3
Clear routes through the site: Sleep, Eat, Gather
1 click
To the booking engine from every page
1 page
Everything couples need to know: capacity, licensed rooms, guest accommodation and brochure
The Falcon is a boutique hotel on the Market Place in Uppingham, Rutland, and like many independent hotels it was paying OTA commission on guests who would have happily booked direct. The building is a 16th-century coaching inn, part of a small, family-run hospitality group.
The hotel had changed but the website hadn’t. Rooms had been refurbished and a new restaurant, Fern, had opened, yet the old site didn’t reflect any of it. The navigation was hard to follow, the booking button was easy to miss, and the wedding information was so thin that couples had to enquire just to find out the basics.
The team needed a modern site to help them reach a younger audience, with booking made obvious and proper space given to Fern and the wedding offer.
We cut the site back to three sections based on why people visit: Sleep, Eat and Gather. Guests looking for a room, a table or an event venue now get there in a click or two.
“Book Your Stay” sits in the header on every page and goes straight into the hotel’s booking engine. A guest who is ready to book never has to look for it.
Fern now has a clear place under Eat, next to the Lounge & Tap Bar, Afternoon Tea and Private Dining. The restaurant shows up as a reason to visit in its own right.
Capacity, licensed rooms, overnight accommodation and the latest brochure all sit on one page, so couples know whether The Falcon is right for them before they get in touch.
The Falcon ranked well for searches about Uppingham but dropped off for wider terms. “Hotels in Rutland” sat at position 13. We added content on Rutland Water, Oakham and Stamford to present the hotel as a base for the whole area.
The design is warmer and more modern, led by photography, and aimed at a younger audience without losing the building’s character. Behind the scenes, the team can update rooms, offers, menus and events themselves.
Custom WordPress theme built on Timber/Twig, with all page content managed through ACF Pro blocks in the block editor. The header booking button links directly to the Guestline booking engine. Rooms, dining and events each have their own content sections.
The Falcon now has a website that looks like the hotel guests walk into. The route to booking is impossible to miss, and the restaurant, weddings and events each have a proper home.
After launch we ran a training session with the team and gave 30 days of support. They now keep the rooms, offers, menus and events up to date themselves, without needing a developer.
If you run an independent hotel or inn, OTAs are taking a cut of bookings you should be getting direct, and your website no longer reflects the place guests actually arrive at, we can help.
We build hotel websites that make booking the easiest thing to do, and that your team can manage day to day.
