Maison Fako

The brief

A family guesthouse with five units in Limbe, in the South-West region: two guest rooms, a suite, a furnished studio and an apartment for longer stays, in a renovated 1970s house with a tropical garden between the black-sand beaches and Mount Cameroon. Its guests are travellers stopping for a night or two, families and professionals on missions of several months. The website had one job: turn a visitor into a booking request, in French or English, without a phone call.

What I built

• A home page with an availability search (arrival, departure, type of stay)
• An accommodation page presenting each room with its size, capacity, amenities and nightly rate
• A “La maison” page telling the story of the house and its host
• A “Découvrir Limbé” local guide
• A booking request form that checks the dates and estimates the price of the stay, including long-stay discounts
• A photo gallery with a lightbox and a WhatsApp button on every page

The design choices

The palette is warm and local: terracotta, cream and deep green, with a woven pattern band between sections that recalls Cameroonian fabrics. Titles are set in an elegant serif, the body in a clean sans, and the photography centres on the rooms, the garden and the host rather than generic hotel images, because for a guesthouse the people and the house are the product.

Everything a traveller worries about is answered before they ask: breakfast included in the guest rooms, a generator and water reserve so there are no cuts, a shuttle from Douala international airport, and payment by Orange Money, MTN MoMo, card or cash. Each room card shows its price per night, and the studio shows its monthly discount, so a guest can compare options in seconds.

How it works for visitors

A visitor picks dates on the home page and lands on the booking form with those dates already filled in. The form calculates the number of nights and an estimated total, then sends the request; the host answers personally within 24 hours, in French or English. Visitors who prefer to talk can tap the WhatsApp button at any moment.

Want a website that takes bookings for a hotel or guesthouse? See my web design service for Douala and the Littoral.