Hotel website design in Japan – a bilingual official site built for direct bookings

The goal of hotel website design: more bookings on your own site

Rakuten Travel, Jalan, Booking.com and Expedia bring visibility that few hotels can do without. Each booking carries a commission, though – rates depend on your contract, and around 10% or more of the room price is a common reference. Many travelers who find you on an OTA then visit your official site to check details. Good hotel website design makes that visit the place where they book.

Direct bookings give you several advantages:

• Lower distribution cost: a booking engine has its own fees, yet they are usually easier to keep down than OTA commissions
• A direct relationship: you have the guest's contact details for pre-arrival information and repeat stays
• Your own story: room sizes, breakfast and the neighborhood can be shown in full, beyond an OTA listing template
• Room for your own offers: long-stay plans or anniversary extras available only on your site

A useful first step: check how many bookings arrive through OTAs and how many through your own site. That ratio tells you what the new website needs to achieve.

Pages and elements that turn visitors into bookings

Guests compare photos and prices fast and narrow down their options in minutes. Make sure your site has these in place:

• Availability search and a Book button: on the home page and every room page, always reachable on a phone
• Room pages: size in square meters, bed type and width, capacity, smoking policy, amenities and view, all with photos
• Rates and plans: room only vs. with breakfast, child rates and the cancellation policy, stated clearly
• Access: routes from the nearest station and airport, travel times, parking and a map
• Facilities and area: restaurant, baths, laundry, nearby sights and places to eat
• FAQ: check-in and check-out times, luggage storage, payment methods, Wi-Fi

Photos matter most. Shoot the whole room, the bed, the bathroom and the view from the window in daylight, so guests comparing you with OTA listings feel confident. Note which of these elements your current site lacks – that list becomes the scope of the project.

Writing English pages for international guests

Many visitors to Japan research in English and check the official site before they book. Your English pages work best when they answer what overseas guests actually ask:

• Step-by-step access: train line, station exit, transfers and a typical taxi fare
• Local customs: where to take off shoes, how the public bath works, check-in times
• Payment and taxes: accepted cards and cashless options, and whether accommodation tax or bathing tax is added
• Clear room details: square meters, bed width, and for Japanese-style rooms a note that guests sleep on futons
• An English contact: email or messaging, with a typical reply time

Japanese and English pages should live on separate URLs, set up so search engines understand the language of each. If you need Chinese or Korean as well, settle the structure in English first and expand from there – it keeps updates manageable. For properties built around tatami rooms and hot springs, our page on ryokan website design covers the presentation in more detail.

Connecting your booking engine and marketing to the site

A beautiful site still loses guests if the booking step is confusing – they simply go back to the OTA. Link your booking engine to a channel manager so inventory stays in sync with the OTAs, and you can sell the same rooms on your own site without overbooking.

• Language and currency: can guests switch the booking screen to English and pay by card?
• Mobile flow: dates, guests and payment in as few steps as possible
• Visual continuity: your logo and colors on the booking screen, so it still feels like your hotel
• Tracking: GA4 measures completed bookings and shows which pages lead to them
• Google presence: a complete Google Business Profile, so guests can reach your official rates and booking page from Google Search and Maps

For choosing an engine, see hotel booking systems; for growing bookings after launch through search and ads, see hotel and ryokan marketing. Deciding early whether to keep your current engine makes the build much smoother.

Choosing a hotel website design studio

Pick a studio that understands how hotels operate. Budgets vary with size and number of languages; typically a hotel site in Japan starts from several hundred thousand yen and can reach several million with multiple languages or custom features. Ask these questions early:

• Can the site work with your current booking engine and channel manager?
• Will they write English copy tailored to international guests?
• Can they tell you exactly which photos are missing and whether a reshoot is needed?
• Can your staff update plans and rates through an admin panel?
• Will the domain, GA4 and Google Business Profile stay in the hotel's name?
• Can updates and marketing continue with the same contact after launch?

To speed things up, prepare your logo files, room and facility photos, a list of room types and capacities, the name of your booking engine and two or three hotel sites you like. You can start with whatever you have on hand.

How UNANOBO builds hotel websites: a free demo first

Before you commit, UNANOBO builds a free demo of your new official site, based on your brand and the content on your current site or OTA listings. You check the room pages, the Book button placement and the English version on a computer and a phone, then decide whether to go ahead.

The process is simple: free demo, feedback, launch, growth. The founder handles every project personally, so you keep one contact from the first demo to marketing after launch. Everything runs by message, in Japanese or English – convenient for international owners and for managers who prefer to discuss things in English.