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More than 60% of hospitality websites run on a template. At a glance they look fine. What the owner does not see is the template quietly undercutting their Google ranking, pushing guests away and costing direct reservations — every day.
Key takeaways
A template is an off-the-shelf design used by thousands of other businesses. You change the text and the images, but the underlying structure, code and architecture stay as they are. Wix, Squarespace, a hospitality Shopify theme, or a cheap “restaurant theme” on WordPress.
The upside is that it is fast and cheap to start. The downside arrives later, in missed reservations, weak Google positions and a generic look that does your room no favours.
“Your restaurant is one of a kind. So is the competitor running the same Wix theme — and they are above you in Google.”
Templates get used by thousands of businesses simultaneously. A beach club in Canggu running the same theme as a sandwich shop in Ohio — guests register that flatness even if they cannot name it. Your brand, your room and your story deserve a design that is not already deployed ten thousand times over.
Templates are built for breadth, not technical depth. The code carries scripts you never use, the loading order is not tuned for Google, and you get little control over technical SEO — canonical tags, structured data, site architecture. The result is that hospitality businesses on custom builds consistently outrank those on templates, even when they are less well known.
Platforms like Wix and Squarespace load dozens of scripts, stylesheets and plugins you will never use — but your visitor still downloads. That is a site taking 4–7 seconds on mobile. Every extra second costs roughly 7% in conversion (Google, 2023). A custom build loads in 1–2 seconds because there is nothing extra in it.
Does your restaurant run a particular reservation system, a menu you update yourself, or an events page driven by live data? Templates never integrate that cleanly. You end up working through compromises and workarounds, and your guests are the ones who feel them.
“Premium” template plans run €20–€60 a month, year after year. Stop paying and the website goes with it. You are renting something permanently that never becomes yours. A custom site is paid once and owned outright — no platform dependency, no standing monthly cost.
Here is what it comes down to in practice for an operator who takes the business seriously.
Template (Wix / Squarespace)
Custom (what we build)
Custom web design does not require an outsized budget. It means a site built around your brand and your guests, tuned for speed and local search, integrated with your booking system and the way you actually work, and owned by you. The difference is tangible: guests landing on your site can tell immediately that this is a serious room.
That impression carries into the decision to book — or to keep scrolling to the competitor who did take their website seriously.
“After moving to a custom build, our hospitality clients see consistently better local positions and sub-2-second mobile load times — on every project.”
From Sukhumvit Thai Massage to Checkly and Revasi — each of these moved off a template or an ageing site onto something built for them. In all three cases: better visibility in Google, faster load times, and a brand experience that convinces guests before they reach the door.
Want to see what a custom build looks like for your type of venue? Read more about our approach to web design for hospitality or look at hospitality software.
We will review your current site for free and show you what it is costing you — in rankings, load time and bookings you never see. No obligation, no pitch.
Request a free reviewFrequently asked questions
The upfront cost is higher. But template platforms charge €20–€60 a month, year after year, and you never own the site. A custom build is a one-off and it is yours. Count the recurring fees and the bookings you are not getting, and custom works out cheaper for most hospitality businesses.
Yes, and we look at what you already have first. Sometimes a focused redesign is the smart move; sometimes starting over is more efficient. We will tell you honestly which — including when that means less work for us. Your content and domain come with you either way.
Five to eight weeks from briefing to launch, including the reservation system and local SEO. Larger projects — hotels, multiple locations — run eight to twelve weeks. You get interim previews and fixed check-in points.
"Works fine" is hard to judge without having seen what an optimised custom site does. The real measure is not whether the site functions, but how many bookings you never hear about. We will review your current site for free and show you the numbers.
It applies wherever guests decide before they arrive — which is nearly everywhere now. A small café with twenty covers loses proportionally as much to a slow, generic site as a hotel does. The build is smaller; the reasoning is identical.
