Meet the client:
Château du Sureau is a magnificent European-style retreat with a fine dining restaurant, a fabulous spa, and a secluded pool —combined with top-notch service. Since its opening in 1991, this luxurious stay has earned both the Forbes Five-Star and American Automobile Association’s Five-Diamond awards and membership in the prestigious Relais & Chateaux organization. Located just sixteen miles from Yosemite National Park, Château du Sureau is a hidden gem nestled in the rolling hills near Yosemite.
Need:
The hotel’s old website had several challenges, primarily being – outdated technology, an unresponsive website, and pale design. Goals of the project were to create a website that evoked the guest experience: relaxed, upscale, and luxurious – a timeless resort with modern amenities. One of the primary needs was to highlight the hotel’s exclusive look as an ideal location for celebrating special events – given the unique event space and catering service available in the hotel’s famous restaurant. Here are some of the challenges the client faced with the old website:
- Need a more upscale site that creates a more affluent look, driving higher consumer engagement
- Reinforce meeting and event spaces to drive higher engagement
- Showcase their famous restaurant, The Elderberry House, and provide cross-promotion between the restaurant and the hotel
- Convey a relaxed, luxurious, timeless experience with modern amenities
Solution
With our goals clearly outlined, the first step was to put together the UX Strategy to help us achieve them. To do this, we created several wireframe prototypes to test out different website flows, which included creating a layout design, navigation design, placement of weblinks and imagery, and booking elements. Here are some of the features we added to the website:
Revenue Generation Opportunities
The new website delivers Château du Sureau the opportunity to drive revenue from ancillary services, including the spa, restaurant, and event spaces, using pre-built modules to generate reservations. The multiple inquiry forms help visitors gain information about the various activities.
Mobile-First Experience
The new responsive design helps convert mobile visitors with a mobile-optimized website experience critical to revenue growth.
Content-Control
The new CMS-driven website helps Château du Sureau quickly respond to market demands and gives the ability to control aces easily and update visual, textural, and promotional content to ensure that their website is always current.
Ease-Of-Use
The user-friendly interface enables visitors to enjoy a comfortable digital experience and immediately access the information they are looking for.
Direct booking
We knew that the new website had to be focused on direct booking from the first moment. Thus, we designed the booking engine as the first element that the user will find in the Home or any other page because you never know when the users are prepared to book.
Fast and transparent booking process.
The booking process in Château du Sureau is quick and straightforward. The user is not asked for more information than is needed, and the booking field is clearly laid out, eliminating any confusion.
Beautiful imagery: To give justice to the stunning hotel, we added breathtaking photos and imagery that instantly captured the beauty of Château du Sureau.
Result
With this project, the client not only solved the problems of today but also began preparing to solve the future problems. The new website layout is simple and delivers valuable information to users quickly. The visual design reflects the hotel’s lux personality. Bold, vivid, and stunning – the new photography, updated color scheme, and user-focussed content strengthen their digital presence. Over three months, the client has received good traffic to the website, calls, and inquiry forms.
More Visitors, More Revenue
- Site visits: Increased by 20% YOY.
- Unique visitors: Increased by 35% YOY
- Bounce rate: Decreased by 88% YOY
- Inquiry from submissions: Increased by 44% YOY
Do you need to redesign your outdated website? Contact our web development team today.
