Cumbrian Cottage Holidays
Client Overview
Cumbrian Cottage Holidays is a regional holiday letting business offering a wide portfolio of self-catering properties across the Lake District and surrounding areas. Their website plays a critical role in showcasing properties, managing availability and driving bookings.
However, their previous provider created significant operational friction – charging high fees for even minor updates and taking months to implement changes. This left the business constrained, unable to respond quickly to seasonal demand or optimise their digital presence.
They approached us to take control of their hosting, improve performance and rebuild the website to better support both their internal workflows and customer experience.
Objectives & Opportunities
The primary objective was to eliminate inefficiencies caused by the previous provider and create a platform that was faster, more flexible and cost-effective to manage. There was a clear opportunity to streamline processes, reduce reliance on manual updates and improve the speed at which content and availability could be managed.
Additionally, the client needed a robust integration with their third-party property management system while mitigating its limitations – particularly slow data updates. Enhancing the user experience through smarter search functionality and richer property data presentation was also a key priority.
Discovery & Insights
During discovery, it became clear that the client’s existing setup relied heavily on manual processes and workarounds, which were both time-consuming and prone to delays. The third-party property management system, while essential, introduced latency in availability data, creating potential inconsistencies for users.
We also identified an opportunity to leverage the client’s extensive use of structured content fields to enable more dynamic and automated grouping of properties.
Additionally, user behaviour insights showed high volumes of repeated availability searches during peak periods, highlighting the need for performance optimisation to maintain a seamless browsing experience.
Solution Strategy & Delivery
We migrated the site to a more reliable hosting environment and rebuilt it from the ground up using supplied designs, focusing on performance, scalability and ease of management.
A bespoke API integration was developed to connect with the property management system, including a manual refresh option to address delays in third-party data updates. We implemented advanced use of custom fields to enable granular, automated grouping of cottages across the site.
To improve performance, availability searches were cached short-term, reducing server load during peak traffic. We also integrated location-based APIs to automatically populate nearby amenities, with the flexibility for manual overrides when needed.
Results & Impact
The new platform significantly reduced operational bottlenecks, giving the client full control over their website without costly delays.
Automated processes replaced manual workarounds, saving substantial time and improving data accuracy across the site. Performance enhancements ensured the site remained fast and responsive, even during high-demand periods. The intelligent use of structured data enabled richer, more dynamic property listings, enhancing the user experience and supporting conversion.
Overall, the project demonstrates how identifying inefficiencies and implementing smart automation can transform both internal workflows and customer-facing performance.