Luxury Bound
Website for a boutique travel consultancy service
Luxury Bound is a boutique travel consultancy service curating personalized journeys and bespoke lifestyle breaks. The COVID-19 pandemic hit the travel industry hard, and Luxury Bound also felt the effects.
Before COVID, the website simply let people know Luxury Bound existed. It needed to become something more interactive: a space that inspired new clients and created a funnel for bookings.
I ran the research in 2020, mid-pandemic. Luxury Bound came back in 2024 to build, and I designed and built the site then, so this case study covers both the research and what was eventually delivered.
PART ONE
The Discovery
Competitor Analysis
I began with a competitive analysis of key competitors at both large and small travel agencies. Two distinct themes emerged that could help distinguish Luxury Bound within the industry.
Big Corporations vs. Small Business
The larger travel firms had well-developed sites full of inspiration and expertise that give their users confidence. But the size and scope of their business contradict the feeling of personalization and connection: when searching for a custom experience, users want to know they are getting specialized attention. Smaller, local firms offer that connection, but the online experience across the boutique space lacks the sophistication and confidence a well-developed platform can provide.
Luxury Bound’s website should evoke the professionalism of a large, well-established corporation while conveying the intimacy and reliability of a smaller boutique agency.
The Definition of Luxury
Across the luxury travel space, websites conveyed luxury through indulgence, extravagance, and opulence. But the perception of luxury is changing, especially with younger generations, and that presentation can now carry negative connotations.
Luxury Bound has the opportunity to convey luxury in a modern way: not excess and grandeur, but exclusivity and personalization. Not only tangible luxuries like high-end, exclusive experiences, but intangible ones like time, individuality, and authenticity.
Survey
Before interviewing users, I wanted to get to know their travel motivations and preferences better. Fifty-eight participants from a variety of demographic backgrounds across the globe were surveyed and two resulting insights stood out.
Travel Preferences
Wellness Retreats stood out as an unpopular selection. This was significant as Luxury Bound had intended to create a bigger focus on wellness travel as it is a trending topic in the industry, especially post COVID. This topic was addressed further in interviews.
Motivations to Work with a Travel Consultant
The most interesting group to note was participants in the 18 to 25 age range. They showed the largest variety in motivations and were the group most significantly motivated by saving time. This shows potential in targeting younger demographics.
Interviews
The goal of my interviews was to get a better understanding of users’ attitudes and habits regarding travel planning. Five interviews were conducted. Two with couples, three with individuals. All participants were active travelers from financially secure situations indicative of Luxury Bound’s typical client base. Participants ranged in age from 27 to 65, a span chosen to take in both Luxury Bound’s current clients, largely 40 to 80-year-olds, and the younger travelers it hoped to attract.
The results of the interviews were affinity mapped in order to identify key insights.
THE KEY INSIGHT
A desire for luxury without sacrificing authenticity.
Insights
After analyzing my survey data along with the results of my interviews, the following were the key themes and insights that emerged.
Inspiration
Ideas came from people and print rather than from travel companies: recommendations from family and friends, magazines and books, and Instagram.
Wellness
The phrase put people off; the substance did not. Spas, yoga, relaxation, healthy eating and disconnecting all appealed. It was the more experimental, spiritual end of the category that lost them.
Planning
Pros: the pleasure of discovering places, landing a good deal, and keeping control of the trip.
“I like being in control. That part of me likes and wants to handle and plan all of the details.”
— Interview Participant
Cons: the time it takes to coordinate multiple destinations, prepare for unfamiliar cultures, and handle every small detail.
Consultants
Motivations: access to one-of-a-kind experiences, doors they cannot open themselves, and help with complicated logistics.
Expectations: a consultant who has traveled widely, has useful connections, gives personal attention, and collaborates rather than dictates.
Luxury
Expectations started where you would expect: five-star rooms, first-class flights. Underneath that, people wanted one-of-a-kind experiences, exclusive access and first-rate service, and to feel confident while seeking out something authentic.
PART TWO
Defining the Direction
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Travelers will give up control of a trip only when they trust the expertise and access they get in return. Luxury Bound’s website had to make that case before it asked for an inquiry.
The Brief
After analyzing the research and understanding the problem, it was determined that the following should be considered and potentially implemented during the redesign process.
Impress
The website should have a sophisticated, professional appearance that conveys a modern presentation of luxury while creating a feeling of comfortable intimacy.
Inspire
Multiple sources of inspiration should be included from ‘postcards’ of client trips, access to travel blogs and trends, as well as featured destinations and experiences.
Persuade
The benefits of working with Luxury Bound brought forward: saving time and effort, handling complicated logistics, collaboration, curated personalized itineraries, exclusive access, and extensive experience.
“The biggest selling point for me would be showing me why I would use a travel consultant. What can they offer me that I can’t get on my own?”
— Interview Participant
Convert
Somewhere to collect the client information a booking needs, and to act as a collaboration and retention tool.
Personas
Two personas were created based on the two different types of users anticipated. These personas served as the guide for all decisions made throughout the entire process to ensure the users’ needs were being kept in mind.
The Skeptic who wants help, but wants to be sure that relinquishing control is the right move.
The Explorer who loves to travel off the beaten path and is always looking for something new and exciting.
User Journeys
Based on these personas I developed the journeys these types of users would likely follow.
The Skeptic
The Explorer
PART THREE
Design & Build
From Research to Launch
I completed the research in late summer 2020, in the middle of the pandemic. Luxury Bound came back four years later, once the travel market had recovered, and the site launched in August 2024. Over a few months, I designed and built it in Squarespace, art directed the imagery, and worked with Luxury Bound on the copy.
The gap turned out to be a test of the research. Findings that still held after a pandemic and the travel industry’s recovery had captured something real about how people plan travel, rather than how they happened to feel in 2020.
Research, Applied
The four points in the brief came out of the research. Here is what each one became on the live site.
Impress
Luxury Bound already had an identity from an agency, so the work was applying it rather than inventing one. The website pairs the font Orpheus Pro with deep navy and gold, and lets the photography take center stage. The aim was a look that feels sleek, sophisticated, and luxurious while remaining boutique: considered rather than corporate, which was the balance the brief asked for.
Inspire
The research showed that people found their inspiration through friends and family, magazines and books, and Instagram, rather than through travel companies. Get Inspired was designed for the Explorer, who is always looking for something new, and brings all three together: a section on the homepage and a library of six long-form pieces, from Antarctica to a barge in France. Written like magazine features, they draw on the travels of Luxury Bound and its clients and are paired with images that capture the excitement of each trip. The photography throughout the rest of the site is chosen to inspire in the same way.
Persuade
The copy was written deliberately to speak to what the personas cared about. Collaboration was one of the benefits the research named and the one the Skeptic needed most, so the wording makes clear that anyone who prefers to be involved in planning can be, but that Luxury Bound can also take care of every detail for clients who prefer that approach. It also draws attention to Luxury Bound’s access to experiences clients might not discover on their own, which comes from years of experience and a network of partnerships. Client testimonials are scattered throughout, so the reassurance turns up wherever someone happens to be reading, and the Services page lays out the process in five steps, with an FAQ built around fees and fit for anyone who wants to see how it works.
Convert
The brief asked for somewhere to collect booking information and to support collaboration and retention. The site handles information collection through a dedicated inquiry questionnaire. Collaboration and retention took a different form from the one I first proposed, which is covered below.
Research, Reconsidered
Wellness
Luxury Bound was keen to lean into wellness travel when the research began, but the findings in Part One complicated that. The phrase put people off even though the substance appealed, and the more spiritual end of the category lost them entirely. On the delivered site, wellness is one of the many kinds of trip Luxury Bound offers rather than a core focus.
Rescoping the Portal
One of my early recommendations from the research was a client portal. The interviews had shown how much travelers wanted to feel in control of their trips, and I pictured a place where Luxury Bound could keep track of clients and their trips, and where clients could log in to see what was planned and give feedback. As a very new designer, I thought it would be a fun project to take on.
By the time we came back to build the site, I could see how far that idea was from what Luxury Bound needed. It needed a website: somewhere to funnel leads, and somewhere for people to land, understand who Luxury Bound is and what it does, and trust that it is legitimate. A portal would have meant building an entirely bespoke platform when established ones already existed, and buying a license was the far more sensible route. That is what Luxury Bound went on to do.
The finding about control was a good one. What needed rescoping was my first idea for how to answer it.
The site launched in August 2024 and is live at luxurybound.com.au.
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