Challenge
Bookings were heavily dependent on third-party aggregators — MakeMyTrip, Airbnb, Booking.com — charging 15–20% commission per stay.
The existing online presence was minimal: limited photography, no direct enquiry path, weak local SEO, and slow mobile load times. The villa was indistinguishable from larger StayVista and SaffronStays inventory in the same Lonavala–Khandala search results.
Our approach
We designed and built a mobile-first brand website focused entirely on direct bookings:
- High-impact photography of the pool, garden, and rooftop terrace.
- An enquiry-and-availability flow integrated with WhatsApp Business and email.
- On-page SEO targeting high-intent Lonavala and Khandala keywords — private pool villa, group stays near Pune and Mumbai, weekend getaway villa.
- Image optimisation with lazy loading and CDN-served media for sub-2-second mobile loads.
- Structured data for property listings, plus Google Analytics and Search Console instrumentation to attribute enquiry sources.
It was deployed on managed cloud hosting with SSL, automated backups, and a lightweight CMS — so the host can update tariffs and seasonal offers without developer involvement.
Outcome
The site reduced aggregator dependency and recovered roughly 15–20% per direct booking previously lost to platform commissions. Mobile page-load times improved to under 2 seconds, direct enquiries rose by around 35% in the first three months post-launch, and the villa ranked on page one for several long-tail Lonavala search terms.