Two little houses, one yard and a site that feels like them

Some houses you can read from the yard. A wooden fence, one red roof that stands out, a green kitchen someone chose with a lot of care. Little Green House is that kind of house, and on Booking.com it fitted into a score and a handful of photos.

The 9.6 out of 10 said guests have a good time. It didn't say who welcomes you, that the lake is a few metres down the road, or that the centre of Kastoria is 2 km away, close enough to cycle. That is what I wanted prasinospitaki.gr to hold.

I started with the house itself

I didn't have to invent an identity. It was already there, drawn by hand in the logo: A house with a chimney, a smaller one beside it, and the words "Little Green House". I took the colours from the photos. The green is the kitchen cupboards, the honey tone is the fence, and the red of the roof only turns up as a dot here and there, because spread any further it makes the whole site look like Christmas.

Thin line drawings of the house and the fence run from page to page. I liked the idea that scrolling feels a little like walking along the yard.

Two flats, two different holidays

The larger one is upstairs, 130 m² over two levels, with a fireplace and a balcony looking out over the green. It sleeps a big family or a group of up to 7. The smaller one is on the ground floor, 90 m², step free, for up to 5.

I gave each its own page, with its photos, its amenities and a floor plan. I also added a side by side comparison for the moment a guest is looking at both and can't decide.

A request that never gets lost

This is where I spent most of my time. Guests choose a flat, their dates and how many are coming, in a calendar that looks like the rest of the site rather than something borrowed. Nights that are already taken can't be picked. If someone leaves the page open in the morning and sends it in the evening, the server checks the dates again before accepting the request.

Every request is saved before the email goes out to the family. If the email gets stuck somewhere along the way, the request is still there. A family guesthouse can't afford to lose a booking because a mail server had a bad day.

Next to the form sit the phone number, WhatsApp and Booking.com. Some people want confirmation straight away, others want to hear a voice before they come. On mobile, those three buttons follow the guest in a bar at the bottom of the screen.

Kastoria, from the front door

People rarely search for a place to stay first. They search for what to see. So the site has a small guide to nine places, each on its own page and measured from the yard: Five minutes by car to the lake, twelve to the Dragon Cave, and further out Nymfaio, Prespa and the Vitsi ski centre. Whoever finds one of those pages on Google also finds somewhere to sleep.

And the part you don't see

The site speaks Greek and English. The family updates texts, photos and prices themselves from a simple panel, in both languages, without having to call me. The only cookies are the ones the site needs to work, with no analytics and no ads. It felt right that a house which welcomes you with homemade treats shouldn't follow you around from the moment you walk in.

If you have a little house of your own

For one or two flats you don't need a hotel system. You need a site that feels like you, a page for each space and an easy way for people to ask about dates. For a bigger example, have a look at The Wave's site on Thassos. What I take on is all in website development, and if you'd like to tell me about your place, drop me a line.