Create website design for boutique vacation rental company!

Wyke Properties, LLC

We are a North Carolina-based group that buys, sells, and rents homes and properties. The target audience is people who rent homes for vacation purposes. For instance, it is the type of person that would go to VRBO (http://www.vrbo.com/), HomeAway (http://www.homeaway.com/) or Airbnb (https://www.airbnb.com/) to rent a place to stay. One thing to note is that my site is NOT here to act as a booking engine for these properties. I will drive people to my listings on other sites. This site is here to augment the listing sites...to give some more details on other properties, etc. that I have. Its where I will drive my customers first, and then use this site to drive them to where ever I need them to book. In many ways, its just a marketing site...not a transaction site.

http://www.wykeproperties.com

Design must be Responsive (i.e., work with Desktop, Tablet and Mobile). Please use logo as baseline for colors and overall visual. In terms of theme/feel of the site, here are the things I would like for it to communicate:

#1 - Trusted - feel like there is no risk.
#2 - Easy - seamless experience.
#3 - Recommended - would recommend to a friend or family member without hesitation.

I want the design to have a reasonable shelf-life as well, which means to avoid making it too progressive where it is just chasing the current fads. I prefer something a tiny (very tiny) bit more conservative, so it can last 3 - 5 years if possible.

***UPDATED NOV 17 1:30PM ET***

Homepage (Page 1): simple, nice imagery showcasing properties or
thematically similar. The main point here is for people to feel like
they are in a very trusted place and to then access a given Listing
page. The desired reaction from people would be "wow...this is really
well done. I wonder what other properties they have?" Social and
sharing links should be included.

Here are the elements of what is needed for the Homepage.

* Header: with menu, social/sharing options, search box and logo
* Menu: Home, Properties, Blog, About Us, Contact
* Big Hero Image: with some content. The ones with semi-transparent
treatment have looked nice.
* 4 Calls To Action: See Our Properties, Hear Our Feedback, Read Our
Blog, Where To Book
* Properties: show high level details about the properties. Image and
location.
* Recent Blog Post: show 3 - 5 blog post links (title and short
description)
* Feedback: featured feedback from customers. Maybe 3 - 5 of these.
* Footer: with that can take some content, have same links as Header
(menu and social/sharing) and address.

Static Page Template (Page 2): I will use this for things such as
About Us and Contact Us. It will need the following elements:

* Header: with menu, social/sharing options, search box and logo
* Menu: Home, Properties, Blog, About Us, Contact
* 4 Calls To Action: See Our Properties, Hear Our Feedback, Read Our
Blog, Where To Book. Would like to see a clever way to incorporate
this just under the Menu or perhaps as a module on the right rail.
* Properties (module): show high level details about the properties.
Image and location. On the right rail.
* Content Area: a place to put the content.
* Footer: with that can take some content, have same links as Header
(menu and social/sharing) and address.

Property Page (Page 3): this is probably the MOST IMPORTANT page on
the site; its the page/template to show the details of a given
property. This page will need to show the basic details, but be
presented in a very attractive way that really compels someone to
then
go and take action (book, buy, etc). Try to think of a site or page
where you bought something...and they did such an amazing job at
presenting it, that before you even got it you knew a) exactly what
you were getting (set the right expectation) AND b) you were already
convinced you made the best decision possible. That is the feeling I
want to invoke with this page.

Here are the elements of what is needed for a Property Page.

* Header: with menu, social/sharing options, search box and logo

* Menu: Home, Properties, Blog, About Us, Contact

* Big Property Image: this is one of the things I want to see some
clever designs for; perhaps similar to the Homepage, but some kind of
large imagery of the house. It could be a clever collage that when
rollovers happen display text about the image rolled over on. It
could
be a slide show. It could be a full bleed beautiful image of the
house. I am really looking to your expertise to come up with
something
smart.

* Property Details: here are the details that will need to be
displayed...

--> Title: like "Vacation Rental in Historic Wilmington, NC - 2br/1
bath - Sleeps 7!!!"
--> Type: will be Rental or For Sale
--> Address & Map
--> Surrounding Area: will be a link to http://www.walkscore.com/ for
the Address.
--> Rate (as in cost)/Price
--> Where to Book: logos for VRBO.com, HomeAway.com and Airbnb.com -
these will be linked to those sites for my property.
--> Description: just a content area where I can enter in text
describing the property.

* 4 Calls To Action: See Our Properties, Hear Our Feedback, Read Our
Blog, Where To Book. Would like to see a clever way to incorporate
this just under the Menu or perhaps as a module on the right rail.

* Other Properties (module): show high level details about the
properties. Image and location. On the right rail.

* Feedback: featured feedback from customers. Maybe 3 - 5 of these.

* Footer: with that can take some content, have same links as Header
(menu and social/sharing) and address.

As long as you look at the other comments I have provided, I think that will keep things on track. There are no specific things I have an allergy to in terms of colors, themes or elements...as long as it adheres to the requirements provided.

Current site is running on Joomla 1.5.x, and is not fully functional
due to the fact my hosting company requires at least PHP 5.3 and my
version doesn't like it at all. Your design will be on a
WordPress-based system, so please design for that.