Hotel Faena & Universe

Hotel Faena (Buenos Aires)
this website is beautifully executed.

• really impressive use of of sound with both music and the tinkling universe sounds
• very neat combination of flash navigation with html pages
• striking photography
• good typography

Not very often that it all comes together. It does here.

I find it interesting that the design is partly in-house which may explain the feel of loving attention

Hotel Sezz in Paris - installment 2

so the site is live now and it captures the very different attitude to the web between the anglo-saxons (aka UK and US) and France.
The French still do not seem entirely convinced that the web is a business tool - more a bit of fun, unlike the english speaking marketers who obsess about online booking, etc. This is a flash movie with an email address at the end.

It's interesting to see something that looks really nice and then allows the visitor to... well pretty much nothing.

Note the very subtle bubbles that float up the screen.
Question: how will they cope with the search engine needs, since there are no words as far as I can see, so nothing to spider.

Hotel Puerta America: this is how you do an online booking form! All in flash and immediately showing prices, etc as soon as customers make decisions

Kandinsky Hotel (Cheltenham). The blurb say "This alias hotel is full of surprises" which may be true, but the hotel is not. There is nothing wrong with the design per se, except it just seems messy and all over the place in the nicest possible way. The Flash is nice, but the navigation is confusing unless you have your wits about you. What I dont believe is the copywriting: imaginative cuisine in the same breath as pizza stretches credulity. Hoteliers have to realise that customers are very savvy and do not like being "sold to"

Henry Jones Art Hotel

Henry Jones Art Hotel (Tasmania). Few hotels with a little history seem to make much of that history, usually consigning it to a hidden page somewhere on the website. Henry Jones places at the start of the website and does it with a certain panache even if I dont like the bobbing ship or the use of the Queen of Sheba's music which doesnt fit the contemporary art theme of the website. The other thing is the red which I think is the wrong tone - too shrill for my taste. Once you are inside this is a website that uses flash really well and sells itself effectively.

Driftwood Hotel in Cornwall

Drfitwood Hotel (Cornwall). At first I really liked the website and especially the homepage. Then slowly, I turned against it as I found myself irritated by the lack of... driftwood. It seemed so organised, so designed with its stylised matrix. What it wants is the quality of driftwood, of the unexpected find, of charm and character that comes with age. Instead I got the impression of a boutique hotel which could be anywhere, any city. A bit of a missed opportunity.

Drakes Hotel in Brighton

Drakes of Brighton, England
People in SEO know that image based homepages suffer in the search engines. In reverse the owners want a homepage that reflects their brand. Drakes solves this by having a homepage of two halves: at the top brand derived homepage, and lower down and most likely invisible to all except the biggest screens, the text needed by the search engines.

What I like is that they lavished attention on both parts of the page.

Use of the CN Traveler logo is the appropriate way to borrow kudos and remind the customer that this hotel has reputation.