The verdict in three sentences
For a boutique hotel in Montreux, the right question is not the price of the redesign alone but the three-year cost: patching the old theme or switching to the booking engine's template site looks cheaper in year one, then you pay in fixes, subscriptions and poorly structured pages. A redesign on Kolonell's grid (CHF 4,500 for Growth, CHF 8,200 for Premium) comes to roughly CHF 8,500 to 14,800 over three years with maintenance estimated at market rates, against CHF 20,000 to 50,000 for a Riviera agency. The timeline follows the season: 3 to 4 weeks of build once content is ready, and never a go-live during the July jazz festival.
Patch, switch to a template site or redesign: what does each path cost over three years?
The amounts below are a 2026 ballpark drawn from typical quotes and public rate pages of agencies on the Vaud Riviera, excluding the booking engine, channel manager and PMS. The maintenance columns are market assumptions, not Kolonell prices.
| Path | Year 1 | Hosting and maintenance over 3 years (market assumption) | 3-year total (ballpark) | What remains unsolved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patch the old theme | CHF 2,000 to 5,000 in fixes | CHF 3,600 to 7,200 (CHF 100 to 200 per month) | CHF 5,600 to 12,200 | Structure, speed, languages |
| Booking engine template site | CHF 0 to 3,000 | CHF 1,800 to 5,400 subscription (CHF 50 to 150 per month) | CHF 1,800 to 8,400 | Limited content, few indexable offer pages |
| Freelancer | CHF 5,000 to 12,000 | CHF 3,600 to 7,200 | CHF 8,600 to 19,200 | Reliance on one person |
| Montreux, Vevey or Lausanne agency | CHF 15,000 to 40,000 | CHF 5,400 to 10,800 (CHF 150 to 300 per month) | CHF 20,400 to 50,800 | Nothing, if the quote is complete |
| Kolonell Growth | CHF 4,500, 3 months of support included | CHF 3,960 to 6,600 (assumption CHF 120 to 200 per month over 33 months) | CHF 8,460 to 11,100 | Engine and integrations on quote |
| Kolonell Premium | CHF 8,200, 3 months of support included | CHF 3,960 to 6,600 (same assumption) | CHF 12,160 to 14,800 | Engine and integrations on quote |
Kolonell maintenance after the 3 included months is on quote; the line above only serves a like-for-like comparison. Starter at CHF 2,700 suits a compact site, rarely a property with an annex, packages and events. The price includes a project manager reachable in your time zone, native English or French copywriting and delivery in 3 to 4 weeks. All tiers are detailed on the international offer page.
Which signals justify a redesign rather than a patch?
- Two sites coexist (main hotel and annex, or a former brand) with overlapping content.
- The booking calendar opens elsewhere, in another design, and the total price with taxes and fees only shows at the last step.
- Meeting, wedding and event pages lead to a bare email address.
- Restaurant or bar menus are scanned PDFs, unreadable on mobile.
- The English or German version never caught up with the new rooms.
Beyond three signals, every one-off fix adds cost without correcting the architecture.
Which migration risks matter, and how do you neutralise them?
| Risk | Severity if ignored | Mitigation | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two domains merged without redirects | High | URL inventory of both sites, one-to-one 301 map to the single domain | Before build |
| Room and seasonal offer pages deleted | High | One evergreen URL per recurring offer (Christmas, spring, summer) | Structure, week 1 |
| Duplicate content between annex and hotel | Medium | Merge the copy, one page per room type | Writing, week 2 |
| Booking engine re-embedded badly | High | Staging tests, mobile, keyboard use of the date picker as far as the engine allows | Week 3 |
| Inconsistent Google Business Profile listings | Medium | Name, address, phone and link aligned on every listing | Go-live |
| Unchecked marketing copy | Medium | Compliance read-through; classification cited only if officially held | Week 3 |
| Downtime or failed switch | Low to medium | DNS TTL lowered 48 hours ahead, switch on a weekday morning | Week 4 |
After go-live, Search Console is checked weekly for 6 weeks: 404s, excluded pages, queries on room and package pages. Galleries move to WebP or AVIF with lazy loading to hold Core Web Vitals on 4G.
What timeline, and when should a Montreux property go live?
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The project breaks down as follows: 3 to 5 days of audit and URL inventory, 1 to 3 weeks of content gathering on the hotel side (copy, annex photos, menus, terms), then 3 to 4 weeks of build: structure, pages, booking engine embedded on staging and review, go-live. For the date, aim for a quiet shoulder season, away from the July jazz festival and the Christmas market period. Going live in April, for instance, lets the 6 weeks of monitoring end before summer.
On data protection, the revised Federal Act on Data Protection (revFADP, nLPD) has applied since 1 September 2023, overseen by the FDPIC; the GDPR can also apply if you target EU residents. Enquiry forms (events, weddings) collect only the minimum, with no passport or card data: payment stays in the engine. Accessibility targets WCAG 2.2 AA, accessible rooms described factually, menu allergens checked by the kitchen. This is not legal advice.
When is a Riviera agency the better choice?
If you are also redoing the brand identity, want someone who comes to the hotel every month, or need a deep integration between PMS, spa and events management, a local agency earns its budget. Ask any provider: who merges the two URL inventories, how many redirects are included, who tests the engine on mobile, what the real monthly cost is after delivery, and who holds the domain credentials.
Mini case study
Illustrative example: the fictional Maison Vernex-Quai, a Montreux boutique hotel that opened an annex and still runs two old websites. Inventory: 40 URLs per language on the main site and 15 on the annex site, in French and English, so 110 URLs to redirect to a single domain. Keeping both sites costs, as a market assumption, 2 × CHF 150 per month × 36 months = CHF 10,800, plus around CHF 3,000 in fixes: CHF 13,800 over three years. The redesign scenario: Premium at CHF 8,200, plus maintenance at a market assumption of CHF 150 per month over 33 months (CHF 4,950; Kolonell maintenance after the 3 included months on quote), so CHF 13,150 for a single site, excluding the engine and a local photographer for the annex (third-party cost, assumption CHF 1,500 to 2,500).
FAQ
Is a redesign really cheaper than patching over three years? Not always: a simple patched site can stay under CHF 6,000. With two sites, seasonal offers and several languages, the gap often reverses, as in our fictional case (CHF 13,150 against 13,800).
Why avoid July for the go-live? The jazz festival concentrates bookings and enquiries into a few weeks, and a redirect error is costly then. Plan the switch in the shoulder season, with 6 weeks of monitoring behind it.
Is the booking engine's template site enough? It costs CHF 0 to 3,000 to launch but offers few indexable pages for packages, events and the restaurant. It suits small properties that sell mostly through the platforms.
What stays outside the grid? Booking engine, channel manager, PMS, gift vouchers, spa or table booking and custom integrations, all on quote. The CHF 2,700, 4,500 and 8,200 prices cover the site itself.
Let's scope your project. Merging two sites, migrating 50 to 120 URLs, a budget of CHF 4,500 to 8,200 excluding the engine, go-live in the shoulder season within 3 to 4 weeks. See the international offer or request a free quote: detailed reply within 48 hours.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
