What Makes an Award-Winning Hotel Website

Two Profitroom properties, one in Poland, one in Zanzibar, just won silver at the 2025 Davey Awards. Here's what set them apart, and what it means for your direct booking strategy.

When Grano Hotels and Zanzi Resort were recognised with silver awards at the 2025 Davey Awards, it validated something we at Profitroom have believed for years: great hotel website design isn't just about aesthetics, it's about driving direct bookings and reducing OTA dependency.

The Davey Awards celebrate the finest creative work worldwide, honouring design that combines aesthetic excellence with functional purpose. Winning isn't about following trends or flashy features. It's about solving real business problems with thoughtful, revenue-focused design.

So what made these two sites, serving completely different markets and guest profiles, stand out to international judges? And more importantly, what can your property learn from their success?

1. Visual storytelling that sells the experience

Both Grano Hotels and Zanzi Resort lead with immersive visuals that immediately communicate what makes each property unique.

Grano Hotels uses sophisticated photography and warm, natural tones to showcase contemporary Polish hospitality across their diverse portfolio, from historic Gdańsk to Baltic beaches and mountain retreats. The visual language adapts to each location whilst maintaining brand consistency across the group.

Zanzi Resort embraces its identity as an intimate luxury hideaway, lush tropical gardens, private villa pools, and secluded Indian Ocean views that promise complete escape from the everyday. Every image reinforces the "private paradise" positioning.

The lesson? Your website's first impression should answer the unspoken question every potential guest has: "What will staying here feel like?" Stock photography won't cut it. Authentic, professionally shot imagery that captures your property's unique character is non-negotiable for conversion.

2. Navigation designed for how guests actually think

Award-winning websites don't make users hunt for information.

Both sites structure their navigation around guest intent, not internal hotel departments. Whether someone is looking for rooms, dining, or booking information, the path is intuitive. No jargon. No dead ends. No forcing visitors to think like a hotelier.

This guest-first navigation architecture is fundamental to Profitroom's website design approach. We map user journeys based on actual booking behaviour data across thousands of properties, then structure navigation to remove friction at every decision point.

Why this matters for conversion: Every extra click is an opportunity for potential guests to drop off. Research published in ScienceDirect (Elsevier, 2025) shows that reducing friction and simplifying hotel booking paths can substantially improve conversion outcomes, sometimes by up to 30% depending on the design and flow quali

3. Mobile-first design (because that's where your guests are)

The majority of hotel website traffic now comes from mobile devices, with some properties seeing upwards of 70% mobile visitors. Both winning sites were built mobile-first, ensuring smooth experiences regardless of screen size.

Fast load times. Touch-friendly buttons. Easy-to-read text without zooming. Streamlined booking flows optimised for smaller screens. These aren't luxury features, they're baseline expectations. And they directly impact whether someone books or bounces.

The technical reality: Google's mobile-first indexing means your mobile site performance now determines your search rankings. A slow or poorly optimised mobile experience doesn't just cost you bookings, it costs you visibility.

Both Grano Hotels and Zanzi Resort achieve sub-3-second load times on mobile, well within Google's recommended performance thresholds.

4. Seamless integration with the booking engine

Here's where design meets revenue.

The booking experience on both sites feels native, not like you've been redirected to a third-party system. The design language, colours, and user flow remain consistent from homepage to confirmation page. This seamless integration is possible because both sites use Profitroom's integrated booking engine, purpose-built for hospitality.

When the booking process feels like a natural continuation of browsing, conversion rates go up. Friction goes down. Cart abandonment decreases. Profitroom customers have reported increased direct bookings and reduced reliance on OTAs, with features like booking process recovery contributing to conversion rate boosts of up to 10%.

5. Brand personality that matches the property

Grano Hotels feels sophisticated and contemporary. Zanzi Resort feels intimate and tropical. Neither tries to be something it's not.

Your website should be an authentic digital extension of your physical property. The design, tone, imagery, and messaging need to align with what guests will actually experience when they arrive. Authenticity builds trust. Trust drives bookings, and repeat bookings.

The authenticity test: If a guest arrived at your property after browsing your website, would they feel the experience matched their expectations? Misalignment between digital promise and physical delivery is one of the fastest ways to damage your reputation and online reviews.

6. Strategic content that answers guest questions

Beyond aesthetics, both award-winning sites excel at anticipating and answering guest questions before they're asked.

Grano Hotels clearly communicates its multi-property portfolio, helping guests understand which location suits their needs, business traveller in Gdańsk's Old Town, family beach holiday at Solmarina, or mountain retreat in Szklarska Poręba.

Zanzi Resort positions itself unambiguously as an adults-focused romantic hideaway, managing expectations around its secluded location and intimate scale. This clarity attracts the right guests and reduces unsuitable enquiries.

Content strategy matters: Well-structured content improves both user experience and SEO performance. Both sites rank strongly for their target search terms because the content architecture supports search intent whilst serving guest needs.

How Profitroom builds award-winning websites

Both Grano Hotels and Zanzi Resort were built on Profitroom's end-to-end hospitality platform, which integrates website design, booking engine, channel management, and much more into a single ecosystem.

Our approach:

1. Guest journey mapping – We analyse your target guest segments and map their decision-making process
2. Flexible design solutions – From customisable templates to fully bespoke designs, we match the approach to your brand ambitions and business goals
3. Technical excellence – Mobile-first, fast-loading, SEO-optimised architecture
4. Native booking integration – Seamless booking flow that matches your brand
5. Conversion optimisation – Data-driven refinement based on real booking behaviour
6. Ongoing evolution – Your website improves continuously based on performance data

This integrated approach is why Profitroom websites consistently outperform industry benchmarks. We measure success by your bottom line: direct booking conversion rates, average booking value, mobile performance, and your direct-to-OTA booking ratio.

Great design isn't decoration. It's a revenue driver. When your website works this well, direct bookings increase, OTA dependency decreases, and your marketing spend delivers better ROI because you're sending traffic to a conversion-optimised destination.

About the Davey Awards

The Davey Awards honour the achievements of the "Creative Davids" who derive their strength from big ideas rather than big budgets. The competition celebrates the finest creative work from the best worldwide. Winners are selected by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA).

Ready to create an award-winning website for your property?

See how Profitroom's integrated platform, drives direct bookings for hotels worldwide.