Hotel website checklist: content, legal information and the booking path
This checklist covers the three layers of a hotel website: guest-facing content, legal information and the booking path. Use it to audit your site, ensure compliance with Turkish regulations, and prevent booking disputes.
Contents
Key takeaways
- A hotel website has two jobs: answer the questions a guest asks before booking, and take the booking without surprises.
- Under the Regulation on the Qualifications of Tourism Facilities, a facility's promotion must match its Ministry certificate, give accurate information, and must not use symbols suggesting stars outside its certified class. Confirm your own case, dates and penalties with a legal adviser.
- Under the Distance Contracts Regulation, the main features, the total price including all taxes and the withdrawal information must be shown together and clearly, immediately before the guest commits to pay. Confirm your own case, dates and penalties with a legal adviser.
- Write each policy once and link to it from every page that needs it; two versions of the same rule is how disputes start.
- A traveler may now compare your website with a booking site and with what an AI assistant says, and an assistant can only repeat what it has been given. If two versions of a fact are published, the traveler may see the older one, so consistency across channels is a booking question, not a branding one.
A hotel website checklist covers three layers: the pages a guest reads before booking (rooms, location, facilities, policies), the legal information that must be accurate and complete (promotion matching the Ministry certificate, total price and pre-contract information before payment), and a booking path that shows the total price before the guest commits.
For example, a guest reads the room page, likes the photos, pays, arrives, and the room is smaller than the picture and the breakfast is not included. Nothing on the site was exactly a lie, but nothing had been checked either. The problems this checklist targets are missing answers and unmatched facts, not design. This checklist works through the three layers in order, so that by the end you can audit your own site with a phone, a copy of your Ministry certificate and one afternoon.
What should a hotel website contain before it sells a room?
Six page types cover what a guest needs before booking: rooms, location, facilities and dining, policies, offers, and a booking path that shows the total price. If any of these is missing, the guest either asks the front desk or leaves. Each page has one job: let the guest answer a question without help.
ChecklistBefore you launch or redesign, run this pre-launch page checklist
- Rooms index: after reading it, the guest knows which room types exist and roughly what they cost.
- One page per room type: the guest knows who can sleep there, on what beds, with what board.
- Location and arrival: the guest can picture the neighborhood and plan the journey from the airport or station.
- Facilities and dining: the guest knows what exists, when it is open and what costs extra.
- Policies: the guest knows the rules for cancellation, children, pets and payment before paying.
- Offers: the guest knows what a package includes, its minimum stay and its blackout dates.
- Contact: the guest knows how to reach a person and what response to expect.
- Booking path: reachable from every page in one click, with dates and occupancy on the first screen.
A useful discipline for each item is to write one line stating what a guest must be able to answer after reading the page. If you cannot write that line, the page is decoration. For the wider commercial picture, see our guide on how to increase direct bookings on your hotel website.
What do guests check on a room page before they book?
Guests check whether the room fits the people traveling and whether the photos match the description. Anything missing becomes a question to the front desk or a reason to leave. The table below lists the fields that carry the most weight.
| Field | What to write | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Occupancy | Max adults, max children, extra bed or cot cost and whether it fits | A label like 2+1 defines nothing |
| Bed setup | Bed types and dimensions in centimeters | A "double room" is not a bed size |
| Room size | Square meters | Families and long stays are planned around it |
| View | The actual view, with a real photo | A claimed view needs evidence |
| Board | What this property includes, meal by meal | Board labels are practice, not regulation |
| Accessibility | Step-free access, lift, door widths, grab rails, and honest limits | Guests with needs plan on your words |
| Equipment and noise | Air conditioning, safe, minibar, kettle, balcony, street or lift noise | Guests plan sleep and work around these |
Two of these deserve comment. Board labels vary between properties, so describe what the guest actually receives: breakfast times, which drinks are included, and whether dinner is a set menu or an open buffet. Confirm how board terms are defined for your own facility with a legal adviser. Photos should show the actual room type, including the bathroom and the view, with renders labelled as renders. Fewer accurate photos beat a gallery that mixes room types.
Does your website's promotion match your Ministry certificate?
It has to. The Regulation on the Qualifications of Tourism Facilities requires a facility's promotion to match its Ministry certificate and to give accurate information. Confirm your own case, dates and penalties with a legal adviser.
Watch outThree rules from Article 16
Promotion must match the Ministry certificate and give accurate information. Symbols suggesting stars outside your certified class are banned. Terms in the facility's name for units you do not have are banned. Confirm your own case, dates and penalties with a legal adviser.
The practical check is a document comparison. Put the certificate next to the website copy deck and compare the class shown on the site with the class on the certificate, and the facility type word with the certified type. Then check that every amenity named exists and operates as described: pool, spa, beach access, parking. If something is seasonal, say which months. Let the certificate holder sign off the promotion before it is published, and re-check after every renovation, rebrand or change of operator, because old copy survives redesigns.
Where should policies, children and payment terms live?
On one page, written once, and linked from the room page, the booking path and the confirmation email, so that only one version of each rule exists. Two versions of the same rule is how disputes start: the guest quotes the one that favors them, and you cannot prove which was shown.
Cover at least these groups. Children: the age bands the hotel uses, the age that stays free, whether a cot or extra bed is available and at what cost, and any age rules at the pool or restaurant. Cancellation: the windows, what is charged and when, and how a cancellation must be made, in writing and through which channel. Payment: cards accepted, prepayment or deposit, when the card is charged, the currency of the charge and who bears any conversion. Arrival and departure: check-in and check-out times, early check-in and late check-out treated as requests, and luggage storage. House rules that cause disputes: pets, smoking, parties, quiet hours. Taxes and fees: what the displayed price already includes and what is paid at the property.
Keep one source of truth: the same text in the website, the booking engine and the confirmation email. Link to the policy page instead of retyping it.
What must the guest see immediately before paying?
The main features, the total price including all taxes, and the withdrawal information, shown together and clearly, immediately before the guest commits to pay. This comes from the Distance Contracts Regulation, which applies to a consumer booking at a distance; the consolidated text on mevzuat.gov.tr (opens in a new tab), "Mesafeli Sözleşmeler Yönetmeliği (27 November 2014)", states the duty in Articles 5(1)(d) and 6(2)(a).
Key pointThe summary block above the pay button
Dates and occupancy · room and board · total price including all taxes, with anything paid locally named · cancellation and withdrawal information. Confirm your own legal case with an adviser.
Total price means everything the guest will pay: room, board, chosen extras, taxes and fees. If something is paid at the property, it belongs in the same block, not in a footnote. Main features means room type, dates, occupancy, board and the cancellation terms that apply to this specific booking. The withdrawal information must be visible at that moment; the regulation sets out when the withdrawal right does not apply, so confirm your own case with a legal adviser rather than writing your own version of the exception.
Layout matters as much as content: one summary block above the pay button, readable without scrolling, with no pre-ticked boxes and no optional extra added by default. The test is to read the block as a guest who has never seen the hotel. If a number appears for the first time after payment, it is in the wrong place. For the software side, see our questions to ask a booking engine provider.
Which languages and currencies should the site offer?
The ones your main source markets actually read, chosen from your own reservation mix rather than from a template's language list. Rank your source markets from your own reservation data and pick the top few; a language nobody books in is maintenance cost without return.
A language version is a full version: room pages, policies, booking path and confirmation email. A machine-translated policy page is worse than no translation, because the guest relies on it, and a policy is exactly where wording matters. For a structured approach, see our guide to a language plan for your guest mix.
On currency, show the guest's currency if it helps, but state the currency of the charge and who sets the conversion rate. Localize dates, phone formats and units, not just words. Keep the language switch visible on every page and remember the guest's choice through the booking path. Price display rules for advertisements are a separate question from the booking path; confirm how they apply to your own case with an adviser.
How do you keep the same facts on the site, on channels and in AI assistants?
Keep one written record of the facts and publish from it, because a traveler now compares your website with a booking site and with what an AI assistant repeats back. The assistant does not visit your hotel; it reads what is published, and it does not know which version is current.
Build a fact sheet: room types, occupancy, board, policies, distances, amenities, accessibility, one line each, with an owner and a review date. List where each fact appears: your website, your booking engine, booking-site content, comparison sites, agency portals, and the public pages an AI assistant reads. The usual failure is drift, not error: the site says the rooms were renovated last year while a booking site still shows the old photos, and the assistant repeats the older version.
The change procedure is simple and boring, which is why it works. One person edits the fact sheet, then every channel is updated from it, and the change is dated. Give the front desk the same fact sheet, so a phone answer matches the website. How assistants describe properties, and what you can do about it, is covered in depth in how AI assistants describe your hotel.
What to do next
Open your own booking path on a phone, as a guest who has never seen the hotel, and write down every question the page does not answer and every fact that appears in two versions. Fix the fact sheet first, then the room pages, then the summary block above the pay button; the pages, the policies and the channels all draw from the same record, which is why the order matters.
Frequently asked questions
Must a hotel website show the total price including taxes before payment?
Yes, for a consumer booking at a distance. The Distance Contracts Regulation requires the total price including all taxes, the main features and the withdrawal information to be shown together and clearly, immediately before the guest commits to pay (mevzuat.gov.tr, Mesafeli Sözleşmeler Yönetmeliği, Articles 5(1)(d) and 6(2)(a)). Anything paid at the property should be named in the same block. How the rule applies to a specific booking is a question for the hotel's legal adviser.
Can a hotel website use stars or a class it has not been certified for?
No. The Regulation on the Qualifications of Tourism Facilities requires promotion to match the Ministry certificate and bans symbols suggesting stars outside the certified class (mevzuat.gov.tr, Article 16(2) and 16(3)). The practical check is to compare the class and facility type on the site with the certificate, and to re-check after a renovation or rebrand. Confirm your own case with a legal adviser.
How many photos should a room page have?
The test is coverage, not a count. A guest should be able to see the bed setup, the bathroom, the storage, the window and the actual view from one room type, and any render should be labelled as a render. Fewer accurate photos beat a gallery that mixes room types.
What is pre-contract information on a hotel booking page?
It is the set of facts the guest must have before the contract is made: the main features of the stay, the total price including all taxes, and the withdrawal information, presented together and clearly. In practice it is the summary block directly above the pay button, covering dates, occupancy, room, board, price and cancellation terms.
Do we need a separate website for each language?
No. One site with proper language versions is easier to keep consistent than several sites. Each version should be complete, covering room pages, policies, the booking path and the confirmation email, and the choice should be remembered through the booking flow.
Sources
- Mesafeli Sözleşmeler Yönetmeliği (Resmî Gazete 27.11.2014, Sayı 29188), consolidated text, Articles 5(1)(d) and 6(2)(a) (opens in a new tab)T.C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi (mevzuat.gov.tr)mevzuat.gov.tr