We’re excited to share our recent website redesign for The Lafayette Hotel. Built in 1918 on the banks of the Ohio River in downtown Marietta, this landmark property blends classical elegance with contemporary convenience. Preserving and celebrating the grand riverboat era, The Lafayette Hotel provides an extraordinary and unforgettable stay.
This remarkable property needed a website that reflects its gracefully sophisticated style and esteemed reputation, and we were honored to deliver!
A classic design for a special landmark
The Lafayette Hotel chose a timeless website theme that conveys both historic prestige and modern simplicity.
A muted palette with gold accents supports the property’s elegant branding and complements the hotel’s color scheme shown in the high-quality images. The moment you land on the homepage, the message is clear: an upscale stay experience steeped in history and style awaits.
The left-hand sidebar navigation menu is both a nod to the past and a functional advantage. This classic navigation design stands out in a world of horizontal nav bars. While it’s not a new concept, it’s refreshing. You don’t see many of them anymore, but sidebar navigation is still ideal for websites that include a lot of content because they allow for increased top-level options and are easy to scan. A sidebar menu is familiar and intuitive, and hidden via a hamburger menu on mobile, provides a great user experience from desktop to smartphone.
Big, beautiful, professionally shot images of the hotel’s exterior and interior populate the full-screen hero slider with compelling text overlays and smooth fade transitions, immediately conveying a quality stay experience. For those ready to book now, the convenient booking widget sits prominently yet harmoniously at the bottom of the hero slider, above the fold—no need to scroll!
But you will want to explore this lovely site further.
As you scroll down, micro interactions, parallax scrolling sections, and a modern yet classic mix of serif and sans-serif typography all contribute to the timeless elegance of the theme’s look and feel.
As you explore the pages of the site, the booking engine is always at the ready, included in the main navigation. As well, from each room type page, the booking CTA button takes you straight to an availability search for that specific room type, providing utmost convenience to guests who know exactly which room they want.
The website’s familiar, intuitive navigation, responsive design, and accessibility menu ensure a smooth user experience for everyone, no matter the device it’s viewed on.
This classic design offers longevity (it will never go out of style, just like The Lafayette itself!), and the straightforward WordPress CMS (content management system) makes it easy for the property to make simple content updates themselves.
Do you need a user-friendly website that reflects your property’s style and drives bookings? Check out our portfolio for more examples of our recent work. If you like what you see, reach out to our expert design team for a free, no-obligation quote.