Winery Hotels case study: from idea to 1K monthly visitors

Winery Hotels started as a simple list and grew into a directory of hotels on working wine estates, with search, filters, bookmarks and a map. Here is how I validated the idea, launched it and grew it to over 1K visitors per month. Since then it has become the iOS app as well.

Website: winery-hotels.com · Original case study: Medium

I’ve been obsessed with traveling ever since I went abroad for the first time, and with wine since I worked as a manager in a wine shop. The first country I moved to, in 2019, was Georgia, the birthplace of winemaking. I wanted to stay at a winery for a few days to get closer to that culture, but overnight stays at wineries were hard to find: traditional booking platforms aren’t built for discovering niche experiences like that. So I decided to build a winery hotels list for people like me.

I approached it the way I work as a product designer in startups, step by step.

First, I analyzed the search demand in the niche in Google Keyword Planner and checked winery-hotel related queries.

Then I checked Reddit and X to validate real user interest.

Tip: to search inside a platform, use a simple Google formula: site:{website.address} {request}

Once the interest was there, I built a simple directory of winery hotels with a website builder and shared it with the community.

Key insight: defining your ideal user is critical. It tells you their needs, the right marketing channels, and where to find people who truly care about your product. I first shared the list with the startup community on X and got zero feedback, as expected.

From there I expanded the directory with more wineries and SEO-optimized articles to drive organic traffic, and connected Google Analytics to track performance. For content I first used ChatGPT, then SEOzast, which improved SEO and LLM visibility and brought users directly from ChatGPT. Once I hit a steady 1K monthly visitors, I rebuilt the platform with Claude Code into a web app with search, filters, bookmarks, map views and more.

As the platform grew more complex, testing solo got hard. I integrated PostHog for session replays, to see what users were doing and which bugs they hit.

Key insight: PostHog helped me fix numerous bugs. Watch session replays: they reveal detailed information about user behavior.

To monetize, I use affiliate links through TravelPayouts, which manages several affiliate programs in one place. This approach has drawbacks:

Users must leave the website to complete a booking.

Some programs have strict cookie policies. Booking.com cookies last a single session, so a booking made later the same day may not count.

User contacts are collected on third-party platforms, so I get no leads directly.

No control or visibility over the booking process.

So I’m exploring the easiest reliable way to take bookings directly on the platform. The Booking.com API needs more traffic before I qualify.

Is it worth the time and money? Here is what I found about wine tourism.

The global wine tourism market is set to grow from $108 billion in 2025 to $358 billion by 2035, a 12.7% CAGR. Wineries now earn 25% of revenue from tourism, and 57% plan more investment. Smaller producers target 25–44-year-olds looking for authentic tastings and tours (Global Wine Tourism Report 2025). Michelin also entered the wine world in December 2025 with Michelin Grapes, launching in 2026 for Burgundy and Bordeaux.

The project grows steadily month to month. Most users come from Asia, mainly Singapore and China, so I translated the site into Chinese. Affiliate clicks keep rising and the first bookings came through those links. Next: more SEO and social, and wine experiences through the Winalist affiliate program.

Solo: research, product and UX/UI design, development with AI tools, SEO and content, analytics and monetization.

I design and build products solo, from validation to launch. iOS apps live on the App Store in 21 days at a fixed price.

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