Eco Lodge Website Example: Canopy Eco Lodge

Guests drawn to a lodge in the forest have usually read too many vague promises, so the Canopy sample starts with the plumbing. The opening view shows a timber cabin on stilts with panels on its roof, while a small chart of bars rises in a dark card captioned with the day the meters are read. Directly underneath, six cards explain the power, the hot water, the rain tanks, the shower water, the food scraps and the rubbish. Each card says how the system works day to day and where it still falls short, such as the diesel generator in grey weeks or two bags of rubbish a week to landfill. A table of last year's readings follows, labelled as the lodge's own figures rather than an audit. An eco hotel website that leads with facts like these gives a doubtful guest something to check instead of something to believe.

The rest of the page sells the stay itself, and it keeps the same plain voice. Three kinds of cabin come with their beds, decks and distances from the main lodge, and the intro admits there is no air conditioning or kettle. A rate table shows how each cabin costs more from the wet months to the dry summer peak, with the months named. A dark section describes dinner from the kitchen garden and six valley farms, and a row of walks gives each one a length and an age guide. The questions cover charging, wifi, the station shuttle, deposits and why the lodge sells no offsets. Any eco resort website could borrow this order, because it answers the sceptic first and the holidaymaker second.

Canopy from the rising bars to the gravel road, one part at a time

Canopy keeps its whole site on one page, from the rising bars at the top to the gravel road at the foot. The rows below give each part and the headings a visitor meets on the way down.

Page	What it opens with	Its sections
Opening view	Solar cabins under the canopy, meters on show	Ask for dates · How the lodge runs · 12 cabins · From $160 a cabin a night · Mondays
Power, water and waste	How the power, water and waste actually work	Power from the roofs · Hot water from the sun · Rain tanks and a borehole · Shower and sink water · Food scraps and the garden · What leaves the valley
Meter readings	Last year's readings	Electricity from the panels · Generator running time · Water per guest night · Rubbish to landfill · Kitchen food from within 50 km
Cabins	Three kinds of cabin among the trees	Forest cabin · Stream cabin · Family cabin
Seasonal rates	Rates through the wet and dry months	Wet months · Shoulder · Peak
Kitchen	Dinner from farms you can see from the ridge	Add dinner to your request
Guided walks	Walks with a guide who grew up here	Dawn birdsong · Stream to the waterfall · Night walk with red torches · Kitchen garden and compost · Fungi and plants · Ridge walk
Photos	Cabins, reeds and batteries	Inside a forest cabin · The dawn birdsong walk · The reed bed for shower water · Dinner on the terrace · Monday readings in the battery shed · The stream below the cabins
Reviews	From the cabin guest book	Stream cabin · Family cabin · Forest cabin
Questions	Asked before arriving in the valley	Charging · Wifi · Arriving without a car · Offsets · Deposits and cancellations · Dogs
Dates form	Send us your dates	Cabin · Night of arrival · Day of departure · Adults in the cabin · Children and ages · Station shuttle
Contact	Getting in touch, and getting here	Write or call · Reception and kitchen · The road in

Meters, reed beds, wet month rates and a guide from the valley: what a lodge in the trees should publish

Every system explained, weak spot included

A lodge that wants to be judged on how it runs has to describe how it runs, including the parts that are not finished. The Canopy sample gives power, hot water, the water supply, the shower water, food scraps and rubbish a card each. Every card explains the system in a sentence or two and then names its limit, from the generator in long grey spells to the bones and fats that cannot be composted. The intro invites guests to ask about anything missing and promises a written answer. Admitting the gaps is what makes the rest of the account believable.

Figures from the lodge's own meters, labelled as such

Numbers persuade more than adjectives, but only when their source is clear. The sample's table gives five readings for last year, from the share of electricity made by the panels to the rubbish sent to landfill each week. A third column explains each figure in ordinary words, such as the second battery bank that cut the generator's running time. A note under the table says the figures come from the lodge's own meters and receipts, not from an outside audit. Published this way, the readings invite guests to compare next year's board with this one.

Comfort trade offs stated before anyone books

Running on sunshine and rain changes a few everyday comforts, and guests take that better when warned. The cabin section says there is no air conditioning or kettle, and the questions explain why hair dryers stay at reception. The hot water card admits the first shower on a grey morning can be lukewarm, and one example review says exactly that. Wifi is in the main lodge only, and phone signal in the valley comes and goes. Guests who arrive knowing all this tend to treat the limits as part of the stay rather than a fault.

Rates that follow the wet and dry months

A forest valley changes with the weather, and so does the price of a night there. The sample prints each cabin's rate for the wet months, the shoulder months and the dry summer peak, with the months named in the note. It explains that the valley is greenest and quietest when rates are lowest, which gives budget minded guests a reason to come in the rain. Breakfast is included, the minimum stay is two nights and local taxes are added according to local rules. Seasonal rates shown this openly help a lodge fill the quiet months with guests who chose them.

Food and walks rooted in the valley

What a guest eats and who shows them the forest are the parts of the stay they remember. The sample's dark kitchen section says most food comes from the lodge garden and six farms in the valley, with an example dinner price and a vegetarian main every night. The walks row lists six guided outings with their lengths, and the note gives the price, the age limits and a warning about slippery paths. Three of the four guides were born in the valley, which the page states as a plain fact. Local food and local guides described with this much detail sell the stay better than any slogan.

Guides for lodges that publish their meter readings

Would a search for solar cabins in a forest find Canopy?

Travellers who care how a place is run search with specifics: solar powered cabins, off grid forest lodge, cabins with guided walks or lodge with a kitchen garden, usually with a region added. Naming each system, cabin and walk in those plain terms lets an eco lodge website meet the searches of people who will actually read the readings.

Check what search engines make of your lodge

Related sample websites

Each of these is a separate sample, written for its own fictional business in a trade close to this one, so the layouts can be compared side by side.