INTRVL: From Three Joshua Tree Stays to One Hospitality Brand

Naming + Brand Strategy + Brand Identity + Direct Booking Website

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The Vision

Zack and Bex had already created something special on five acres in Joshua Tree: three thoughtfully designed stays with room for wellness, play, gathering, and slowing down. They had put themselves into the property too – from hand-painted murals to the Desert Disco Bar and Mystic Lounge that Bex built herself prior to hosting their wedding on property.

What they needed was a name for this property and a brand that could connect those distinct spaces without flattening their personalities. They wanted guests to come back through different seasons of their lives: for a birthday, an engagement, a reunion, a reset, or simply a weekend that called for more space.

That idea of return changed the question we were trying to answer. We weren’t just making three vacation rentals look related. We were building a brand for a place guests could form a relationship with.

Zack and Bex were also balancing two moods that are often treated as opposites. The property could support a slow morning of wellness and reflection, then become the setting for a group celebration that evening. Neither side was an add-on. The brand had to make space for both without promising every guest the same kind of transformation.

The original concept, Sapphire Haven, had a personal origin: the sapphire in Bex’s wedding ring. We wanted to honor the care behind that story while finding a name that could hold a growing hospitality collection and invite guests to make their own memories there.

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What We Heard

INTRVL needed to feel like more than three beautiful homes in Joshua Tree. The brand needed to connect the collection while giving gIn our conversations, one theme kept coming through: life changes, and people need places to pause within it. Sometimes that pause is quiet and restorative. Sometimes it looks like celebrating loudly with your favorite people. Both belonged here.

We distilled that into a brand promise: Life progresses. Seasons change. INTRVL remains.

The name INTRVL comes from the literal definition of the word “interval”: the space between one thing and the next. Between busy and rested. Between one season of life and another. It gave Zack and Bex language for the experience they had been describing without telling guests what their stay should mean. The brand creates the space; the guest decides what happens inside it.

That thinking also kept us from making Joshua Tree the whole strategy. The destination naturally offers openness, stillness, and an unmistakable sense of place, but desert colors and familiar celestial or bohemian cues alone would not distinguish INTRVL from other beautiful stays nearby. Joshua Tree became the setting for the story, while the interval became the idea guests could remember.

We described that openness with another line: Every season deserves an interval. It speaks to the changing reasons people travel, and it gives returning guests permission to experience the property differently each time. It also makes the collection more durable than a brand built around a single aesthetic trend or one kind of traveler.

The result was one strategic umbrella for three different stays. Wellness and reflection could sit beside adventure, gathering, and play without the brand feeling inconsistent. A guest might choose a property for a specific occasion this time, but the larger promise would connect every visit.

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How It Took Shape

Once we knew what INTRVL stood for, the visual identity had a clearer job: express the feeling of the experience without turning it into a predictable “desert Airbnb” brand.

The properties’ Japanese-modern, minimalist sensibility gave us a starting point. Refined serif typography brings an editorial quality to the identity, while the palette – Desert Night, Terracotta, Sandstone, Sage, Drift, and Stone – draws from the landscape. Joshua Tree-inspired elements appear with restraint, in terms of the hand drawn icon of the Joshua Tree.

Those choices were deliberate. The type gives the property the presence of an independent hospitality brand. The palette reflects the physical experience guests encounter rather than an imagined version of the desert. And the secondary details can repeat across the website and other guest touchpoints without making every property look identical.

The photography needed to show more than rooms and amenities. Desert light, outdoor spaces, architectural details, textures, moments of stillness, and places to gather help guests picture what being there might feel like. Zack and Bex hired an incredibly talented local photographer, Katya Grozovskaya.

We also wanted the identity to retain the people behind the property. Zack and Bex painted murals; Bex built gathering spaces; family and local friends helped create and care for the place. We didn’t want the brand to lose that humanity. So the imagery and storytelling needed to feel considered and personal, with room for those fingerprints to show.

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The Digital Experience

The direct booking website had to introduce INTRVL before asking guests to compare individual properties. Otherwise, three beautiful stays could still feel like three unrelated listings sharing a menu.

We shaped the path around the questions a guest would naturally have: What is INTRVL? Which stay fits this trip? What will it feel like to be there? How do I book? The brand story, photography, property information, and booking journey all needed to answer those questions together.

This sequence matters because a guest arriving from social media or search may know very little about the collection. The opening needs to give them a reason to care; the property pages need to help them decide; and the booking path needs to make the next step obvious. We wanted the website to carry the same sense of intention that Zack and Bex had put into the physical spaces.

Inspiration matters, but so does utility. Guests should be able to explore the collection, understand the differences between stays, and move toward a reservation without losing the feeling that drew them in.

The website also gives INTRVL an owned place to continue the guest relationship. Airbnb and Vrbo can help people discover a property; the direct site gives guests a way to find the brand over and over again, to re-book at each interval. Email capture and search-focused content create additional opportunities to stay connected and be discovered. For a brand built around returning through life’s different intervals, that path back matters.

Zack had an established tech stack of Hostaway as his property management system (PMS) and GoHighLevel as his email marketing platform. We were able to successfully integrate all of those into his custom direct booking site to make sure his guests always have an easy next yes to stay within his brand’s ecosystem.

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What We Built Together

We created a name, brand strategy, visual identity, and direct booking website. More meaningfully, those pieces gave three individual stays one recognizable point of view.

Sapphire Haven became INTRVL. Joshua Tree remained an essential part of the experience without becoming the entire identity. The owners’ personal work remained visible within a brand that could grow into more units in the future. And guests gained a clearer path from discovering the collection to choosing their stay and finding it again later.

That is what we want a hospitality brand to do: connect the people, the place, the guest experience, and the business and founders behind it.

Your property already has a story. If you’re ready to turn it into a brand guests can recognize and return to, let’s build around what’s already there.

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