Keeping a Stanthorpe cottage booked out

A luxury cottage in the Granite Belt

Bella Vista Stanthorpe is a modern, air-conditioned two-bedroom cottage in Stanthorpe, in the heart of Queensland’s Granite Belt wine country. With a garden, a balcony and views over Quart Pot Creek, a spa, a fireplace and a ten-minute walk into town, it is built for guests escaping for wine tours, bushwalking in Girraween National Park, or simply a quiet weekend away.

As a holiday rental, its success comes down to one number: how full the calendar stays. That makes the website and the booking system the engine of the whole business.

Client

Bella Vista Stanthorpe

Industry

Accommodation & hospitality

Platform

Custom WordPress + booking engine

Services

Web design, content, custom booking system, SEO

Engagement

10+ years, ongoing

Live site

bellavistastanthorpe.com.au ↗

Filling and managing a calendar across three channels

A holiday rental lives and dies by its occupancy, and Bella Vista needed to do two hard things well: be found by guests searching online, and take bookings from every channel without ever double-booking. Listings on Airbnb, Booking.com and VRBO each hold their own calendar, and keeping them in sync by hand is a recipe for clashes, cancelled stays and unhappy guests. And every booking through one of those platforms carries a commission, so winning direct bookings through the website matters to the bottom line.

1. No online presence to build on. The cottage needed a website, and all of its content, built from scratch.
2. Bookings scattered across channels. Airbnb, Booking.com and VRBO, each with its own calendar and a real risk of double-bookings.
3. Commission on every OTA booking. Direct bookings needed to be won back through the site.

A website and a custom booking engine, from scratch

We built Bella Vista’s website from the ground up, including all of its content and a photography-led design, as a modern, fast and responsive WordPress site. At its heart is a custom booking engine with a live availability calendar that two-way syncs with Airbnb, Booking.com and VRBO over iCal, so a booking on any channel instantly blocks those dates everywhere else. No more double-bookings. Behind it sits a custom admin interface where the owner manages and sorts every booking and payment in one place, and we run ongoing SEO so guests find the cottage and book direct.

• Website and content built from scratch
• Modern, fast, responsive WordPress design
• Custom booking engine, live availability calendar
• Two-way iCal sync: Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO
• Custom admin to manage bookings and payments
• Ongoing SEO for direct online bookings
• Photography-led, mobile-first layout
• 10+ years of ongoing support

Over 85% occupancy, booked direct

A strong website, reliable multi-channel booking and ongoing SEO have kept Bella Vista busy. The cottage now runs at over 85% occupancy, and a healthy share of that comes directly through the site, generated online rather than paid for in platform commissions. The owner manages the lot from one custom dashboard, without the calendar clashes that used to come with juggling three platforms by hand.