Summary
Abaco Island Rentals is an established vacation rental business operating on Green Turtle Cay, one of the beautiful Abaco Islands in the Bahamas — a destination known for its sailing culture, secluded cays, and laid-back luxury. As the rental market grew more competitive, their existing site no longer reflected the quality of properties they represented.
They needed more than a refresh — they needed a site that could sell the destination, not just the listings.
The mission was to elevate the visual experience, simplify the path to enquiry, and build a design that felt as considered as the islands themselves.
What we've done
Discovery & site audit
Homepage redesign focused on destination storytelling
Property listing experience redesign
Navigation & information architecture overhaul
Visual identity refinement for web
Mobile-responsive layout design
The Challenge
Abaco Island Rentals had strong inventory but a site that undersold it:
An outdated visual language that didn't match the premium feel of the properties
A homepage that led with listings rather than the destination experience
Cluttered navigation making it hard for users to orient themselves
No clear hierarchy guiding visitors toward enquiry or booking
A mobile experience that felt like an afterthought
The opportunity was clear — the product was good. The presentation just needed to catch up.
The Brief
We were brought in to:
— Elevate the visual quality to match the calibre of the properties — Redesign the user journey from discovery through to enquiry — Lead with destination storytelling before driving to listings — Create a clean, confident layout that works across all devices
Our Approach
Discovery & Audit
We reviewed the existing site structure, identified where users were likely dropping off, and mapped out a cleaner content hierarchy that better reflected how travellers actually research and choose vacation rentals.
Destination-First Homepage
The redesign leads with atmosphere — photography, place, and feeling — before moving into inventory. The goal was to make visitors want to be there before they'd even seen a single listing.
Simplified Navigation
We restructured the site architecture to reduce friction, making it easier to browse by island, property type, or availability — and faster to reach the point of enquiry.
Visual Identity Refinement
We brought in a more refined typographic system and a restrained colour palette that nods to the natural tones of the islands — sea, sand, and sky — without leaning into cliché.
CMS-Powered Property Management
One of the most impactful changes had nothing to do with aesthetics — it was giving the client control.
We built a custom CMS system tied directly to a dynamic page template, meaning every property listing is created and managed from a single, structured backend. The client enters the details — name, description, photos, pricing, availability, amenities — and the template does the rest, generating a fully-designed property page automatically.
No code. No developer dependency. No inconsistency.
What this solved:
Previously, updating or adding a property meant manually rebuilding pages — slow, error-prone, and reliant on outside help
Details across listings were inconsistent in format and depth
There was no scalable system for growing the inventory
What it unlocked:
The client can add, edit, or archive any property in minutes
Every listing follows the same visual standard automatically
The business scales without the website becoming a bottleneck
For a small team managing multiple properties across several islands, this shift from static pages to a CMS-driven system was arguably the single biggest quality-of-life improvement the project delivered — turning the website from something they worked around into something that actively works for them.
The Outcome
The redesign gave Abaco Island Rentals:
A visual presence that reflects the quality of their properties
A destination-first experience that builds desire before driving conversion
Cleaner navigation that reduces friction at every step
A mobile experience that holds up wherever their guests are browsing
The site now sells the islands as much as the rentals — which is exactly where the decision to book begins.
