Good — below is a practical, step-by-step plan you can use right away to find a smaller agency (or specialist freelancer team) with real hospitality experience and better pricing than the large US agencies.

1. Where to look (high ROI places)

• Hotel-specific directories and marketplaces: HotelTechReport’s “websites” category lists agencies that specialise in hotel sites (good for verifying hospitality experience). (hoteltechreport.com)
• B2B review directories (filter for small teams and region): Clutch lets you filter by industry (hospitality), country and company size so you can find smaller shops in Mexico, Brazil, Eastern Europe, etc. (often lower rates than US). (clutch.co)
• Designer/portfolio platforms: Behance and Dribbble — search for “hotel website”, “resort website”, “boutique hotel” to find studio portfolios and links to contact smaller studios. (No citation needed — general platform advice.)
• Freelance platforms for specialists: Upwork (set filters for hotel experience and smaller hourly/team-based offers). Use a fixed-price discovery phase to vet freelancers safely. (clutch.co)

2. Where smaller agencies can save you money

• Consider reputable small agencies in Latin America or Mexico (and some Eastern Europe shops). Clutch listings show examples of teams there with project price bands lower than many US firms — a good place to start to get reasonable quotes without sacrificing experience. (clutch.co)

3. Realistic budget & timeline benchmarks to set expectations

• Typical small-business hotel redesign (basic CMS, responsive, few integrations) can be under $20k and take 1–3 months. More custom builds (booking integrations, custom UX, CMS templates) commonly sit in the $40k–$65k range and take 3–6 months. Build in a contingency of ~15–20%. Use these as negotiation anchors. (rattleback.com, pixolabo.com)

4. Minimum shortlist criteria (must-haves)

• Demonstrated hospitality portfolio (links to live hotel/resort sites, ideally boutique properties). (hoteltechreport.com)
• Case studies showing measurable results (direct bookings, conversion lift, SEO improvements). (hoteltechreport.com)
• Experience with booking engine / PMS integrations or with your specific tech stack (very important). (insights.ehotelier.com)
• Mobile-first UX, fast Core Web Vitals scores, and basic SEO. (webstacks.com)
• Small team / single point of contact, transparent pricing, and clear maintenance/support plans.

5. Short RFP / discovery brief you can send (copy/paste) Include: property short summary, current website URL, goals (increase direct bookings, lower OTA commission, highlight experiences), monthly traffic & booking engine/PMS used, must-have integrations, example sites you like, target launch date, budget range, and request:

• 2–3 relevant case studies + 1 live URL
• Rough timeline and cost estimate (discovery, design, development, QA, launch, support)
• Who will own code/assets and CMS details
• References from 1–2 boutique hotels

(You can use HotelTechReport / Clutch listings to pull agency contact links.) (hoteltechreport.com, clutch.co)

6. Interview / vetting questions (shortlist stage)

• Which hotel/resort sites have you built in the last 24 months? Can we speak to those clients? (hoteltechreport.com)
• How do you measure conversion improvements? What KPIs will you track? (insights.ehotelier.com)
• Do you handle booking engine/PMS integrations, payment/checkout and channel-manager compatibility? Which systems have you integrated with? (insights.ehotelier.com)
• Who owns the code and CMS credentials at launch? What are ongoing maintenance costs?
• What does a 30–60–90 day plan post-launch look like (bug fixes, CRO, marketing)?

7. Scoring matrix (simple) Rate each proposal 1–5 on: hospitality portfolio, technical fit (integrations), CRO/SEO approach, UX/design quality, timeline, price, ongoing support. Prioritize hospitality portfolio, integrations and CRO.

8. Procurement strategy to reduce risk & costs

• Paid discovery / scoping phase (1–2 weeks, fixed fee) — lets you validate chemistry and approach before committing to full build. Many small agencies/freelancers will accept this. (clutch.co)
• Ask for phased delivery: launch a lean, conversion-optimized site first, add extras later. (webstacks.com)
• Get 3 proposals (local US shop, smaller LATAM/EU shop, and a freelancer) to compare value vs price.

9. Contract must-haves (don’t skip)

• Deliverables & acceptance criteria, timeline and milestones with payment tied to milestones, ownership of code/design at final payment, CMS/admin access, uptime/security responsibilities, bug-fix warranty period, and a clear support/maintenance rate or SLA.

10. Marketing spend warning

• Plan to budget marketing after launch. Industry guidance suggests you’ll likely need a multiple of your site build spend for marketing to drive occupancy and direct bookings (some guides recommend high ratios; treat marketing as an essential post-launch cost). (hotelexecutive.com)

11. Quick outreach template (short) “Hi — we’re a 20-room boutique hotel in [Caribbean island]. We’re redesigning our site to increase direct bookings and highlight experiences. Our launch target is [date]. Please send 1–2 relevant case studies, a high-level timeline and ballpark estimate, and availability for a 30-minute discovery call. Current site: [URL]. Thanks, [name / role / contact].”

12. Next steps I recommend you take this week

• Pull 10 agencies from HotelTechReport and Clutch, filter for company size 2–15, and request the 1-page brief above. (hoteltechreport.com, clutch.co)
• Offer a paid discovery (1–2 weeks) to the top 3 — this quickly reveals which vendor really understands boutique hospitality and pricing sensibly. (clutch.co)

If you want, I can:

• Draft a one-page RFP tailored to your property (I’ll need current site URL, booking engine/PMS, room count and launch date), or
• Search HotelTechReport / Clutch now and show 6–8 small agencies that match “boutique hotel + small team + reasonable price” for you to contact.

Which would you prefer?