Reno Tahoe
Pushing the Limits of a Travel Destination Website
To turn dreamers into overnight explorers, Reno Tahoe needed a fast, secure website that feels as adventurous as the landscape itself. Mission accomplished.
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Not your average travel website
Inspired by the aggressive, data-obsessed world of B2B and SaaS, we brought a whole new playbook to this travel/tourism website. We wanted this touchpoint to be more than functional—but rather a full-blown adventure.
To establish Reno Tahoe as a leader in destination marketing and provide an unparalleled user experience, we completely reimagined its website. It needed to be fast, flexible, and stunning; have the ability to speak to leisure travelers and B2B audiences alike; highlight the region’s vibrancy; and inspire people to visit (hopefully more than once).
A beautiful region demands a beautiful website design
Reno Tahoe is original, dynamic, and filled with the airy serenity of nature. We explored how to bring that feeling to life on the brand’s website and attract travelers from all over the world.
To accomplish this, we asked ourselves: How do you bottle up the free-spirited, unapologetic personality of Reno Tahoe and bring it to life online? The answer: by embracing bold creativity, leading with authenticity, and weaving in a digital edge that aligns with the web of the future.
Users demand interaction and personalization. So we went all in. Immersive visuals—photos and videos that transport you straight to the crystal-clear waters of Lake Tahoe—became the backbone of the design. Every element was crafted to showcase Reno Tahoe’s story while making the content impossible to ignore.
Additionally, we needed to consider how people were interacting with the website, and that was on their phones.
Does it pass the device check?
At the beginning of this project, 74% of Reno Tahoe’s website traffic came from mobile users (and now it’s up to 80%). With that in mind, every design element was developed with the mobile experience first––and things like sharing itineraries through your phone’s native options make it ultra easy to pass along content to friends.
Getting ahead with a headless CMS
Travel and tourism sites have big, beautiful photographs and videos—and such large-scale content in multiple places on a site can drag it to its knees. Especially on rigid, plugin-reliant platforms.
We knew headless CMS was the best choice to balance these huge visual loads without compromising site speed, security, and search rankings.
We opted for Sanity paired with a modern web framework (Next.js), which is known for its ability to generate static sites. Together, these technologies produce a lightning-fast website that users can navigate seamlessly.
Now, users can dive straight into planning their dream trip. No lag, no limits—just easy discovery.
True tools for trip planning
We didn’t stop at developing a fast, modern website. Pushing forward, we leveled up how people experience Reno Tahoe before actually visiting. This was possible through two levels of personalization: seasonality and personas.
Adventure in every season
No matter what time of year it is, Reno Tahoe is the perfect place to visit. To help visitors get the most out of the website, we created a feature that allows visitors to choose the seasonality by simply clicking an icon. They can find recommended activities based on when they want to visit, whether it’s a spontaneous day trip tomorrow or an adventure that’s months in the future.
Plus, the imagery and featured content—including social media posts, articles, and itineraries—adjusts based on the selected season! Talk about immersion.
Not many websites served information like this, and it felt like a great opportunity to help users immerse themselves in the season and build a personalized trip itinerary.
Putting the “persona” in “personalization”
Who doesn’t enjoy taking a quiz? Especially if it’s one that serves you more of what you love? We designed a travel quiz that helped us identify users’ interests. It’s short and sweet, allowing them to plan their getaway faster.
After four questions, they land on a results page with personalized recommendations based on their determined persona, from the adventure seeker to the practical planner. Each persona results page contains things to do based on the answers selected during the quiz.
But it doesn’t stop there! Once a visitor’s persona is determined, the website content molds to it. For example, if you’re looking for epic outdoor fun, you’ll receive recommendations for activities like backcountry skiing, mountain biking, parasailing, and scuba diving.
Want to discover your persona? Take the quiz!
A healthy website is a happy one
Outdated content is like that friend you’ve known since your childhood who tells the same stories over and over—sometimes getting the details wrong. It’s a real buzzkill.
Reno Tahoe’s old website had plenty of duplicate content, bad links (and, thus, 404 pages), missing metadata, and more. During the content overhaul, we made sure everything was up to snuff. Here are the results:
- Reduced site errors by 96%
- Improved site speed score
- Improved overall site health from 77% to 92%
Long story short
When it comes to building a DMO website, dream big. Push past your limits. Start with what you’d want to see, and then put yourself in potential visitors’ shoes.
We’re excited to continue blazing a path forward with the Reno Tahoe team as we explore new ways to elevate personalization, craft shareable content, and enhance mobile-first experiences.
Speaking of their team, here’s who helped this project come to life:
Christina Erny
Kristin McClellan
Nicole Duxbury
Celeste Rodriguez
Eric Ray
Brought to you by...
Ashley Chisam
Alax Vong
Danielle Longley
Elijah Woelbing
Joe Hopper
Jonathan Rutheiser
Mike McDowell
Nitish Narala
Shyene Joubert
Teva Hopper
Thomas Kohler
Built to inspire, then inform
Reno Tahoe is where people go when they start mapping out their next vacation to the region. Now, visiting their web pages is almost as good as being there.
Mobile matters
With over 70% of traffic coming from mobile users, we had to make sure the reimagined website scaled. But it wasn’t enough to just have a responsive design. We had to kick it up a notch.
So long, rigid tech stacks
With a sleek, modern build (and headless CMS power), we created a fast, secure site that transforms trip planning into an adventure of its own.
Changing with the seasons
Seasons change, and so does your itinerary. We helped Reno Tahoe differentiate themselves from other DMO sites by empowering visitors to choose the season and instantly get tailored activities and updated visuals.
Trip planning tools FTW
Personalized features that adjust to season and user interests are so in. Check out how these tools make planning a Reno Tahoe getaway easier than ever!
Sweat the outdated stuff
What people are looking for and how search engines connect them changes all the time, but staying on top of links, metadata, and more helps a website stay on top.
