How I Turned Our “Call Us for Details” Cabin Site into Real Bookings with Willowod

When I bought Willowod - Nature Cottages Elementor Template Kit, our old website was exactly what you’d expect from a rural rental business: a homepage with one nice forest photo, three paragraphs of text, and a “Call to book” button that confused people in different time zones.

Guests were finding us through social media and OTAs, but our own site was doing almost nothing:

• No proper gallery for each cottage

• No clear availability or pricing

• No way to compare cabins without opening 10 tabs

• No real story about the place, just “we have rooms”

As the person who somehow became “the website admin” for our family-run retreat, I needed something that wouldn’t turn into a custom dev project. I wanted a kit that already thinks like a cabin / glamping / eco-stay website, and just lets me plug our reality into it.

That’s exactly what Willowod gave me. Let me walk through how I set it up and what actually worked in day-to-day use.

Why I Needed a Template Kit (Not Another Generic Hotel Theme)

Before Willowod, I tried a few hotel-style themes. They were okay for big hotels, but felt wrong for nature cottages:

• Too “corporate” and urban

• Lots of fields for “conference rooms” and “business facilities”

• Booking widgets that assumed 100+ rooms instead of 5–10 unique cabins

Our use case is different:

• We have a small number of cabins, each with its own personality

• Guests care about the forest, the vibe, the firepit, not just the bed count

• The booking experience needs to feel personal, not like a flight search engine

So instead of another bulky theme, I decided to try an Elementor template kit built specifically for nature cottages — layouts tuned for retreats, forest stays, eco lodges. That’s where Willowod came in.

Installation & Setup: From Blank Elementor to “Hey, This Looks Like Our Place”

I already had WordPress and Elementor running, so setup was straightforward.

Step 1: Check the Base

Before touching Willowod, I made sure:

• WordPress was up to date

• Elementor was installed and working

• Our base theme was a lightweight, Elementor-friendly one

Nothing fancy, just making sure the foundation wouldn’t fight the kit.

Step 2: Importing Willowod

After installing the required template kit/import plugin:

1. I imported the Willowod kit into Elementor.

2. Suddenly my Elementor library was full of:

   • Home page layouts made for cottages and nature retreats

   • Cottage / accommodation detail templates

   • Gallery and “Experience” pages

   • Contact / booking request pages

   • About, FAQ, and blog layouts

It felt less like “some templates” and more like a ready-made site skeleton for a nature resort.

Step 3: Choosing a Home Layout

Willowod ships with more than one home style:

• One focused on a hero image + quick booking

• One more story-driven, with sections for cabins, activities, and reviews

• One more minimal, almost like a one-page brochure

I chose the story-driven version because people come to us for the forest escape, not just a bed. That gave me, out of the box:

• Big full-width hero image

• Short intro about the retreat

• Highlighted cottages in a clean grid

• A section for “What you can do here” (hikes, lake, campfire, etc.)

• Reviews and a simple booking prompt

From there, it was just customization.

Customizing Willowod: Making It Feel Like Our Forest, Not a Stock Photo

Colors, Fonts, and Atmosphere

In Elementor’s global styles I changed:

• Accent colors to our earthy green and warm brown

• Headings to a slightly rustic but clean font

• Body text to a very readable sans serif (for long mobile reading)

Because Willowod uses global styles well, these changes instantly updated:

• Buttons

• Highlights and badges (like “New”, “Popular”)

• Section titles across all imported templates

The site went from generic green theme to “this really feels like our place” in under an hour.

Header, Menu, and CTA

For a nature retreat, I wanted the header to be simple:

• Logo on the left

• Menu links: Home, Cottages, Experiences, Gallery, Contact

• A “Book now” button on the right that scrolls down to a booking form or links to our booking system

Willowod’s header templates were already close to this; I only had to:

• Swap the logo

• Update menu items

• Point the button to our booking section

The result: clean navigation that looks good on desktop and collapses nicely on mobile.

Feature-by-Feature: What I Actually Use from Willowod

1. Cottage / Accommodation Pages

This is the heart of the site. Willowod’s accommodation template has:

• Big hero image of the cabin

• Basic info (max guests, beds, size)

• Amenities list (fireplace, Wi-Fi, hot tub, etc.)

• A gallery section

• A short story / description area

• A booking call-to-action

Editing one cottage page in Elementor is mostly:

• Replace photos

• Change the icon list to match real amenities

• Update text and capacity info

We have just a few cabins, but each now has its own beautifully structured page. Guests can compare them quickly and actually remember which one they liked.

2. Experiences / Activities

Willowod includes nice sections for experiences:

• Cards with images and short descriptions

• Space for things like “Forest Hikes,” “Lakeside Breakfast,” “Stargazing,” “Sauna”

I set up an “Experiences” page and also reused one of the Willowod homepage sections to surface 3–4 key activities on the home screen.

This matters more than it seems: people don’t just buy a cottage; they buy a weekend story. The layouts made it easy to sell that story visually without designing it from scratch.

3. Gallery & Visual Storytelling

There are gallery templates for:

• Masonry image grids

• Sliders / carousels

• Full-width “mood” strips

I created a dedicated “Gallery” page using one of the grids, then added:

• Daytime shots of cabins

• Evening campfire photos

• Landscape photos showing different seasons

Willowod’s styling keeps it feeling cohesive instead of random images glued together.

4. Booking & Contact

Willowod doesn’t force a specific booking engine, which I appreciate. I did:

• A simple booking request form (name, dates, guest count, message)

• Links to our existing reservation tool where full availability & payment are handled

Booking prompts appear:

• At the bottom of each cottage page

• In the homepage hero

• On the Contact page

All styled consistently by the kit, so I don’t have to restyle forms three times.

Performance & SEO: Is Willowod Just Pretty, or Practical Too?

Performance

Elementor sites can get heavy, but Willowod stayed reasonable:

• Sections are structured and not overloaded with animations

• Images are the main weight, which I control on my side

I optimized by:

• Compressing all cottage and gallery photos

• Using lazy load for images lower on pages

• Keeping the number of heavy sliders modest

The result is a site that feels quick enough even for city visitors on mobile data driving into the mountains.

SEO & Structure

For a small retreat, SEO is mostly about:

• “Cabin / cottage in [region]”

• Brand name + “booking” or “contact”

Willowod helps with:

• Clean headings (H1 for page title, H2s for sections like “Amenities,” “Location,” “Gallery”)

• Easy room for real text, not just images, so I can actually explain what makes us different

• Working smoothly with my SEO plugin for titles/descriptions

It doesn’t do SEO magic, but it doesn’t get in the way either, which is all I ask from a kit.

Why I Picked Willowod Over Other Options

vs. Generic Hotel Templates

I tried some classic hotel/booking templates. They often felt:

• Too city/business-hotel in style

• Focused on “rooms” and “rates,” not cabins, trails, and campfires

• Overcomplicated with features we don’t need (conference booking, huge navigation, etc.)

Willowod is clearly for nature escapes. The style is softer, the structure fits a small number of unique units, and the copy positions you more like a retreat than a 200-room property.

vs. Starting from Blank Elementor Pages

I did that for one weekend. It “worked,” but:

• Every page was a new design decision

• Spacing and typography ended up slightly inconsistent

• It took forever to get something decent

With Willowod, all the hard layout work was done. I just had to fill in content, change images, and adjust a few colors.

vs. Full E-Commerce / Booking Themes

There are powerful WooCommerce Themes and heavy booking themes that turn your site into a full reservation engine. They’re great for big hotels or complex booking flows.

For us:

• We’re small

• We already use a lightweight booking solution

• What we really needed was a beautiful, clear front-end that tells the story of the place

Willowod gave us that front-end without forcing a specific booking stack.

Where Willowod Makes Sense (And Where It Might Not)

Great Fit If You:

• Run cabins, nature cottages, glamping, or eco-lodges

• Have a few unique units, not hundreds of similar rooms

• Want a site that feels calm, nature-centric, and visual

• Prefer building with Elementor but don’t want to design everything from zero

Maybe Not Ideal If You:

• Run a large hotel or resort with many room categories and complex booking logic

• Need a very custom, experimental design beyond what Elementor can easily do

• Want a pure online shop first with dozens of physical products (then a more commerce-focused kit or theme may be better)

Final Thoughts from the “Accidental Web Admin” of a Cottage Business

I’m not a full-time developer. I’m the person who answers guest emails, checks the calendar, and also happens to manage the WordPress login.

For that role, Willowod - Nature Cottages Elementor Template Kit has been kind:

• I can spin up a new page (for a seasonal package or retreat event) in an afternoon

• I no longer dread “we should refresh the homepage for autumn” conversations

• The site finally feels like our forest, not a random stock hotel template

If you’re running a similar nature-based place and your current site still looks like “call us for details,” Willowod is one of the easiest ways I’ve found to turn that into a real, modern booking-friendly presence without hiring an entire agency.