Lucho Zuidema, the owner of the premium Brighton guest house, Brighton House, came to us seeking a brand refresh, and a new website. In the ten years since taking ownership of the property Lucho and his wife Christine had succeeded in establishing the Brighton House as one of the top B&Bs in the city, and won numerous awards for outstanding service, comfort, and commitment to the environment and the living wage initiative. However, a significant percentage of the guest house’s bookings were made through third party sites such as Trip Advisor and Bookings.com, and the business was losing profits in the form of commissions to those services. The hotel was also undergoing a significant programme of renovation, in which all the rooms were being upgraded and heating was to be provided by a biomass boiler.
Our challenge was twofold — to create a new brand identity that positioned the Brighton House as a modern and progressive establishment whilst, at the same time, communicating its friendly and relaxed atmosphere; to develop a website that integrated with the guest house’s Booking Button reservation system and also allowed for more effective marketing activity.
In developing the brand identity our initial ideas explored motifs of the British seaside holiday (sticks of rock, deck chairs, etc.) and the famous piers of Brighton before arriving at a simple logotype brand mark that referenced the Brighton House’s proximity to the beach and its green credentials. The geometric Brandon Grotesque sans serif typeface is both classic and contemporary, and the clean lines and strong colours should ensure that the logo stands the test of time.
The project’s budget did not allow for an entirely bespoke web design, so we chose to customise a pre-existing theme to work with the new brand identity and integrate the booking system. To encourage visitors to the site we integrated an events calendar that features all the activities Brighton has to offer, and integrated the guest house’s email newsletter signup. We also created an email newsletter template that populates content from the blog and events calendar, and allows for easy promotion of special offers. Signups to the newsletter are incentivised by offering a first booking discount (which is less than the commission paid to third party booking sites). We also installed a plugin to improve SEO and provided Lucho and his team with a marketing strategy guide.
Success Factors
In the first six months after the website was launched new unique visitors to the site have increased by an average of 7.5% per month relative to the previous year, and the percentage of visitors viewing the Rooms & Rates page has increased by an average of almost 10% compared to the same month the year before — approximately seventy-five more visitors per month check out the guest house’s rooms than they did before. The site has also seen a gradual increase in the number of impressions it garners in search.
“We have been very satisfied by the services offered by Tribus Creative. As a medium sized guesthouse in Brighton we were in need of rebranding, a new website and qualified opinions to improve our marketing strategies. Tribus were able to professionally and creatively provide solutions to these needs.They were able to interpret our ambitions with innovation and clear suggestion, where needed. It was a pleasure to see our wishes come to life and to have had these delivered to budget and in good time. We would highly recommend their services as we too anticipate working with them again.”Lucho Zuidema, Owner, The Brighton House
