Castle Resorts & Hotels has launched a newly rebuilt website, CastleResorts.com, utilizing AI-assisted development to achieve a low-five-figure cost and a completion time of under four months. This initiative was driven by Patrick Ahler, senior vice president of growth at Castle Resorts & Hotels, who focused on improving direct bookings and owner returns.
The rebuild aimed to address key challenges of the previous site, including a convoluted path from interest to booking, inconsistency in property content, and the slow speed of making changes. Ahler emphasized that in a soft market, conversion of existing demand offers a better return than acquiring more. The website serves as the central hub for all marketing efforts, and its improved conversion directly impacts the performance of other channels.
AI-Assisted Development Drives Efficiency
The AI-assisted approach meant that AI performed production work across research, design, coding, content migration, and testing, while human teams retained decision-making authority. This included design choices, accuracy of room types and policies, booking tests, and final sign-off on every page. The development process involved a small, specialist team, with AI tools like Codex and Claude Code used for coding and content restructuring.
Revenue per session increased by 41% in the first 30 days after the site’s launch. Additionally, the number of users reaching a booking engine rose by 182% during the same period. This suggests the new website is more effectively guiding potential guests toward making reservations.
Ahler highlighted that the cost and time involved in building a website have significantly changed. He shared that before committing to a $150,000 agency proposal, he built a homepage prototype in an afternoon using AI, proving the potential for rapid and cost-effective development. The new site integrates five reservation systems into a single search and booking experience, a feat achieved by detailed documentation from property teams and a unified booking form.
Focus on Conversion and Owner Returns
Castle Resorts & Hotels manages 20 properties, including hotels, condominium resorts, and vacation rental properties, across five reservation systems. The website rebuild prioritized improving the guest journey from initial interest to completing a booking. Standardized elements like navigation and page structure were implemented to ensure a consistent experience for guests, while unique property characteristics and accommodation types remain visible to aid in choice.
In the initial 30 days post-launch, users viewing room rates increased by 171% compared to the prior 30 days. The company is evaluating the site’s performance by tracking revenue per session, conversion rate, average booking value, and the direct share of total revenue. These metrics are compared year-over-year to isolate the impact of the new website from external factors like seasonality.
The new CastleResorts.com was built on mainstream technologies, including Next.js, Sanity, and Vercel, with code residing in the company’s own GitHub. This approach aims to prevent vendor lock-in and allows AI tools to work directly with the site. The company plans to further leverage AI in other business areas and continue optimizing content and conversion rates.
Looking ahead, Castle Resorts & Hotels intends to deepen content for each property and island, conduct ongoing conversion testing, and expand AI’s role within the business operations beyond the website. Ahler advises other operators to consider the collapsed cost of website development and to organize teams around rapid decision-making, as technology is now the faster component in the building process.
