Website Design · 2026
Designing a direct-booking website for a Zurich rental
The first reader of a Zurich booking site is usually Swiss. Zürich Tourismus counted more than 7.5 million overnight stays across its region (the canton plus Zug, Baden and Rapperswil) in 2025, up 3.5%, and nearly 39% of those guests lived in Switzerland. North America is the next block that matters, at 13.4% of nights in 2024 after growing 14.2%, and last year the UK rose 8.6%, Italy 6.4% and Germany 3.6%. So the same flat is read by a couple from Bern who already know how Swiss trams and tickets work and by a New Yorker stepping off a transatlantic flight at Kloten for the first time. A direct-booking website here has to serve both without making either one hunt for the price, the address or the book button.
Languages, currencies and the guests reading them
Publish real language versions, each on its own URL with hreflang tags pointing to the others: Swiss German usage (de-CH, written with ss and never the German ß), English, French for guests from Geneva and Lausanne, and Italian for Ticino and the growing Italian market. A translate widget can't be indexed and gets Swiss spelling wrong. Quote Swiss francs first, because the federal price rules require the CHF figure; SECO's guidance lets you add a euro price beside it, which helps the German and Italian guest, and a US-dollar view helps the American comparing you with a Paradeplatz hotel. Then answer what each group asks before booking. The Swiss guest wants the tram stop, the lines that serve it and whether a car fits in the blue-zone parking. The American wants to know about air conditioning, a lift and the size of the bed. The Italian weekend couple wants the final price, City Tax included, on the first screen.
What a Zurich booking page has to show
Start with the price. Under the Price Indication Ordinance (PBV), the advertised price is the actual price in Swiss francs including all public charges, and cantonal authorities enforce that under SECO's supervision. If you're VAT-registered, which starts once holiday-rental turnover passes CHF 100,000 a year, the 3.8% accommodation rate sits inside the nightly rate. Show the City Tax as its own line before payment: it's CHF 3.50 per person per night, up from CHF 2.50 in May 2023, and Airbnb collects it on stays of 30 nights or fewer. On a direct booking nobody collects it for you, so agree with Zürich Tourismus how you'll settle it. The cookie notice answers to the revised Federal Act on Data Protection (revFADP), in force since 1 September 2023, and to Art. 45c of the Telecommunications Act, which says visitors must be told what cookies do and that they can refuse them. Because you're selling to guests in Germany, Italy and France, the EU's GDPR can apply too, and that generally means a consent banner, so build to the stricter rule. The regulator is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), whose cookie guidelines appeared on 3 February 2025; fines under the Swiss act reach CHF 250,000 and fall on the responsible person. One rule helps you: since 1 December 2022, Article 8a of the Unfair Competition Act has voided platform clauses that limit an accommodation provider's prices, availability or conditions elsewhere, so your own site may undercut the platforms. Hosts must also report guests to the Cantonal Zurich Police, so collect ID details in the online check-in. Confirm the specifics with a Zurich lawyer or fiduciary.
Pages and photos for Seefeld, Enge, Niederdorf and Oerlikon
Guests search Zurich by quarter and landmark, so give each area you can serve its own page. Seefeld sells the lake promenade and the Opera House, Enge the Rietberg Museum and the Mythenquai lake bath, Niederdorf the old-town lanes, Zürich West the Viadukt arches and the bars off Langstrasse, and Oerlikon the trade fairs at Messe Zürich and the concerts at the Hallenstadion. Build the getting-here page on what Zürich Tourismus publishes: the S2 and S16 reach Zürich HB from the airport in about 10 minutes, trains leave every 5 to 10 minutes, a single ticket costs CHF 7, and tram 10 takes about 35 minutes to the main station, passing Oerlikon and ETH on the way. Then photograph what Zurich guests filter on: the desk and its window light for the bank visitor, the shared Waschküche and how its booking rota works for the long stay, the lift or the stairs in an old building, the lake or Uetliberg view from the bedroom, and the walk to the nearest tram stop with the stop named. Say whether there's air conditioning or fans; a top-floor flat in a July heatwave is a complaint you can head off in one line.
