CLIENT DESIGN REVIEW · 12 NOVEMBER 2026
Appledew, reimagined.
A photography-led, mobile-friendly direction built around a quiet garden retreat: warm ivory, deep olive, expressive serif typography and generous full-width photography.
This is a separate review prototype. The existing Appledew website and domain have not been changed. Booking buttons lead to Appledew’s real NightsBridge service; they are not a test checkout.
Guestbook and grading update
Added original guestbook excerpts attributed to Elizma Theron and Kurt Darren on Appledew’s existing website. Wording is preserved; the source supplies no stay dates. These are historic guestbook comments, not newly commissioned endorsements.
Updated portraits come from Select Musiek’s official artist directory (image URLs dated May 2026). Source: Select Musiek artist directory. The client should confirm promotional image reuse permission before final launch; availability on an artist website is not itself a reuse licence.
The four-star Tourism Grading Council artwork is now displayed as a high-resolution transparent asset, without redrawing the stars. Public four-star descriptions are corroborated by the Mpumalanga tourism accommodation directory and Appledew’s Tripadvisor property listing. Confirm the current grading certificate and obtain a higher-resolution badge from the guesthouse for the final website.
Google Maps was checked against Appledew’s name, website, Standerton address and phone number. Google and Tripadvisor links open their current listings; no unmaintained rating counters or copied review feed were added.
Exterior photography update
The hero now features three actual Appledew exterior photographs from the original gallery. Each source is 1280 × 850 pixels, re-encoded to WebP at approximately 188–232 KB. The first image is prioritised; later slides load when needed. Only CSS framing and the existing text-readability overlay are applied. Architecture and landscaping have not been altered.
Latest design refinement
The earlier ivory-and-olive layout has been restored, with a smaller room selector, direct guesthouse copy and lightweight line icons for amenities. Oversized tabs, staggered portraits, the arch crop and the repeated grading strip have been removed. Verified room-photo switching, automatic hero rotation, the transparent hero badge and reduced-motion support remain.
What is ready to review
- Three automatically rotating exterior hero scenes with manual selection and pause: garden-facing façade, illuminated entrance and courtyard.
- Room-type exploration with keyboard-accessible tabs.
- Dining and leisure sections, an enlarged-photo gallery, directions, contact links and practical FAQs.
- Responsive layouts with a persistent mobile booking button and reduced-motion support.
- Existing NightsBridge booking link at every primary booking action.
What we found
The current website links to NightsBridge property 28763. Its public booking page loaded successfully and exposed available room rates and booking actions. No reservation or payment was made.
The existing website has 30 gallery photographs plus wide images for rooms, dining and the grounds. Twelve property photographs are optimized and used here. The original files are retained in the source project. Before public launch, the client should confirm image usage rights and supply high-resolution originals where available.
The brochure accommodation page and NightsBridge use different room names and prices. For example, the brochure lists an executive double B&B at R1,700, while the booking page displayed an Executive Twin at R2,200 for two adults for 12–13 November 2026. These are different labels and a date-specific quote, so they cannot be assumed equivalent. The prototype deliberately leaves current rates and inventory to NightsBridge. Room-category copy needs client reconciliation before launch.
Booking integration: agreed scope
Client direction: keep the existing NightsBridge booking link for now. Embedded booking or API work is deferred; account access is not needed for this agreed prototype.
NightsBridge’s official direct-booking guide supports website booking buttons and a homepage calendar widget. Its booking-system overview describes a booking engine fed by the property’s central availability and rates.
- Implemented: a direct link to Appledew’s existing booking engine. Visitors choose dates, rooms and rates there.
- Not yet verified: Appledew’s active subscription, payment setup, supported widget/embed configuration, date or occupancy URL parameters, API entitlement, branding options and any additional charges.
- Not yet tested: booking creation, payment, confirmation delivery, cancellation and inventory synchronization. These require an agreed safe test procedure and account access.
- Next integration step: obtain the client’s NightsBridge integration instructions and plan details, choose the supported integration, then test the full journey with their approval. Do not put account secrets in public website code.
What the client needs to confirm
- Current room names, capacities, bed configurations and correct photography for each room.
- Meal inclusions, dining availability, check-in and check-out times, cancellation and deposit terms, children and accessibility information.
- Brand direction, final copy, logo assets and photograph permissions.
- NightsBridge plan and payment configuration, with secure access if deeper integration requires it.
- Existing hosting and domain access for a separately approved production launch.
Launch boundary
Full booking integration is not signed off by this prototype. The review site uses the functioning existing booking handoff. An embedded calendar, custom availability interface or API connection should only be promised after NightsBridge confirms support for this property. No new feature costs have been quoted.
Motion, performance and verified rooms — 12 November 2026
The hero crossfades every seven seconds, with a pause control. Rotation stops off-screen or in a hidden tab; reduced-motion preferences disable automatic animation. Room selection changes the photograph and details together.
Executive Suite and Executive Twin are mapped to their labelled galleries on NightsBridge, checked for 13–14 November 2026. Standard and Honeymoon were brochure categories with no verified photo mapping; they have been removed from the selector pending client confirmation. The booking photographs supplied by the current cards are 500 pixels wide; original full-resolution files would improve the large room display.
The transparent four-star graphic is an existing 2594 × 656 PNG with the council name typeset below. It replaces the low-resolution white-backed crop; the star artwork is not redrawn. Source: Villa Gracia’s published TGCSA asset. The client’s own official current grading artwork remains the preferred final master.
Content photographs now have smaller mobile variants, asynchronous decoding and lazy loading; hero images retain their full detail for full-height cropping. The hidden lightbox loads its photograph only when opened. No video, external animation library or remote font was added.