Website Design
Holiday Vacations
The Client
Offering group bus, rail, and boat tours to destinations around the world, Holiday Vacations is a travel company whose brand captures the friendly easy-to-work-with experience you would expect from a company based in the Midwest.
The Challenge
What makes Holiday Vacations special is the relationships they’ve formed with local media companies that enable guests to travel with familiar personalities. Their biggest challenge was to upgrade their reservation system so customers could book online rather than having to call and speak to a booking agent. The goal was to reduce an “all hands on deck” rush at the peak of booking season by moving a significant portion of the booking burden online.
The site’s strategic vision was to create a conversion path that reflects the Holiday Vacations brand, offering users a friendly experience as if they are working with a trusted guide. To achieve this, we built a new technology platform that seamlessly integrates first- and third-party systems to support travelers at every stage.
Strategic Approach
Tour detail pages sell each trip by enabling guests to imagine themselves inside the tour experience, getting them excited about the possibilities ahead.
A familiar, guided experience walks guests through conversion from learning about a tour to a reservation booking flow that reduces friction and streamlines the checkout process.
Additional entry points into key differentiating tours with local media stars are amplified on the homepage and within search.
User Experience
By leveraging common best practice UX patterns, the brand is legitimized as a trusted booking company that is on the side of the guest.
While introducing online reservations we also took the opportunity to modernize the entire user experience by enabling users to scan for the high-level basics like the itinerary, dates, and cost while also digging deeper into the rich details that matter
A powerful search allows guests to quickly narrow down the many trip options to what they seek using multiple filtering and sorting options.
The resulting design advances an updated Holiday Vacations brand into a more modern, digital world. It’s intended to tap into the visual experience of traveling.
Tours are sold with a high volume of immersive ambient video and imagery. White space is leveraged to create clear, easily scannable pages. Given the needs of the target audience, special attention was paid to compliance with accessibility guidelines resulting in high-contrast content and CTAs with large touch targets.
Design approach
Outcomes
Since the launch of the new Holiday Vacations website, online bookings have increased a staggering 150+% with 57% of these online bookings coming from travelers new to the brand.
Team
Client: Holiday Vacations
Agency: IfThen
Executive Creative Director: Jack Whitman
Senior Designer: Julie Sharpe
UX: Alicia Kramme
Program Manager: Mollie Santanello
Strategist: Dave Rickett
Tech Lead: Elvis Hernandez
Development: Patrick Armstrong, So-Mi Cowan, Phil Gurley, Chris Wojcik