Ladycross Lodge & Touring Park bespoke website and online booking system

Ladycross Lodge & Touring Park is a beautiful caravan park set in acres of mature woodland on the edge of the North York Moors National Park. I've provided website design and IT support to owners Kieran and Lisa since they bought the park in 2010 — a long-term relationship that provides a foundation of trust, and the freedom to pursue creative ideas.

In recent years the park has grown, with the addition of a development of luxury woodland lodges available to buy or rent. The previous website had served its time: it marketed the touring and seasonal pitches well, but failed to attract interest in the new lodges. Working alongside marketing consultant Giles Polito, who directed the project following research, stakeholder interviews and a competitor audit, we planned a new website to improve the user experience, strengthen SEO, refresh the branding and increase conversions.

Design rooted in the woodland. I designed a series of flexible layout blocks from which the new site was built. The refreshed brand uses three primary colours to distinguish the different sides of the business — green for touring and seasonal pitches, gold for lodges, and blue for motorhome hire — paired with a palette of woodland greens that maintains continuity with the previous design. Full-screen video on the home page immediately showcases the stunning setting, supported by aerial photography and interior lodge shots, while award graphics and guest reviews build trust. Calls to action sit front and centre, making it easy to book online, send an enquiry or join the mailing list.

A bespoke booking system. Some years earlier I'd built a back-office booking management system for Ladycross using Perch CMS, and we chose to continue developing within Perch to retain it. The new website includes a bespoke, commission-free online booking platform that syncs seamlessly with that back-office tool — complete with user accounts and booking history. Stripe handles online payments, while Brevo delivers booking notifications and marketing emails reliably.

The site itself was built from scratch with robust HTML and CSS, with an emphasis on performance and user-friendliness, especially on mobile. Alongside the build, I optimised page titles, meta descriptions, headings and copy across the whole site, and it continues to perform well in Google search.

The results. Organic traffic and email sign-ups have both increased since launch, helped by a pop-up email form that has attracted a large number of subscribers. Marketing emails now regularly achieve open rates above 70% and click-through rates above 30% — exceptionally high for the sector.

When building websites, I love finding solutions that make the business owner's life easier while delighting their customers. The booking system is the icing on the cake here: quick and simple for guests, and meshing perfectly with Lisa's back-office processes. Credit also goes to the wider team — Michael Lazenby's photography and video, CGI from Retina Images, and logo design by The Forge Creative — whose work brings the site to life.