi-device campaigns utilize effectively the right combination of online channels across all devices (SEM, SEO, online media, social media, smart data marketing, email marketing, and more) to promote one cohesive message across channels and devices. This strategy is the most effective way to increase reach and boost revenues for a need period.
Multi-channel campaign strategy recommendations:
To achieve mobile-readiness of your property’s digital presence, hoteliers must invest adequately in the correct mobile-first website and digital technology and marketing techniques to engage past, present, and future guests to drive direct bookings throughout the entire path to purchase.
ThePixel is a website design, seo and digital marketing company located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Our website designs are custom designed for your unique brand and online presence. Since 2008, ThePixel has worked with hundreds of businesses to design, develop and launch their perfect website that lasts for years.
All Pixel websites are backed with a powerful content management system, search engine optimization and a modern mobile-friendly design. Let’s start building the website of your dreams – one that generates traffic, leads and conversions. Contact ThePixel and one of our representatives will guide you through the website phases and how the process works either by a Zoom Meeting or phone.