Website design for guest houses
A guest house website sells rooms to people who will never see the premises before they book. Ours start at R2 950, load fast on a phone on holiday data, and put the rates, the photographs and the enquiry form where they cannot be missed.
Part of a fixed-price range — see everything we build.
What a guest house website has to do
Guests compare three or four places on a phone, often from another province or another country. The deciding factors, in order:
- Real photographs that load. Compressed properly so the gallery opens on holiday data before the guest loses patience.
- Honest rates. A nightly rate, or at least a range. Accommodation sites that hide the price lose the comparison before it starts.
- Rooms with their own page or section — what each room has, not a PDF brochure.
- An enquiry route that reaches you in seconds. Email or WhatsApp, whichever you actually answer.
Room photographs come from real shoots — see how we build for photographers.
Direct bookings versus the platforms
Booking.com and the other platforms charge roughly 15 to 20 percent per booking. The guests they bring you often arrive having already compared you on their platform — and a share of them will look for your own site to book direct and save the middleman's margin.
The site's job is to be there when they look, and to make booking direct easier than going back to the platform: clear rates, a working form, and a reason to book direct — a small discount, a late checkout, a bottle of the local wine. The platform brings the audience; the site converts the ones who check.
The package fit for guest houses
| Business | Package | Once-off | What that gets you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small guest house, few rooms | Starter | R2 950 | Rooms, rates, gallery and enquiry form. |
| Established guest house | Business | R4 950 | A page per room type, activities page, area guide. |
| Several properties or a lodge | Pro | R7 950 | A page per property plus the full booking path. |
Guests can pay deposits online through a PayFast payment link — no full store needed. The options are in accepting online payments in South Africa.
Timing and seasons
Accommodation is seasonal, and a new site takes weeks to be found at all. Build in the quiet months so the site is indexed and earning history before your season opens — the full reasoning is on our Cape Town page, and it applies to every coastal and winelands town. Restaurants face the same ten-second test — see restaurants.
Common questions
How much does a guest house website cost?
R2 950 for a three-page Starter, R4 950 for a seven-page Business site, R7 950 for a twelve-page Pro site. Fixed and quoted up front — see packages and prices.
Can guests pay online?
Yes — a PayFast payment link for deposits is simple to add and needs no store. See accepting online payments in South Africa.
Do you integrate with Booking.com?
We link to your listing and make sure the direct-booking route is better than going back to the platform. A full two-way calendar sync is a bigger integration — possible, but most guest houses do better with enquiries they control.
We are seasonal. When should we build?
In your quiet months. The site needs weeks to be found at all, so it should be live and earning history before the season opens, not during it.
Tell us what you need
We will come back with a fixed price, usually the same working day.