Every booking comes from the platforms
Occupancy is fine, but the margin disappears into commission and the relationship with the guest stays on the other side. There is no list of who has already stayed, and no way to call them back.
Sectors
Tourism and accommodation: brand, website and direct bookings
Guests decide before they arrive, and they decide on their phone
Tourism has a communication problem almost no other sector has: the decision gets made by someone who has never been to the place, hundreds of miles away, comparing photographs. Everything good about the property — the morning light, the quiet, the walk down to the estuary — only exists for the person booking if it shows up on a page. And it is a seasonal decision: there are weeks of the year that decide months of income.
The other problem is commission. Booking platforms bring guests and take a cut of every night, and the more an accommodation depends on them, the less it owns its own price. A website of your own does not replace the platforms — it works alongside them, so that whoever discovered you there books with you directly the second time. We work on both: the brand and the website that make someone choose you, and the path that turns that choice into a direct booking.
What usually holds bookings back
Requests from this sector almost always come to us for one of these reasons.
The place is better than the photographs
The images are taken in a hurry, in the wrong light, with the bed unmade. In a sector where the photograph is the product, that is the difference between being chosen and being passed over.
It is not clear where it is or what is nearby
Whoever is booking does not know the area. Without the distance to the beach, the centre and the airport, and without what there is to do nearby, the page does not answer the question that brought the visit.
The website only exists in Portuguese
Half the people looking do not speak Portuguese, and the browser's automatic translation ruins exactly what was being said.
Nothing happens out of season
Communication piles up in summer and goes quiet the rest of the year. When it is needed again, it has to start from zero.
What we usually do in this sector
The scope changes depending on whether it is an accommodation, an experience operator, or promoting a destination, but these are the jobs most requested.
Accommodation website with direct booking
Presenting the property and each room or type, a properly edited gallery, a map with what is nearby, prices by season, and the path to booking — whether through a form or connected to the booking engine you already use.
Multilingual website
The same website in Portuguese and English, or in whichever languages your guests come from, with each version having its own address so it shows up in searches made in that language.
Brand for an accommodation or an experience
Name, logo, palette and typography, plus what the guest finds on arrival: signage, the welcome book, the keys, breakfast, and whatever they take home with them.
Photography and content for the destination
Writing that explains the area to someone who does not know it — walking routes, beaches, restaurants, what to do when it rains — which is the content that brings visits outside the booking season.
Seasonal campaigns
Adverts and content designed around the calendar: the high season sells itself well in advance, and the quiet months get filled with shorter stays and a different kind of guest.
Materials for the property
Vinyl graphics, signage, printed maps and the material left in the room. It is what makes the guest remember the name when it is time to come back.
Services most requested by hosts
Each page explains the process, what you get at the end, and the most common questions.
- Websites, multilingual and with a path to booking;
- Branding and naming, for the property or for the experience business;
- SEO and SEM, to show up in searches by area and by season;
- Social media, to keep the destination present out of season;
- Copywriting, to describe the property and the area to those who do not know them;
- Graphic design, for signage and material for the room;
- Integrations and APIs, to connect the website to the booking engine.
Projects in this sector
Way To Portugal and Aveiro+ are promotional websites — one for routes across the country, the other for the city itself. MARE CHALLENGE is the website for an event that brings people from outside into the region. The rest is in the portfolio.
Frequently asked questions from people working in tourism
What people ask us before starting a project in this field.
Can the website connect to the booking engine we already use?
It can, as long as the engine offers a connection for it — most of the widely used ones do. That is the work of integrations and APIs: availability and prices then come from a single source, avoiding the worst situation of all, confirming a booking for a night that is already taken. When no connection is possible, the website hands off to the engine, and we say so before starting.
Is it worth having our own website if we are already on the platforms?
It is, but not to replace them. The platforms are where you get discovered by people who do not know you yet; the website is where the ones who have already stayed, who were recommended to you, or who searched for you by name go to book. It is the booking with no commission, and the only one that gives you the guest's contact details. Typically the platforms bring the first stay and the website brings the ones after.
Which languages should the website be in?
Whichever languages your guests come from, which is a question your own records answer better than any rule of thumb. In Portugal, Portuguese and English almost always cover the majority; French and Spanish get added when the numbers justify it. Each version gets its own address, so it can be found in searches made in that language — a translation with no address of its own brings no visits at all.
Want bookings that are truly yours?
Tell us what you have, when your busy season is and where your guests come from. You will get a proposal with scope, phases and price, whether for the website, the brand or the campaigns.