David Fiske A subtle blend of affiliate marketing and web development

Travelodge, the king of cheap nationwide hotels, has unveiled a new website design The old design was practical and functional, just nothing too great to look at. The new one is a million miles away from this, and features a smidgen of web 2.0 principles too.
 
Here's the old site:



Here's the new site:



This is what's changed:

Blue Gradient

Some sites don't benefit from a gradient as a background but it really works well on the Travelodge website.

Improved Navigation

The criticism with the old site is that whilst the content was sparse, the navigation appeared a tad cluttered. New tabs and a clear navigation bar at the bottom help to eliminate this problem.

New Google Maps

Google Maps is the daddy of web 2.0 mapping and it's nice to see Travelodge switch to their mapping. Before, you would search for a place name and see a list of hotels in that area. All good and well but if you can't see a map, how do you know where the hotel is?

I've searched for hotels in London and the Ajax search asked me where abouts in London I was after. I selected 'London Eye' and was presented a typical Google Map with icons where the hotels are located. Exactly what I need when I'm looking for a hotel (that reminded me of a hotel map I created a while back!). Here's the map:



Mass Pricing and Availability

Checking prices used to be a chore. The site never remembered which dates you were looking at, you had to get the prices of hotels one by one and you always needed Google Maps open in a new window!

All that has disappeared with one click availability. Simply click on any hotel on the map to bring up this:



Then, click on 'Check availability'. The Ajax widget then reloads the map with the prices of all the nearby hotels:



Summary

The redesign is certainly very fetching. It works very well and is very smooth. Booking is a breeze, especially with the introduction of Google Maps. From a customer perspective, the site improves the brand image, putting it more in line with it's competitors. From a website design perspective, I would now rank Travelodge above the designs of Holiday Inn and Premier Inn. Before, I would have ranked Travelodge lower than those.

Overall, the redesign is a significant step forward for the group, making booking easier and more pleasant. Hopefully this will have a positive effect on affiliate conversions.