Roulotte Retreat offers a break with a difference. Guests stay in traditional, luxurious, hand-made French Romany traveller caravans, known as Roulottes, situated in a picturesque, secluded region of the Scottish Borders near Melrose.

The Objectives

Roulotte Retreat's owners, Avril Berry and Alan Fraser, approached Web Foundry to take over the development and maintenance of their website following a recommendation. Our name had been mentioned as highly experienced Joomla developers who are especially well versed with Joomla upgrades. The main objective was to upgrade the site from Joomla 1.5 to version 3.0. This included migrating all existing content, whilst improving some aspects of navigation and usability, adding new sections and galleries, and making the site responsive.

The Technical Part

Web Foundry rebuilt the site from scratch, creating new custom templates for Joomla CMS version 3.0. We wrote a script to export data and content from the existing account. We used YooTheme's Widgetkit to add interactive features such as image galleries to showcase the beautiful and unique Roulottes.

More recently, Web Foundry worked with Avril to upscale the server during a peak of activity following an appearance on the popular Channel 4 series, "Four in a Bed". The show attracted a 100-fold increase in traffic to the site on the night, with raised traffic for the days and weeks following the airing of the show. Interestingly, 35% of the traffic on the night came from mobile phones, highlighting the importance of the site incorporating a responsive design.

The Process

Web Foundry worked with Roulotte Retreat providing a full migration service and assisting the client on many levels. We met to discuss the project aims and requirements for both migration and upgrade. The team also provided advice on SEO (search engine optimisation) and supported the client with setting up Google Mail accounts.

The Results

We really enjoyed working closely with an enthusiastic client who has clear and passionate aims for their business. To this day, Web Foundry provides ongoing support and website development, most recently adding more interactive features such as an image gallery showcasing the variety of events that can be hosted at Roulotte Retreat. We also expanded the site's studio venue and weddings sections, providing more information to the end user, which will ultimately help Roulotte Retreat increase guest numbers and revenues.