Riad Noor
A quiet-luxury identity and direct-booking website for a nine-suite riad.
Post project result
Of bookings now direct, up from 10%
- Year
- 2024
- Services
- Brand StrategyVisual IdentityVerbal IdentityWeb Development
- Result
- Of bookings now direct, up from 10%
Riad Noor is a nine-suite guesthouse behind an unmarked door in the Marrakech medina. The hospitality was exceptional and the reviews said so — but online it was indistinguishable from two hundred other riads, and nine bookings in ten arrived through an OTA with commission attached.
Invisible in a Crowded Medina
The riad was competing on thumbnails. Same courtyard shot, same tagline about authentic Moroccan hospitality, same third-page listing. Guests who loved the place had found it by accident, and the owners were paying up to 20% commission for the privilege of being discovered by strangers who would never come back directly.
“We were being described by a booking site in words we would never have chosen. The rebrand was really about getting our own voice back.
An Identity Drawn From the Building
We did not invent a story. The riad already had one in its floor: a zellige pattern from the courtyard became the logomark, reduced to a single repeating unit that works at signage size and at favicon size. The palette came from the materials — ink, tadelakt, sand, and a single brass accent. Photography direction moved away from wide empty rooms toward the small hours: mint tea at dawn, a lit lantern, a hand on the door.
Words for Both Halves of the Guest List
The guest list splits between French and English speakers, so the verbal identity was built in both from the start rather than translated afterwards. We named the suites, rewrote the welcome messages, and gave the team a short guide for the moments that matter most: the arrival, the recommendation, and the reply to a review that did not go well.
A Site That Takes the Booking
The new site puts availability on the first screen and a confirmed reservation three steps later, with a direct rate that is always better than the OTA price and a deposit taken on the spot. It loads fast on medina wifi, which mattered more than any animation we could have added.
One Season Later
The riad stopped being a thumbnail. Guests arrive having read the site rather than a listing, they book direct, and the team answers to a brand they recognise as theirs.
What actually changed
Of all reservations now booked direct, up from 10%
Average daily rate, with no drop in occupancy
Commission saved in year one covered the project twice over
Dune & Atlas Expeditions
Brand Strategy · Visual Identity · Social Media Systems · SEO Optimization