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Madabay Lodge

A three-room beach lodge on Nosy Be, Madagascar, let whole to one group at a time. A new identity, a website in English, French and Italian, and the print to match.

Visit madabayslodge.com
The Madabay Lodge homepage on a computer: the lodge seen from the sea, under the headline “An exclusive retreat between ocean and primary forest”.
The same homepage on a phone.
Client
Madabay Lodge, a three-room beach lodge for 1 to 8 guests
Location
Antafondro, Nosy Be, Madagascar
Services
Logo and identity, web design, writing in three languages, photo and film editing, build and hosting, search visibility, print and guest documents
Pages
12 in each language, 36 in all
Languages
English, French and Italian, each at its own address
Bookings
By enquiry, as she wants: the form and WhatsApp. No online booking.
Hosting
Included, with no monthly fee for the site
Launched
November 2026

The starting point

Madabay Lodge has three rooms on the beach, reached only by boat, with a chef, a housekeeper, a gardener and a night guard. Marylin used to let it room by room and was moving to letting it whole, to one group at a time. Her old website, on a hotel booking platform, was built for the old way, and had problems of its own.

  • It contradicted itself

    The homepage counted two bungalows, the rooms page one. The lodge has three rooms, and its bungalow is not let to guests.

  • It sounded like any hotel

    Generic template phrases under a page title, “Luxury accommodation”, that could belong to any hotel. Nothing about the boat crossing, the staff who come with the house, or the solar power and spring water.

  • French titles on the Italian pages

    Her Italian pages showed French titles in Google.

  • Hard for AI assistants to read

    Its pages were assembled by JavaScript and turned away automated requests, the kind AI assistants and many search tools make.

  • Trackers before the lodge

    Google and Microsoft tracking loaded on every visit, so a cookie banner was the first thing guests saw.

  • Contact details that misled

    The number shown as a phone takes WhatsApp only, and the site gave a Gmail address while her real mailbox ran on her own domain.

The website

Twelve pages in each language: home, the lodge, gallery, excursions, travel, about, our causes, prices and contact, plus the legal notice, privacy policy and a page-not-found. Built by hand, with no WordPress, plugins or database.

  • Her offer, said plainly

    The whole lodge, one group at a time, 1 to 8 guests, staff included, reached by boat. Her facts, in her tone, and nothing invented.

  • Her film first

    The homepage opens on her drone film, cut to a 15-second loop, with the full film one tap away. Slow connections skip it.

  • Made for the phone

    A bar follows you down every page, with WhatsApp on one side and “Send your dates” on the other, because her number takes WhatsApp, not calls.

  • Enquiries she can answer

    The form asks for dates, group size and the excursions they are interested in. Each language arrives with its own subject line, so she knows which language to reply in.

  • Photographs prepared properly

    87 photographs in several sizes, so a phone downloads only what it shows, and a gallery of 27 that open large.

  • Excursions and travel

    The excursions page follows her printed brochure trip by trip, with the brochure to download. The travel page covers flights, the boat transfer and visa fees, from official sources only.

  • Built to be found

    Every page has its own title and description for Google in each language, the site tells Google it is a lodging business, every image is described, and a summary file helps AI assistants read the site. The sitemap went to Google on launch day.

  • No tracking

    No analytics or advertising scripts, and the fonts served from her own site. The one outside element is the Google map on the contact page.

  • Nothing lost in the move

    From the moment she switched her old site off until the new one was ready, a temporary page kept her address working. The 30 addresses Google knew now lead to the matching new pages, and her email, on the same domain, never went down.

The lodge page on a computer, opening on a photograph of the lodge from the water.
The lodge page.
A homepage section explaining that the lodge is let whole, beside a photograph of the lodge and its beach.
The homepage explains the whole-lodge offer.
The excursions page opening on an aerial frame of the archipelago.
Excursions open on the drone film.
The list of excursions, numbered, with photographs.
Trips numbered as in her printed brochure.
The lodge page on a phone.
The lodge, on a phone.
The rooms on a phone, with the WhatsApp and “Send your dates” bar at the bottom of the screen.
The rooms, with the WhatsApp bar.
The excursions page on a phone.
Excursions.
The contact page on a phone, with WhatsApp first and the enquiry form below.
Contact: WhatsApp first, then the form.

English, French and Italian

Her homepage in all three. Each language has its own address, so Google shows each reader their own.

  • The homepage in English, on a phone.
    English
  • The homepage in French, on a phone.
    Français
  • The homepage in Italian, on a phone.
    Italiano

The identity and print

One look, from the website to everything she hands a guest: ivory, sand, a pale sea green and one champagne gold, all taken from her film, with capitals that match the logo.

The Madabay Lodge logo in three versions: gold on ivory, light on dark brown, and the chameleon mark alone.

The logo

The chameleon was her idea. I redesigned the logo around it, a new identity very different from where it started, drawn to stay sharp from a business card to a phone screen.

Gold on ivory, light on dark brown, and the mark alone.
The business card: the logo on the front, a QR code and “Your hidden paradise” on the back.

The business card

Printed, with a QR code that opens the site.

Front and back.
The cover and first page of the excursions brochure.

The excursions brochure

Four pages for 2026 and 2027, in French and English, with and without prices: one to download from the site, one for her to send.

The cover and first page, from the edition without prices.
A blank menu and the drinks card, both with the Madabay Lodge logo.

Guest documents

The day’s menu and the drinks card shown here, plus an invoice, a guest planning sheet and the boat schedule: files she fills in on her laptop, in the same look as the rest.

Menu and drinks card, prices hidden here.

What changed for her

  • Her lodge presented as it deserves: her own film and photographs, in a look taken from the place itself.
  • Her new way of letting said clearly, in three languages: the whole house, one group at a time.
  • Guests reach her the way she works: WhatsApp, or an enquiry with their dates and group size.
  • Built for Google and AI assistants. Google’s PageSpeed test scores the homepage 100 for SEO, accessibility and best practices on a phone and on a computer, and 100 for speed on a computer (November 2026).
  • Old links and Google results still lead to the right pages.
  • No analytics or advertising trackers on her site.
  • One look across the site, the card, the brochure and the menus.
  • Paid once, hosting included: no monthly fee for the site.

Next: her Google listing, Apple Maps, Bing, Tripadvisor and the other listings that fit a lodge, brought in line with the site. It went live in November 2026; figures on enquiries and searches will follow here.

Photographs by Lionel Ghighi, Serge Marizy, Safari Baleine, Antafondro Fishing and Marylin. Film by Aerosport Events. The French read by Marylin. Screenshots of madabayslodge.com, November 2026.

Visit madabayslodge.com

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