Concept projectHoliday cottages · St Ives, Cornwall

Three cottages, booked direct.

A family with three granite cottages near St Ives, guests who come back every summer, and no website of their own. Every booking starts as a message. This is the site we designed so guests can check dates and ask to book in one place, and the owners can run it all themselves.

Boarding passPP 101

FromListing sites only

ToBooked direct

Client: Family cottage business
Sector: Holiday rentals
Services: Strategy, design, copy, build
Built with: Next.js, headless CMS

slowstone.example

The cottagesThe areaGetting hereJournalGift vouchersBook a stay Nº 03Summer issue · Three cottages near St IvesStone, sea & slow afternoons.Three granite cottages above the coast path near St Ives, kept by one family. See which nights are free and write to the owners directly.ArriveMon 8 JuneLeaveSat 13 JuneGuestsFourCheck dates In this issueFrom, per night01The net loftsleeps 2 · in the old town lanes£14002The granite housesleeps 6 · wood burner, sea view£18503The lookoutsleeps 4 · on the cliff, dogs welcome£210

Fig. 01 — the lookout, on the cliff path

Fig. 02 — the net loft, morningSt Ives · 50.21° N · 5.48° WSlowstonep. 01

The brief

Guests loved staying. Booking was the hard part.

The cottages were listed on the big booking sites, and the owners answered everything else by message. Where do we park? Can we bring the dog? Are those dates free? The same questions, every week, often late at night.

They wanted a home of their own online: calm, photo-led, honest about availability, and simple enough to update between changeovers.

What they asked for

Real availability, kept current by the owners
Booking requests, not just messages
A page for each cottage they can share
Answers to the questions guests ask every week

Discovery

Following one booking

Before sketching anything, we follow one guest from first look to arrival and mark every place they have to stop and ask.

1Finds a cottageon a listing site, in a long list of others
2Wants to know moreparking, the dog, the walk to the beach
3Asks about datesby message, then waits
4Asks to bookmore messages, then a bank transfer
5Arriveswith parking directions sent as a screenshot

So the site has to

Show free dates up front
Answer the usual questions before they are asked
Turn “are these dates free?” into one booking request

Sketch to screen

From pencil to pixels

Every page starts as a pencil sketch we can change in seconds. When the owners are happy with the order of things, it becomes the design.

Design system

Colours taken from the place itself

Granite walls, slate roofs, harbour water and gorse along the coast path. A small set of colours, type and parts keeps every page consistent and makes new pages quick to add.

Booking

Four steps, no back-and-forth

Dates, guests, details, sent. The request lands in the owners' inbox with everything they need to say yes.

1Dates
free and booked nights side by side
2Guests
so the right cottage fits, dog included
3Details
name, email and any questions
4Sent
a clear confirmation, then a reply by email

The editor

Theirs to run

Prices change with the seasons and the school holidays fill up first. The owners update all of it in a simple editor: block a week, change a price, swap a photo. No developer and no waiting.

slowstone.example/editor

EditorOverviewCottagesCalendarPricesRequests1PagesSettingsOwner accountSigned inCottages / The granite houseSaved · 14:02PreviewPublish

01The net loft

02The granite house

03The lookoutSeason prices+ Add a seasonSeasonDatesPer nightMin. nightsLow season2 Nov – 15 Mar£1103Spring16 Mar – 31 May£1403Summer1 Jun – 30 Sep£1855Half term24 Oct – 1 Nov£1503PhotographsDrag to reorder

Cover

Fig. 02

Fig. 03

Fig. 04Cottage detailsShown on the pageCheck-in from16:00Check-out by10:00SleepsSixDogsOne, on requestJuneBlock nights MTWTFSS123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930RequestsSee all8 – 13 June4 guestsNew22 – 27 June2 guestsReplied1 – 8 July6 guestsConfirmedNote to guestsSent with every replyThe key safe code and parking directions follow a week before you arrive. Bread, milk and Cornish butter are in the kitchen.Last edited · 3 June

prices by season
block dates in a tap
every cottage in one list

Under the hood

Built in, not bolted on

Fast on phones
Images are sized for every screen, and the words arrive before the photos do.
Readable by everyone
Strong contrast, real headings, and a booking form that works with a keyboard and a screen reader.
Found in search
A page for each cottage, written in the words guests search with, with clean links to share.
Easy to keep current
Seasons, prices and short-break rules live in one editor, so the site never shows last year's prices.

Next.js
Headless CMS
Availability calendar
Booking request form
Image CDN

The outcome

What the site is built to change

Guests see free dates before they ask
One booking request replaces a thread of messages
The owners change prices, photos and dates themselves
Every cottage has a page of its own to share