Raydev

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for odevaere.com, a short-term apartment rental company. In our high-level segment of luxury travel, visitors book our properties for leisure for 2–4 days on average. We aim to be a luxury alternative to traditional hotels. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Raydev?

We needed an aesthetically pleasing, intuitive, and mobile-friendly website. In particular, it needed to be built using state-of-the-art technology for the design and user interface. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Raydev developed a WordPress website for our company. The content, media, and pictures can be changed internally. It features a simple portal. Through software they added, guests can make reservations through our site.

An aesthetically appealing page they designed features the most interesting restaurants in Bruges. They made a brief itinerary showing a variety of activities to do there. Our site includes a media gallery and a slider. Rather than being text-heavy, it’s highly visual.

From time to time, the team helps us conduct upgrades for WordPress. They keep our site up and running.

What is the team composition? 

My main point of contact is the CEO. There are 3-4 people total on the team. If needed, Raydev can also leverage freelancers in their network to work as a third party.

How did you come to work with Raydev?

I found Raydev on Elance 10 years ago.  We started them off with small tasks for another website for a company that I sold. They initially developed an e-commerce website for me. 

I continued using them because working with them went well. As a small company, they aren’t too expensive. There aren’t different layers with additional costs like there are with larger vendors.  

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent €3,000-4,000 (approximately $3,400–$4,500 USD) so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2013, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

reydev.com has helped us attain many achievements, and we have a strong relationship. In our competitive market, we’re 75% dependent on traffic from booking.com to bring revenue. About 10% of our users come from Airbnb, and the rest of our visitors come from our company’s website. 

The prospect of getting lost in Google search results poses a hurdle because booking.com and Airbnb pay all the Google AdWords. People who find us on those pages often take a look at our website to assess our business, and Raydev makes sure everything we do looks professional via our platform. 

Most users end up booking through booking.com and Airbnb because those platforms offer security measures for reservations. The site Raydev built for us serves as a sort of postcard to give customers a second look at our offerings. They can see we’re a reliable source before booking through a third-party site.

How did Raydev perform from a project management standpoint?

Raydev knows how to solve our problems. Even when they can’t internally, they leverage third parties they know help to find solutions. 

We communicate via email and WhatsApp. They always respond quickly and correspond well in English. I usually contact the CEO directly. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

reydev.com is a forward-thinking company. They offer great prices and quality.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve their language skills, but I’m happy with their work overall.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Raydev is best suited for small or medium projects in the WordPress environment. They might be too small of a team for large companies. I think they have a limited number of resources with the skills for huge projects.