Client: Dock Life & Biermans Cottage Co. — Wasaga Beach, Ontario, Canada Live site: rentalsinwasaga.com My role: Full website design & development, from scratch Platform: WordPress + Elementor

Dock Life & Biermans Cottage Co. is a family-owned cottage rental business in Wasaga Beach — one of Ontario's most popular summer destinations. They operate nearly 30 individual rental units across riverfront and beachside properties, ranging from cozy 1-bedroom cottages to larger multi-bedroom units for groups.

The problem: they didn't have a real website. Without one, they had no central place to:

Showcase their full inventory of cottages in one spot

Let guests compare units by bedrooms, capacity, and amenities

Build trust with new guests before they book

Look as established and professional as the business actually is

For a seasonal rental business, that's a real gap — most guests research and compare properties online long before they ever call.

I designed and developed the entire site from the ground up on WordPress using Elementor, structured around how a vacation renter actually shops:

A clean, browsable cottage catalog — each of the ~30 units gets its own listing with bedroom/bathroom count, sleep capacity, pet policy, and photos, so guests can filter mentally by what matters to them (riverside vs. beach-walkable, pet-friendly, kitchen vs. kitchenette, etc.)

A homepage built to convert — leads with the brand story (family-owned, operating since 2014), then moves straight into property highlights: riverside locations, 2–4 minute beach walks, A/C in every unit, and an on-site restaurant

Clear, no-surprises information architecture — Home, Cottages, Locations, About Us, Blog, and Contact, plus a full FAQ section addressing the exact questions guests ask before booking (check-in times, pet policy, parking, cancellation policy, accessibility)

Local SEO groundwork — location-specific pages and blog content (like restaurant guides near the properties) to help the business show up for "Wasaga Beach cottage rentals" style searches

Mobile-first booking flow — clear "Book Now" and click-to-call access from every page, since a large share of vacation rental traffic comes from mobile

The client now has a single, professional home base for their entire rental portfolio instead of relying on scattered listings and word of mouth. They've since been able to add an "Accommodation Award" badge to the homepage and build out a YouTube presence linked directly from the site — signs the business has grown its credibility and repeat-guest base since launch.

Client feedback has been strongly positive: they've described the site as finally giving their business the professional presence that matches the quality of the properties themselves, and it's now their go-to link whenever they talk to press, partners, or new guests.

Hospitality and vacation rental clients often come to me in this exact spot — a real, well-run business with zero or outdated digital presence. This project is a good example of what I focus on for that kind of client: not just a pretty homepage, but a site structured around the actual questions and decisions a guest makes before booking, built to be easy for the owner to maintain long-term.