About The St. Mary's Inn Bed & Breakfast
Located in downtown Colorado Springs, just a few blocks from Colorado College, the St. Mary’s Inn Bed and Breakfast is a Queen Anne Style mansion built over 130 years ago. The building had been a home and apartments up until the year 2000, where it went into renovation. 8 years later, it reopened as a historical bed and breakfast with modern comforts. Since the St. Mary’s Inn officially opened, they have happily served their guests while sharing part of Colorado Springs’ history.
In 2018, the inn would gain new management, but with the same goal of providing guests a comfortable night’s stay and welcoming breakfast. The new owners could tell they needed a fresh website with an improved booking system. They would need a new backend that they could edit with ease and keep up SEO, things that were a challenge on the backend of their current website.
The challenge
- The website design was dated and had nothing to capture user’s interest. This caused visitors to leave the website and increase the bounce rate.
- The Saint Mary’s Inn is operating in a tough market. Between hotels and other bed and breakfasts, it is important their site is engaging so visitors would book with them instead of looking elsewhere.
- The platform the website used to be in was difficult to utilize for website changes and SEO updates.
- Crucial information was lost among the design of the website. Visitors were not able to find available rooms and book a room with ease or contact the team with questions.
- A new booking engine was chosen to ease the booking process for interested visitors and needed to be integrated.
What we did
- The new website was built in WordPress, making it easier to complete any needed updates. The new platform supports SEO and will help improve their search rankings on Google.
- The website has a similar charm to the building’s late 1800s style and brought important aspects, including the ability to make reservations and phone number, to the top of the page.
- The image of the bed and breakfast on the landing page is no longer obscured by text, allowing website visitors see the building without any text in the way.
- The suite pages are consistent between each suite, supporting SEO and allowing visitors to switch between suite pages and find relevant information in the same spots.
- The pages are built in Elementor, a drag and drop WordPress plugin that allows the client to see what the page will look like before publishing the pages.
- The footer and header are permanently visible, helping brand visibility by keeping the company’s logo visible in an interesting location, the footer, without overwhelming the rest of the design.
- The new booking system was prepared with the website’s theme, giving visitors website access for potential guests to check the suites or accommodations while they are booking.
- The logo was given a more modern look, while holding onto the Queen Anne style the building is known for.
- The performance score for the website increased 24%, and the website loads two seconds faster. This will reduce bounce rate and improve SEO.
The results
With a new website that reflects the style and beauty of their inn, the owners of the Saint Mary’s Inn will find it easier to update the website. Their suites now have a format that’s easy to look at and displays the amenities of each room that makes staying there worthwhile. With the site housed in WordPress, their performance speeds have improved and made future SEO efforts easier to maintain. The new booking system looks like the website and allows a quick way for visitors to go between looking at suites and booking their room during their trip.
