Luxurious by design
There are vacation rentals, then there are luxury homes most of us can only dream of renting. For the lucky few, there’s Hawksview Estate, a custom-built estate on the island of St. John in the US Virgin Islands. But even the fortunate need to be convinced to spend their money, so the challenge for Hawksview Estate is to provide as much detail about the home and property as possible — short of a personal tour.
From the outset, a focus on photography was key. We want to see the home, the views, get a sense of this amazing tropical place. While the photos play a primary role, the textures and elements of the site design needed to send the right message of tropical charm and European luxury to compliment the beauty of the home and island setting. The estate property adjoins a national park, providing a secluded natural setting unique to the island. Drawing from nature for the color palette, the tones are of sand and Caribbean ocean, stone and sky.
Show me the photos
While there’s plenty to say about the estate and island, what people really want to see are the photos. The deepest section of the site is the photo gallery, featuring detailed images of each room in the home. To provide a rounded experience of the vacation site visitors could enjoy, we incorporated not only photos of the home, but also photos from beaches and experiences around the island.
If the photos aren’t enough, there’s also a Quicktime-based virtual tour of the house that provides a 360-degree view of each room.
Keep it simple
Hawksview Estate isn’t intended to be a high-use rental. The estate is only available a few months out of the year, and is maintained as a second home by the owner. When determining a development solution for the site, we chose to keep it simple and use static HTML pages that are updated quarterly as needed. And at the price-point of one week’s rental, a robust online reservation system wasn’t necessary as most potential guests prefer to call the estate manager to discuss details before choosing a time for their vacation. Every element on the site is hand-edited for perfection, just like you’d find at Hawksview Estate.