Would like some constuctive tips please!!

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Holiday Ray
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Location: South West France
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Post by Holiday Ray »

Hi Tim and a big welcome to the forum

Here's my two penneth

First of all I like the overall look of the site. Nice shades of blue on the home page and I like the style of the menu buttons on the left.
On my monitor at least, the white characters on the blue background (of the buttons) are a little difficult to read though.

I too would like to see pics of the apartment itself on the home page. I tend to be a bit suspicious if the owner is not revealing actual pics of the place 'up front'.
The first pic we see is pleasant enough, but a pic of a sunlounger with what appears to be a pool in the background and then some apartments beyond that doesn't really fill me with expectation of luxury !

I really like your Bars/restaurant page - nicely laid out, good pics and lots of very useful info, looks good!

I think you've made good use of the google maps page. Excellent idea to show prospective punters exactly where the apartment is in relation to the beach and other amenities.

I think I know what you are trying to acheive on the 'Disable access' page Tim - by showing the pic of the carpark (Trying to emphasise just how smooth and flat the access is ?) But it's a carpark you're showing and it's a really uninspiring, well actually very boring, photo, that might just put folks off. Sorry ! Could you not perhaps re-take that photo from a different angle, with the apartments in the background ? Almost anything is better than a photo of a carpark !

One more negative, before the positives again -

I really don't understand your pricing structure. It might be me that's being a bit thick, but pricing needs to be simple so that thicko's like me can understand it.

You comment that you are proud that "The price you see, is the price you pay". Well I can't see any prices ?
The standard rate is (from) 48euros/night. So what's the maximum, or actual price I pay ?
Same with the 'Peak times'........."Please add (from) 10euros/day" ?
Add 10 euros to what price ? - Your Standard prices are - (from) prices
and then you say
"Part peak time bookings will be totalled accordingly" eh ! I can't see what period you state is "Part Peak"
Not sure what you mean there at all my friend.
I appreciate that it states that if I want to know more about pricing or availability then I need to send you an email, but personally I'd like to know how much I'm paying before I make contact with the owner.
If I wish to book a weeks holiday the third week in June e.g I want to be able to see it pretty much instantaneously, otherwise I'll probably just give up and look elsewhere. It's probably me just being a bit slow I know, but I suspect there are a few of us out there :wink:

'Buggy ride page'. Nice example of what I think should be on a 'things to do' type webpage.
All the info is there, good pics and a great 'personal' description of what punters might expect. (And personally, I think 75 euros for two people for nearly 4 hours of what looks like brill fun seems like great value to me, so I wouldn't go suggesting to people that it's "not cheap". I would be inclined to remove that bit of text - let people decide for themselves whether it's cheap or not). But of all the pages on the site - that is the one that makes me want to book your apartment, just for a great morning of buggy riding !

Please don't take the negatives too much to heart Tim, It's just my honest opinion and I think they're only relatively minor points

So overall Tim - a very nice looking website - nice one :D
Ray
Fuerte
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Joined: Wed Feb 11, 2009 10:43 am
Location: Canary Islands - Fuerteventura
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Post by Fuerte »

Hi Ray

Thank you for your comprehensive review! It is much appreciated that you took the time to go in depth.

I do agree (after re-reading) that the pricing structure was a little confusing (I even confused myself!) I have now changed it and hope it all makes sense :?:

The Disabled page does require more work (I know that) and I am thinking of the best ways to do it. Although we want to be a disabled friendly apartment we do not want to put off able bodied persons staying (this is the reason for the friendly and not fully adapted). To date (we opened 27 Sept 2008) we have 27 weeks bookings of which only 4 weeks are those requiring the apartment to be disabled friendly! Not what we anticipated when we adapted the apartment we thought the figures would be higher (but are happy with the bookings so far)

What I am struggling with is that we rank number one / front page on Google for the following search terms so thought they would be flooding in!

2 bedroom apartment suitable elderly Fuerteventura

disabled apartment Fuerteventura

wheelchair friendly apartment Fuerteventura

disabled friendly apartment Fuerteventura

Fuerteventura apartment adapted for disabled

ground floor apartment fuerteventura

I also agree about the front page photos BUT it is always a little difficult with an apartment rather than a Villa / house.

Although the complex is nice with large gardens and 4 pools it is the apartment that we are trying to say is Luxurious and also I am trying to sell the Island as not many have heard of us. It is a difficult compromise but will tweak and get there in the end. What I am trying to say on the home page is this is Fuerteventura and we have a great apartment on a complex that is in a great location. Please look around the site and you will see you can book our luxury apartment! (maybe I am not saying that or I have the wrong idea :!:

I do see what you mean about the 'Buggy ride page'. Nice example of what I think should be on a 'things to do' type webpage. As I have had a look at your site and like the idea of your layout of your buttons (I might pinch that idea if you don't mind :?: I have also removed the "not cheap" as that is a personal point of view and said I (personally) thought was fantastic value for money!

Thank you for pointing out that the buttons are not clear on your monitor I will look at changing them as I know all monitors are not the same.

Once again thank you for a VERY in-depth point of view it is very much appreciated

Sunny Regards

Tim
Apartment Fuerteventura - Luxury Apartment in Fuerteventura
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Holiday Ray
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Location: South West France
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Post by Holiday Ray »

Hi Tim,

I can now understand your pricing structure. Personally I prefer to see a table of prices, so you can see instantly what the price is for any given week, but I presume you quote a 'daily rate' because you accept bookings that are less than or in excess of a week (which we don't) so that's fair enough !

Again, it's only my personal view, but I think that you have probably got the 'disabled friendly' approach about right.
My guess as to why you haven't got more 'disabled' bookings is that maybe it's something to do with the fact that the proportion of disabled people as opposed to able-bodied people out there is relatively small, so maybe the number of people that have placed a booking has just been proprtionate in that respect (do you get my drift ?)
So if (in theory) you ONLY allowed disbaled guests, then you would probably have got a lot more than 4 bookings from them (because all those able bodied people wouldn't have got in there first ?)
Just a theory.
So I think that 4 weeks out of 27 is about right and if I'd got any where near 27 weeks booked for this year I would be jumping through hoops. (Our place is in France and therefore the season is much shorter and the 'Lot et Garonne' dept is certainly less well known than FuerteVentura.
Anyway, well done you, all those bookings is absolutely brilliant - perhaps you should be advising me on my website - not the other way around :wink:

With regards to the front page photos Tim, I would be inclined to put one of your 'patio' pics on the front page somewhere, even if it's not the first thing you see. (One of the pics with the two palm trees)

Feel free to copy the menu buttons from my site. I happen to prefer the buttons on yours, other than the white font doesn't show up on my monitor too well. Perhaps a slight increase in font size might do the trick !

I'll be putting my site in the reviews section soon Tim anyway, (the next time I've got a few days off work, so that I'll have time to put in place the many recommendations that I'm sure will follow) so you'll have an opportunity to 'comment' back :shock: .

All the best
Ray
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elena
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Location: PERIGORD NOIR
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Post by elena »

What I am struggling with is that we rank number one / front page on Google for the following search terms so thought they would be flooding in!
Hi Tim!

Have you actually checked the terms that real customers are using? It’s no help being on pg 1 if the phrases aren’t actually being used. I did a quick search on Google (UK terms) and none of the terms you mentioned are being used in enough quantity to be registered.
I did find that “fuerteventura holidays” gets on ave 49500 hits a month and “disabled holidays” gets 12100 but I couldn’t find any combination of fuerteventura/disabled/wheelchair etc etc so I would refine my research a bit.

I think your site looks lovely with lots of good information in it but I have to admit to feeling a bit confused by it. I feel it should sell me the luxury holiday but I somehow feel this is taking a little bit of a back seat to publicising Fuerteventura itself. I know you said nobody seems to have heard of it but to me that’s a good reason to tell people on your home page where it is.
(NB- when searching I found that “canary islands holidays “ got 74000 hits against “fuerteventura holidays” 49500 : more than 60%, so maybe more people are aware of it than you think!)

Also, and others may come along and shoot me down in flames for this but I feel that luxury should speak for itself through the photos, the presentation and atmosphere of the site. I don’t think you really need to tell people why you think it’s luxurious. This is just a personal thing of mine but as luxury is really in the eye of the beholder and therefore subjective.I was slightly put off by the dishwasher & corkscrew being included in the luxury items. My gites have those and they’re not in the luxury market! Your apartment does look wonderful – I’d tone it down the text a bit and let it speak for itself. Hope that doesn’t sound harsh – again it’s just my personal taste.

Watch out for the odd grammar typo – there instead of their, here instead of hear (guest comment page)
Also found the slideshow very long to load - I waited ,but if I'd been a customer with lots of sites to see I may have just given up.

On the whole you’ve done a great job and it all looks really good. Good luck for the future & hope all goes well!

Elena
Dordogne holiday cottages
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