This guide covers the tools required for getting 5 Star Hotel operational on your own website. Additionally, it covers optional tools we recommend which will increase your website's functionality (and perhaps revenue)!
Step 1 - Hosting
You can install the 5 Star Hotel child theme on any host (including budget shared-server environments).
That said, with shared-hosting, you may run into resource limitations that could cause the one-click import to fail. 5 Star Hotel includes 40+ images (and their system-generated thumbnails), plus the Divi theme by Elegant Themes is resource-heavy.
Before installing 5 Star Hotel in a shared-hosting environment, we recommend contacting your hosting provider and have them set your server values to maximum resources available. Particularly focus on "PHP Variables" in cPanel, and increase the "Dynamic Timeout" values.
We ultimately recommend a Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting environment. 5 Star Hotel should work out-of-the-box with a VPS. There are many options, but we recommend Cloudways. It is inexpensive, and offers lots of WordPress-optimized features. Click here to setup a Cloudways account including a Free Trial.
For your convenience, here's a video setup guide to get your Cloudways account in motion.
Step 2 - Required Tools
Divi theme by Elegant Themes - This child theme requires the Divi parent theme to be installed. You need an active Elegant Themes subscription for this child theme to work, which is not included in the purchase price of this product. Also, as of 5 Star Hotel version 3.0, the Divi version required is 3.21 or above. You can purchase the Divi parent theme by clicking this link.
5 Star Hotel child theme by MAGI Web Design - In case you've yet to acquire it, you can purchase the 5 Star Hotel child theme by clicking this link.
Step 3 - Optional Tools
HBook Hotel Booking System plugin by HotelWP - HBook is a powerful and versatile plugin which is perfectly suited for anybody owning a business in the hospitality industry: hotel, B&B, holiday apartment, campsite, etc. We've optimized 5 Star Hotel to work seamlessly with the HBook plugin, and recommend it highly! It is completely optional, and you can choose any booking solution (if any) you wish! To purchase the HBook Booking System plugin, click here.
Divi Testimonial Slider plugin by B3Multimedia - Our 5 Star Hotel demo website includes extensive use of Testimonial Slider on virtually every page. Additionally, we've tailored food menu items on the demo Food & Wine page using testimonials created with this plugin. Convert visitors into valuable customers with beautiful, contextual testimonials that work seamlessly with Divi. This plugin is also completely optional, but we recommend it! To purchase the Divi Testimonial Slider plugin, click here.
Caldera Forms plugin by CalderaWP (Free Version) - This plugin is installed automatically with our 5 Star Hotel one-click demo import. You may wish to use it, or replace it with your own forms solution. It's used on the demo Contact Us page, and builds beautiful conditional logic forms. You can use it as a substitute for HBook Booking System plugin should you wish (payment processing only available in Pro version), or connect it with Divi Testimonial Slider to collect reviews from your contact page (like in our demo contact page linked above).
In the next article, we're going to cover important first steps before installing the 5 Star Hotel child theme.