Apartment Rental Website Redesign for Family Apartments in Mali Lošinj
This project involved the complete redesign and redevelopment of an existing apartment rental website for a family-owned accommodation business located in Mali Lošinj, Croatia.
The previous website was built with WordPress and had served its purpose for years, but it no longer met modern expectations. The mobile experience was inconsistent, accessibility could be improved, performance was limited, and the overall design did not effectively showcase the quality of the apartments or the destination itself.
My goal was to create a modern, fast, and user-friendly website that would provide visitors with a better browsing experience while helping the property owners present their apartments more professionally.
Project Goals
Before starting development, I identified several key objectives:
- Improve the overall user experience across all devices
- Create a fully responsive mobile-first design
- Modernize the visual identity of the website
- Increase performance and loading speed
- Improve accessibility and navigation
- Provide multilingual support for international guests
- Implement a secure and reliable contact system
- Create a scalable foundation for future updates
The result is a modern apartment rental website built with a focus on performance, accessibility, and conversion.
Website Structure
The website was carefully organized to make information easy to find and encourage potential guests to contact the owners.
The main sections include:
Landing Page
The homepage introduces visitors to the apartments and the destination through engaging visuals, clear navigation, and strategically placed calls to action.
Apartment Listing Page
Visitors can browse all available apartments in a clean and organized layout designed to simplify the accommodation selection process.
Individual Apartment Pages
Each apartment has its own dedicated page featuring detailed information, amenities, images, and accommodation details. This structure improves both user experience and search engine visibility.
Services Page
A dedicated section highlights the amenities and services available to guests during their stay.
About Lošinj Page
Because many visitors may be unfamiliar with the destination, I created a page focused on the island itself, helping guests learn more about Mali Lošinj, local attractions, and the surrounding area.
Contact Page
One of the most important parts of the website is the contact experience. The contact page was designed to make inquiries simple, reliable, and secure.
Modern Contact Form System
The contact form is powered by React Hook Form and Zod, providing robust client-side validation and an excellent user experience.
To protect against spam and automated submissions, I integrated Cloudflare Turnstile, ensuring that inquiries reaching the property owners are legitimate while maintaining a frictionless experience for users.
The entire email workflow is fully automated using React Email and Resend.
When a visitor submits the form:
- The property owners receive a professionally formatted email containing the inquiry details
- The visitor automatically receives a confirmation email
- Custom email templates provide a polished and trustworthy communication experience
This creates a complete and reliable contact solution without relying on third-party form services.
Multilingual Experience
Tourism websites serve visitors from many countries, making localization a critical requirement.
The website supports four languages:
- English
- Croatian
- German
- Italian
Using next-intl, all content is fully localized, allowing visitors to browse the website in their preferred language.
This significantly improves accessibility and usability for international guests while helping the business reach a broader audience.
Performance and User Experience
A major focus of the project was delivering a fast and enjoyable browsing experience.
The website was built with Next.js, leveraging modern rendering and optimization techniques to achieve excellent loading performance and responsiveness.
To enhance the overall feel of the website, I implemented smooth page transitions and interactive animations using Motion. These animations provide subtle visual feedback and improve the perceived quality of the experience without compromising performance.
Combined with responsive layouts built using Tailwind CSS and shadcn/ui, the result is a polished interface that works seamlessly across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
What I Learned
This project reinforced several important aspects of modern web development:
- Designing websites that prioritize mobile users
- Building multilingual applications with scalable localization
- Creating secure contact workflows
- Improving accessibility and usability
- Optimizing website performance for real-world users
- Balancing visual design with conversion-focused user experiences
It also provided valuable experience working directly with a real client and transforming an existing website into a modern platform that better serves both the business and its visitors.
Final Thoughts
This project showcases my ability to redesign and rebuild existing websites using modern technologies while focusing on real business goals.
By replacing an outdated WordPress implementation with a custom Next.js website, I delivered a faster, more accessible, multilingual, and visually engaging experience that better represents the apartments and the destination of Mali Lošinj.
The result is a professional accommodation website designed to help potential guests discover the apartments, learn about the island, and easily get in touch with the property owners.
