Crowne Plaza Auckland.
An IHG flagship hotel in the heart of Auckland, and a website with one job: make the direct booking the obvious choice.
Case Study · Hotels & Hospitality
What did Balar build for Crowne Plaza Auckland?
Crowne Plaza Auckland is a hotels and hospitality business based in Auckland, New Zealand. Balar Media Group designed and built the Crowne Plaza Auckland website. Every section of the site was designed backwards from one moment: the guest deciding to book direct.
Crowne Plaza Auckland is an IHG hotel in the centre of one of Australasia's busiest cities. Guests arrive at the website from every direction: comparison sites, search, brand campaigns, word of mouth. Most of them are one tab away from booking somewhere else.
An IHG flagship hotel in the heart of Auckland, and a website with one job: make the direct booking the obvious choice. Big-brand polish from a boutique Australian studio.
The brief had two demands that usually fight each other. The site had to carry the weight of an international hotel brand, where every image, margin and word is held to a global standard. And it had to sell like a local: rooms, dining and the Auckland location presented so convincingly that the guest books direct instead of drifting back to a third-party platform.
Our Approach
A booking-first hotel site.
Every section of the site was designed backwards from one moment: the guest deciding to book direct.
The Challenge
Hold your own against a global brand book.
For a boutique Brisbane studio, this was the international brand test. Trans-Tasman delivery, big-brand expectations, no room for a shade of colour off.
Our Approach
Design to brand standard
A custom design and build that sits comfortably inside an international hotel brand's visual world - polished, restrained and consistent to the pixel.
Rooms sold visually
Room types presented the way guests actually choose them: imagery first, the details a glance away, and the path to book never more than one step from view.
The direct-booking path
The whole layout funnels toward booking with the hotel directly - clear calls to action placed where the decision actually happens, not buried in a menu.
Dining & experiences
Restaurants, bars and hotel experiences given room to breathe, because guests book the stay they can already picture themselves in.
The heart-of-Auckland story
Location sold as a feature: the city at the doorstep, presented for the business traveller and the weekender alike.
Fast on every device
Travellers plan on phones, in transit, on hotel wifi. The site was built to load fast and stay effortless wherever the guest happens to be.
- IHG: Flagship hotel brand
- Auckland: Heart of the city
- Direct: The booking the site is built to win
The Result
Hotel websites fail in one of two ways: they drown the guest in options, or they flatten a premium stay into a listing. The craft on this project was knowing what to leave out.
Restraint is the luxury.
We let the photography do the persuading and kept the interface almost invisible: generous space, quiet typography, and a visual rhythm that feels like walking into a well-run lobby. Every page answers the guest's next question before they ask it - where will I sleep, what will I eat, what's outside the door, how do I book.
Working across the Tasman changed nothing about the standard. Same process, same one point of contact, same rule we apply to a local tradie site: if it doesn't help the guest decide, it doesn't go on the page.
FAQs
What do people ask about the Crowne Plaza Auckland website?
Enquire, and we scope your project with you. If it is a fit, we custom design your homepage up front and present it with your proposal. No obligation.
If you qualify, we'll custom design your homepage, included in our proposal. Book your scoping session now! Spots are limited.
Balar Media Group designed and built the Crowne Plaza Auckland website. Every section of the site was designed backwards from one moment: the guest deciding to book direct.
Crowne Plaza Auckland is in Hotels & Hospitality, based in Auckland, New Zealand. We design and build websites for businesses like Crowne Plaza Auckland across Australia and New Zealand.
Crowne Plaza Auckland is based in Auckland, New Zealand.
Web Design, Hotel & Hospitality, Booking-first UX, International Brand.
Yes. Enquire, and we scope your project with you. If it is a fit, we custom design your homepage up front and present it with your proposal. No obligation. We are based in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane and work with businesses across Australia and New Zealand. Call 1300 986 444 or scope your project with us.
More good stuff
What next?
Ray White New Projects
Web Design · Read the case study
EvoHeat Australia
SEO & AI Search · Read the case study
GS Offroad Tours
Custom Website · Read the case study
Fins Restaurant
Web Design · Read the case study
Crowne Plaza Surfers Paradise
Custom Website · Read the case study
Crowne Plaza Hawkesbury Valley
Custom Website · Read the case study
Our technologies
We use the latest technologies available to create timeless designs
WordPress
Shopify
WooCommerce
Magento
BigCommerce
Astro
ElementorBeaver Builder
PHP
HTML5
React
Next.js
Vue
Laravel
Cloudflare
Figma
Adobe Creative Cloud
Google Search Console
Google Analytics 4
Google Tag Manager
Google Business Profile
Google Ads
Meta Ads
Facebook
InstagramLinkedInGoHighLevel
cPanelMicrosoft 365- WordPress
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
- Magento
- BigCommerce
- Astro
- Elementor
- Beaver Builder
- PHP
- HTML5
- React
- Next.js
- Vue
- Laravel
- Cloudflare
- Figma
- Adobe Creative Cloud
- Google Search Console
- Google Analytics 4
- Google Tag Manager
- Google Business Profile
- Google Ads
- Meta Ads
- GoHighLevel
- cPanel
- Microsoft 365
