Case study
Oliver’s Travels
Our 17-year partnership with Oliver's Travels represents one of the most successful digital transformations we've achieved in the luxury travel industry. Since 2007, we have built and evolved a groundbreaking villa rental platform that enabled Oliver's Travels to grow from a two-person startup to one of the UK's leading travel companies with 100+ employees and thousands of villas worldwide, serving 100,000+ travelers annually.
Key tasks
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Brand development
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Design and UX
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Booking Engine
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Headless Website Build
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Salesforce Integration
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Digital Strategy
Quite a Journey
Our involvement with Oliver’s Travels encompasses all of their digital output, this includes consultancy, design and technical roles. Funny to think that we had our first meeting in a café in Soho back in 2007. It’s fair to say that our work with Oliver’s Travels has been quite a journey.
The new Oliver's Travels website offers engaging ways in which to browse, compare and shortlist the properties. It also integrates with a multitude of other websites and channel managers through its extensive API. Our work on the site encompasses all aspects, each pretty involved and each requiring a detailed understanding of the users, and their requirements. The whole lot is hosted on a scalable AWS infrastructure.
Advanced Search Engine
We developed the search using AWS Open Search with real-time autocomplete displaying live property counts (e.g., "France 1324", "South of France 736"). Our development approach ensures multiple search contexts are handled simultaneously while maintaining fast response times essential for luxury travel bookings.
Dynamic availability calendars with color-coded pricing tiers, intelligent alternative suggestions when properties are unavailable ("July fully booked? View Available Villas"), and multi-currency support with transparent pricing al ensure that the right villa will be found, even if it wasn't the one you originally considered.
Our 2021 Rentals United integration exemplifies the booking system's API architecture, providing access to vast property networks enabling Oliver's Travels to distribute their curated collection to new markets. Ensuring real-time synchronization prevents overbooking across all connected platforms in the property management system.
We designed progressive disclosure through tabbed navigation (Gallery, Overview, Layout, Location, Reviews, Rates), personalization with "Recent" searches and "Favourites" functionality, and professional gallery systems supporting 40+ photographs per property within our travel booking systems. Their vast media library is delivered using a custom-built delivery platform that ensures site speed is never compromised.
Property Management Innovation
The platform manages complex international business requirements including multi-currency transactions, international tax compliance, and automated supplier payments in preferred currencies. Property owners update availability and pricing through integrated interfaces maintaining data consistency across all distribution channels.
Analytics cover every aspect of the user journey, and the Salesforce CRM is embedded into the system. Email communication with property owners and customers is integrated and automated. Inbound email communication from third parties is integrated directly into the CRM and booking process. 2025 has seen us build an entirely new site built on headless Wordpress, and React and hosted on AWS using a scalable architecture. Given that the site now regularly accommodates hundreds of concurrent users this ensures that page loads are instantaneous whatever the traffic.
