Links to a booking partner
Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, TripAdvisor
Rates the property names itself
From $350 a night, stated on the page
Guests at a time
The one fact the old site never mentioned
The finding
Terra Nova takes fourteen guests at a time. Its website never said so.
It is the one thing about the property that Booking.com cannot copy, and the reason a room is worth $420 a night. The old site left it out and listed twelve amenities instead, ending up with nothing to argue about but price.
From a partner search box to a property
Before
“A luxury hotel experience” is a description that fits four hundred properties, over a search box that redirects.
After
Fourteen guests, stated twice. One route onward, and it stays on the domain.
From “Check Rates” to a price
Before
Deluxe, Superior, Bungalow. Square meters and bed types, then a refusal: rates vary by season.
After
The Canopy Suite at $420. Named places with a reason each, priced in the property's own voice.
From a review widget to a guest who stayed
Before
TravelBug_2018 at 10px, credited to the platform that owns the review. The section ends in a link away.
After
Three nights became seven. One named guest, and a behavior rather than a score.
The identity
Gold and letterspaced caps, the uniform of the category it was losing to.
A luxury hotel experience
Gold marked everything, so it marked nothing. The only working button on the page was partner blue.
Where the earth meets stillness
The serif carries the luxury, so the palette does not have to. Nothing metallic, nothing guaranteed.
Measured on both rendered pages, at 1440px
Reservation paths on the domain
Booking partners linked
Words on the page
Smallest type
Lowest body contrast
Who owns the guest
Terra Nova was paying commission for traffic it had already earned.
Still open: the nightly rate renders at 3.66:1 against bone, under the 4.5 it needs at that size; 26 labels sit below 13px; and Book Now points at a contact page that has not been built, which is why the first figure above reads four of five.
The explorations
Three directions were designed. One shipped.
Each was built as a full working page, not a mood board, so the choice was made against real type, real spacing and real interaction. All three are shown here, with the reason the two that lost did not ship.
Sanctuary
light cinematic · Goudy serif · alternating room rows, masonry gallery
Keeps rates, rooms and availability legible, so the booking can happen here.
Open full page ↗Nightfall
dark + atmospheric · full-bleed room slabs · dusk imagery
Atmosphere at the cost of the job. Dusk imagery looked the part and made rates and availability the least readable things on the page.
Open full page ↗Field Notes
warm editorial journal · numbered room index · magazine layout
Read as a travel journal about the place rather than somewhere you could reserve a room tonight.
Open full page ↗In context
