Introduction
When the team at 40 Winks Hospitality Durham (Click here to view the finished website) approached Infacloud for help, they faced a challenge that many growing hospitality businesses in Durham experience: their website did not allow them to make edits themselves, it was expensive to maintain, and their hosting costs were spiraling out of control. They needed more than a quick website redesign, they needed a complete digital transformation.
We took complete control of their website design, hosting infrastructure and email security. The result? A modern, fast, and secure online presence that reduced their hosting and support costs by more than 50%.
The Problem: Legacy Websites Are Expensive (And Nobody Tells You That)
Here’s the thing about running a hospitality business in Durham, you’re focused on your guests, your rooms, your service. The last thing you want to worry about is your website costing you a fortune every month. But that’s exactly what was happening with 40 Winks.
They were dealing with:
- Hosting bills that kept going up
- A website that was unfinished and took months for anyone to get back to them
- A website with limited ability to make even simple edits
- No visibility on what they were actually paying for
- Excessive costs every time they needed even small changes
Sound like your situation? You’re not alone.
Most hospitality businesses are in the same boat. They’ve either built their website years ago and forgotten about it, or they’re using a cheap template that’s slowly dying. Either way, they’re hemorrhaging money on support and hosting costs that should’ve been cut in half years ago.
For 40 Winks, enough was enough. They wanted a website that was fast, reliable, and easy to manage – without the spiralling costs or constant back-and-forth.
The goal was clear: Take complete ownership of their digital ecosystem, modernise it with a custom website redesign, implement enterprise-grade security, and cut costs in the process.
What We Actually Did
We didn’t come in with a pre-packaged solution or try to upsell them something they didn’t need. We looked at what they actually needed and built it from scratch.
Step 1: We Actually Planned It Out
Before we touched anything, we sat down and figured out exactly what needed to happen. We mapped out their wireframe and created a mockup – basically everything you’d want a web design team to do before they start building.
A lot of web teams skip this step because it’s boring and takes time. We don’t. It’s the difference between a website that looks pretty and a website that actually converts visitors into bookings.
Step 2: We Built It Custom (No Templates, No Shortcuts)
This is where most web design shops cut corners. They’ll use a template, maybe customise it a bit, ship it out. (We have seen it time and time before. Agencies telling clients their new website will be “bespoke”, when it fact, its just a generic template from themeforest they paid £60 for.
We built 40 Winks a completely custom website from the ground up. No templates. By building a custom site they can now benefit from:
- Super fast performance – no bloated template code slowing things down
- Built to grow – they can add features later without rebuilding everything
- Actually secure – no template vulnerabilities or relying on updates
- Theirs alone – not some cookie-cutter design every other hospitality business is using
Yeah, it takes longer and costs more upfront. But it’s worth it when you see the results.
Step 3: We Took Over Everything (Hosting, Infrastructure, The Works)
We didn’t just hand them a website and disappear. We took full control of their hosting and entire infrastructure.
This let us:
- Optimise from the ground up – not just hoping their hosting provider is doing things right
- Cut costs – choosing infrastructure that actually fits their needs instead of paying for stuff they’ll never use
- Make it fast – caching, optimization, all the stuff that makes websites actually perform
- Have one person to call – no more juggling vendors and getting lost between different support teams
Step 4: We Fixed Their Email (Properly)
Their old email setup was server hosted, which is fine for smaller businesses. But for a luxury hotel in Durham, they should have a robust long term solution.
We migrated them to Microsoft Exchange. Real enterprise-grade email with:
- Advanced security — built-in threat protection and encryption
- A professional ecosystem — seamless integration with Outlook, Teams, and two-factor authentication
- Ongoing management — no more patchy systems or hoping everything keeps working behind the scenes
For a hospitality business, this was a huge upgrade.
The Results
50%+ Cut in Hosting Costs
We looked at what they were paying and who was paying it to. We then moved them onto our own hosting platform, giving them the same – if not better – performance and security, at a fraction of the cost. No compromises. Just smarter infrastructure and immediate savings.
50%+ Cut in Support Costs
No more constant support tickets because the changes requested a month ago were still not done. Instead, a stable, modern platform just… works.
Their Website Actually Works Now
Their pages load in seconds. It looks great on phones. People can actually book rooms without jumping through hoops. The usual good stuff that happens when you have a website that doesn’t suck.
They Have One Person to Call
Instead of calling five different vendors and hoping they get their stories straight, they have one point of contact. One person who knows their entire system inside and out. If something goes wrong, they know who to talk to.
It’s Actually Secure
Enterprise email, modern hosting, secure code. They’re not losing sleep over data breaches or compliance issues anymore.
Room to Grow
Their website isn’t some rigid template. As their business grows, they can add features, expand functionality, scale up. The foundation was built to grow with them.
Why Most Website Redesigns Disappoint
We’ve seen this happen a lot. A business invests in a website redesign and it ends up being a letdown:
- Template sites that look generic – they’re quick and cheap, but so is everyone else’s
- Beautiful design with zero strategy – looks amazing, converts nobody
- Hosting that’s slow and unreliable – your beautiful website takes 10 seconds to load
- Multiple vendors who don’t talk to each other – support becomes a nightmare
- Nobody’s actually managing it – you get handed a website and suddenly it’s your problem
At Infacloud, we do it differently:
- We start with strategy – not design, not code, strategy. What’s this website actually supposed to do?
- We build custom – never templates, always purpose-built
- We manage everything – website, hosting, email, security, all coordinated
- We actually stick around – it’s our responsibility to make sure it keeps working
- We measure what matters – cost, performance, security, results
Is Your Durham Hospitality Business Stuck With the Same Problem?
If you’re running a hotel, bed & breakfast, holiday rental, or any kind of hospitality business in Durham, I’m guessing you recognize at least some of this:
- Your hosting bill is way too high and you don’t know why
- Your website is a template that looks like every other website out there
- Your email is a disaster
- You’ve got five different vendors and nobody’s actually in charge
- You’re throwing money at a system that should’ve been fixed years ago
Yeah, we hear it all the time.
The 40 Winks Durham example isn’t unique—it’s just one of many businesses that were paying way too much for infrastructure that wasn’t working.
The good news? It’s fixable. And it doesn’t have to be a massive overhaul. Sometimes it’s just about having the right partner who actually knows what they’re doing.
Let’s Talk About Your Situation
If any of this resonates with you, there’s no harm in having a conversation. We can look at what you’re dealing with, see what’s possible, and figure out what actually makes sense for your business.
No pressure, no sales pitch, just a straightforward conversation about whether we can help.
Worst case? You learn something useful about your infrastructure. Best case? We cut your costs in half and you finally get to stop worrying about your website.
Interested? Reach out. Let’s talk.
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