Multiple websites vs single website when client's businesses overlap

Question

I work for a company that has many hotels in the country and a website where it is possible to check information about them and book a room.

The hotels have many good restaurants (2 or 3 per hotel in some cases), some of them with Michelin stars, but at the moment there is no content about them on the web nor the possibility to book a table or check the menu.

I've been asked to design the information pages and booking process for these restaurants (about 50) with these 2 targets in mind:

1. Customers just interested in eating, not in staying.
2. Customers interested in staying at the hotel (and potentially eating at the restaurants).

Should I create a different website for the restaurant side of the business or integrate the content of the restaurants into the existing website?

Thank you in advance

Answer 1

There are likely some hotel and hospitality folks on this site who will give highly informed opinions. I'm not one of them, but my thought is that you should incorporate the restaurant information into the hotel websites. Here's why:

1. It's still useful for customers who are only eating, not staying, to know that the restaurant is located inside of a hotel. This will help them with wayfinding, parking, and other location considerations.

2. It's helpful for the customers who are staying in the hotel to browse the restaurant options on the hotel's website, vs. having to go out to separate websites for each restaurant.

3. Having Michelin starred restaurants, or other high-quality restaurants, can boost the overall brand perception of the hotel. The hotel might like to keep brand awareness on each page.

4. On-site search gets a whole lot easier when everything is on one site.

5. Customers are used to seeing all bookable amenities (such as spas) in one place when they are connected to a hotel. It's part of their decision-making process.

6. There might be more integrated data opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling customers who stay but don't dine, or dine but don't stay.

This isn't to say that if your hotel has a Starbucks, you now need to copy the Starbucks website on your hotel site. You can always reference the well-known chains with a simple landing page and link out to their main sites. But for independent restaurants that are operating in your facility, I think giving them space on the main site is your best bet. (Happy to hear contradictory opinions, though!)