An eco-resort on São Jorge island in the Azores. Six wooden cabins, a historic quinta, and a custom booking form built to connect directly to their channel manager.

Jorge came to me through a referral. He and his son Filipe run Cabanas da Viscondessa on São Jorge island, one of the quieter islands in the Azores. The property is a historic quinta — once belonging to the Viscondessa de São Mateus, Jorge’s great-great-aunt — surrounded by cryptomeria forest. Six wooden cabins, a café called Zéfyr, and a team of three.

Their old website had been built by someone who was no longer helping them. It looked dated, and more practically, it wasn’t connected to any booking system. Guests couldn’t check availability or reserve directly. This was the thing that needed fixing most.

This was also my first paid project as a web developer. There was real enthusiasm, and real nerves alongside it.

What I had was six years at Booking.com. I knew how guests decide where to stay — what they scan on a page, what makes them hesitate, and what makes them commit. I knew how channel managers work: rates, availability, restrictions, the relationship between a property management system and what a guest sees online. That background had never been applied to building a website before. This was the first time.

Before touching design or code, I sat in on a meeting with SiteMinder, the channel manager behind Little Hotelier. I helped Jorge and Filipe evaluate whether it was the right fit. It was.

The booking form I built was custom — not an embedded widget. Bilingual date selection, room type, guest count. When a guest submits, it redirects to Little Hotelier’s checkout. The whole flow needed to feel native to the site, not bolted on.

The site ended up with eight or nine pages in Portuguese and English. The property has a story — the Quinta da Bacelada, the Viscondessa, the cryptomeria wood from Pico island — and that story needed room to breathe.