Fully booked half a year ahead for Woodnest
Woodnest
What was the task?
Woodnest is a collection of architect-designed treetop huts in Odda, attached directly to live pine trees overlooking the Hardangerfjord. Here guests get a nature experience without compromise, with the comfort and amenities one expects from a hotel room just hovering between the tree crowns. The cottages are specially designed by architects Helen & Hard and built with minimal impact on nature, clad with untreated wood shavings that over time merge with the forest. The experience is about disconnecting from everyday life and reconnecting with nature, where luxury is not measured in abundance, but in silence, simplicity and time to be present.
To mirror this, Woodnest needed a digital platform that was not just a booking system, but an extension of the experience. The website was supposed to reflect the serenity, craftsmanship and sense of discovery. Identity had to balance the raw and the exclusive, creating a digital journey that invited calm and curiosity rather than a streamlined sales funnel.
What choices were made?
To mirror the cottages' harmony with nature, the website's design was kept minimalist, with muted graphic elements allowing room for silence and reflection. Large images and subtle transitions inspired by the movements of pine trees in the wind create a sense of calm.
The website's structure feels free but is carefully planned with subtle navigation ensuring no one gets lost. Like a path right under your feet, it naturally guides the user towards the destination, the huts and the scenery, without them noticing. Inspired by nature's slow pulse, the solution defies the expectation of instant gratification and rewards exploration over quick responses.
The logo, with its uneven streak that grows like a pine trunk and is enclosed by two curved lines forming the nest, is central to the identity. The typography is organic and closely related to twigs and branches, as if it has grown out of the trunk of the icon. The color palette mirrors the changing shades of the forest and gives the website a vivid and real expression.
What describes the solution best?
The result is a website that dares to trust the product and the experience. Instead of pushing the user through a traditional buying funnel, Woodnest invites the audience to stop, draw breath and experience the silence, just like the cottages themselves.
The digital platform gives nature and experience the main role, with large images, airy compositions and calm transitions that reflect the stay. It is a digital customer journey that provides space to discover, feel and reflect. And when you eventually find the information you need to make a decision, it feels like something you've discovered on your own, even if your way there was carefully curated and planned.
This differentiates Woodnest from other players, where the main focus is normally on booking and getting the most information in the shortest possible time. Yet they have enjoyed a solid increase in bookings since launching new websites, confirmation that an experience built on calmness, presence and discovery not only captivates but also converts.
