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Case study ยท Lodge website design

Smoky Cove Lodge: one room, or all fifteen.

A fifteen-bedroom lodge above Whittier, North Carolina, fifteen to twenty-five minutes from Cherokee, Bryson City and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Some guests want one room for a weekend. Others want the whole building for a reunion. We rebuilt the website on WordPress so both find their way in, with room rates that match the booking system.

Where it stands

Live at smokycovelodge.com since 30 September 2026. Every capture of the new site on this page is of the live site.

Before and after

The rebuilt Smoky Cove Lodge homepage by Oogle: the stone and timber lodge among hydrangeas, the headline The quiet side of the Smokies, and Check Availability and See the Rooms buttons.After
The original Smoky Cove Lodge homepage: a photograph of the lodge behind the headline Specialty Lodging and Retreat for Whittier, NC, with menus for rooms and rates, things to do, gallery, about and contact, and a Book Now button.Before
BeforeOriginal Smoky Cove Lodge website
AfterWebsite rebuild by Oogle

The project

Two kinds of guest, one building.

The old site sold the lodge as specialty lodging and retreat for Whittier and left the rest to the visitor. Several room prices on it were lower than the booking system charged, including the Kress Family Suite at $549 against $599. Group stays were spread across a reunion page, a retreats page and a consultation form. The new site starts from how the lodge is actually rented: seven rooms and suites on their own, or the lodge in one of four group configurations.

Client
The Lodge at Smoky Cove
Industry
Mountain lodge and group rentals
Location
Whittier, North Carolina
Platform
WordPress
Status
Live since 30 September 2026

Visit smokycovelodge.com

What we built.

Rooms you can filter

Every room and suite on one page, filtered by what a guest needs: sleeps four, a king bed, a kitchen, the ground floor, or groups and the entire lodge. Each room keeps its own page at its old address, with its beds and bath, and either a nightly price or a note that it opens up with group rentals.

Booking straight into the room

Each room sold on its own has a Check Availability button that opens the booking page with that room already selected in Guestroom Genie, the lodge's booking system. On a phone, a bar with Check Availability and a call button stays on screen.

Group rentals, priced and compared

The Entire Lodge, the 13-Room Exclusive, the Top Floor and the Kress Family Suite side by side: bedrooms, nightly rate, fees, whether other guests or staff are on site, and what each includes. The deposit terms are on the same page.

Sleeping arrangements, room by room

A group organizer can see every bed in the building before they call, and plan who sleeps where.

An inquiry path for groups

Weddings and retreats have pages of their own, and both lead to the group rentals page and its inquiry form, kept separate from general questions.

Prices that agree

Room rates on the site match the rates the booking system charges, so a guest does not find a different price when they come to book.

The Smokies, from the lodge

A Plan Your Stay guide and six destination pages: the national park, Cherokee, Bryson City, Sylva and Dillsboro, the Blue Ridge Parkway and fly fishing, with drive times from the lodge.

Old addresses kept working

Every address the old site used, including older pages that had been returning errors, now opens a page or redirects once to the page that replaced it.

Structured for search and AI answers

Structured data for the lodge, every room, the questions on each page and the places nearby, and a plain-text summary of rooms, rates and group rentals for AI systems.

Measured from the first booking

Booking starts are recorded with the room and how the guest booked, alongside calls, emails and group inquiries, so room bookings and group inquiries can be told apart.

These are design and technical changes, not measured results. The new site launched on 30 September 2026. There is no booking, traffic or ranking data yet, and none is claimed here.

The whole page

Top to bottom.

The old homepage beside the new one, both captured at the same desktop width. The new one moves from the lodge to its rooms, the area and the group rentals, in the order a guest decides.

The full original Smoky Cove Lodge homepage from the photo header to the footer.
BeforeOriginal homepage, full length
The full rebuilt Smoky Cove Lodge homepage: the hero, the view from the lodge, the rooms, the fire pit and shared spaces, the area nearby, the group rentals, the history of the house, guest reviews, a sister inn, a booking prompt and the footer.
AfterRebuilt homepage, full length

Mobile

On a phone.

The same first screen on a phone. The new site puts availability and the rooms on the first screen, and keeps Book and Call on screen as the page scrolls.

The original Smoky Cove Lodge homepage on a phone: the lodge photograph and the Specialty Lodging and Retreat headline.
BeforeOriginal, on a phone
The rebuilt Smoky Cove Lodge homepage on a phone: the lodge photograph, the headline The quiet side of the Smokies, and buttons to check availability or see the rooms.
AfterRebuild, on a phone

The rebuild

Inside the new site.

The group rentals, the rooms, the largest suite, the area and the booking page.

The Choose How Much of the Lodge You Need section of the Smoky Cove group rentals page, opening on the first of four options: the Entire Lodge, 15 bedrooms, 3,000 dollars a night plus tax and fees, with who else is on site and what is included.
Four ways to rent the lodgeBedrooms, rate, fees and who else is on site, for each group option.
The Rooms and Suites page on the Smoky Cove Lodge site: filters for sleeps four, king bed, kitchen, ground floor and group stays above the first room cards with prices.
Rooms and suitesEvery room and suite, filtered by what a guest needs.
The Kress Family Suite page on the Smoky Cove Lodge site: a gallery of the suite's rooms, its bedrooms and baths, the nightly price and a Check Availability button.
The Kress Family SuiteFive bedrooms that book as one suite or as part of a group rental.
The What Are You in the Mood For section of the Smoky Cove Plan Your Stay page: tabs by interest, each with a short list of places nearby.
Plan your stayThe area sorted by what a guest wants to do.
The Cherokee page on the Smoky Cove Lodge site: the heading Cherokee, fifteen minutes down the road, above a photograph of a mountain view.
CherokeeOne of six guides to the places guests come for.
The Book Your Stay page on the Smoky Cove Lodge site with the reservation form for dates and guests.
BookingThe Guestroom Genie booking form on the lodge's own page, with a phone number for anyone who would rather call.
The Smoky Cove group rentals page on a phone: the heading Bring everyone to the mountain and a photograph of the lodge.
Group rentalsTwo next steps first: plan a group stay or compare the rentals.
The Kress Family Suite page on a phone: the suite's name, key facts and photographs.
A suiteSleeps, beds and baths before the photographs.
The Smoky Cove rooms page on a phone: the filters and the first room card.
RoomsFilter first, then scroll.

Rent by the room and by the group?

Tell us how guests book today and where it goes wrong, and we'll tell you what a rebuild takes.

Start a Website ProjectAbout our design work

Rather talk it through? Call 833-336-6453.