The Retreat

Partnership

The Retreat, a luxury country house hotel and spa in Berkshire, partnered with Journey to completely redefine their digital experience. Our brief was to bring the brand to life online, capturing its blend of elegant, authentic, luxury, while creating a seamless online journey that would drive more direct bookings and reduce reliance on third-party platforms.

Challenge

The previous website lacked both the personality and functionality needed to support the hotel’s goals. Guests couldn’t book rooms, spa and dining in one place, and the user experience didn’t reflect the brand’s refined identity. The challenge was to elevate the digital brand and deliver a user experience that would shift booking behaviour from OTAs to direct.

Approach

We began by defining a clear brand strategy, balancing heritage with modern luxury, and used this to guide every element of the new site. From there, we created an experience built around storytelling, simplicity, and conversion. The Retreat team embraced the vision, and together we delivered a website designed to grow direct revenue and engage their core audiences.

Stats

Direct Bookings
+ 35 %
Direct Revenue
+ 18 %
Room Conversion Rate
4 %

Driving direct business

A digital refurbishment for a fresh start

Defining the brand was the first step. We worked closely with The Retreat team to create a digital identity that balanced heritage with a refined sense of luxury, authentic, playful, and rooted in place. Drawing inspiration from classic countryside hotels, we introduced a modern twist that elevated the experience. Deep, tonal textures and elegant white space set the stage for rich visual storytelling, while intuitive UX principles made exploration effortless. The result was a website that feels luxurious and lived-in, inviting guests to discover more with every click.

Website

Luxury, layered with simplicity

We set out to mirror the feeling of The Retreat, calm, indulgent, and full of quiet character. The new website brings that atmosphere online, with rich visuals, spacious layouts, and elegant transitions that guide users intuitively. The site invites guests to linger, explore and build their own experience, turning passive browsing into confident booking. The project wasn’t just about improving the website’s look and feel, It was about making it work harder by increasing conversion rate and changing user behaviour, bringing bookings in via the direct channel versus third party OTAs.

Technology

Everything in one basket

Powered by Journey’s Ecommerce Platform, the website now lets guests book their full experience in one simple booking, rooms, treatments, and dining in a single transaction. This removed friction, encouraged upsell, and gave users more control over how they engage.

To maximise visibility, our SEO specialists optimised site structure, metadata and content from launch. We targeted key audience segments and ensured the website was built to perform, technically and commercially. With performance baked in from the start, The Retreat saw immediate results across search and booking behaviour.

Don’t take our word for it

“Journey has helped bring each Signet hotel to life digitally while ensuring a seamless, intuitive booking experience. The new websites reflect our heritage and make it easier for guests to book directly. We’re thrilled with the results and look forward to continuing our partnership with Journey to further elevate our digital presence.”
Review by Hector Ross Founder, The Signet Collection
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