My husband and I are new to the vacation rental business. We closed on our place October 15th. We have been pretty happy with the inquiries and bookings we've done to date (we advertise on vrbo, cyberrentals, petfriendlytravel.com and great rentals). I really just maintain this site as a place to send people when they want more information. I don't expect it to come up on searches. I expect people to find out about my condo through our web advertisements or through word of mouth. Then when they ask me what days are available, what it looks like, etc. I can reference them to the website.
1. Which are your target markets in order of importance?
We mainly target skiers/snowboarders with our close location to ski lifts. It's a small place, so families of 4-6 and/or small groups of friends.
2. What would you say is the single biggest selling point of your rental property?
The view of Lake Tahoe
3. What are the other reasons why someone should want to stay in your place instead of another in the same area?
Reasonably priced, excellent location for skiing, great view
Thank you for your help! I am not a great web designer, I picked up some html programming in college. I do my websites on Front Page.
Kristin
Review my site: www.tahoecondo.org
-
livinginitaly
- Posts: 202
- Joined: Fri Oct 29, 2004 4:46 pm
- Location: Italy (at last!)
- Contact:
Hi Kristin,
It's been quite some time since i last experienced a 'hill-rolling' (my version of skiing!) but as soon as your page loaded up it all came 'flooding' back to me ........ excellent choice of colour!
Now i know you say that you 'don't expect to come up on search engines', but a few of my suggestions will make the site easier for people to use the site and far easier for search engines to list all of your pages.
Firstly, you have a really good layout on the homepage, good background and nice clear links .... why don't you continue this theme across all pages of the site? People wouldn't have to keep coming back to the homepage to get to the other pages, which is better (because people are generally lazy
) and it'll allow search engines to 'scan' your site better, which could mean extra bookings for zero advertising cost.
People like 'consistancy' and having the links in the same place on every page gives them 'peace of mind', as does a continuing theme of colour and style.
Only other point i'd mention is down to the 'size' of a few of your images both in actual 'width / height' and also 'filesize'. The images are nice and clear, but i feel they'd be just as effective if they were half the size. Maybe you could fit them two abreast and see how that looks.
This would also bring down the fillesize of the images, do you use any sort of Image Optimisation Software? The first image on the homepage is over 85k in size. People who connect to the internet via a modem, download pages at 4k per second, so that one image took 21 seconds to show on my screen. The image beneath it is 95k
I'm sure that by using slightly smaller images and adjusting the 'quality setting' in the image software, you could get both images to be less than the size of one currently .... your site would then load twice as fast.
Ah! Final thing ...... personally i don't like the use of 'hit counters', in most cases they only show 'returning' browsers how few people have been there since their last visit. That said, if your going to use them, why not add a few thousand 'hits' to the counter? ....... who's to know
It's been quite some time since i last experienced a 'hill-rolling' (my version of skiing!) but as soon as your page loaded up it all came 'flooding' back to me ........ excellent choice of colour!
Now i know you say that you 'don't expect to come up on search engines', but a few of my suggestions will make the site easier for people to use the site and far easier for search engines to list all of your pages.
Firstly, you have a really good layout on the homepage, good background and nice clear links .... why don't you continue this theme across all pages of the site? People wouldn't have to keep coming back to the homepage to get to the other pages, which is better (because people are generally lazy
) and it'll allow search engines to 'scan' your site better, which could mean extra bookings for zero advertising cost.People like 'consistancy' and having the links in the same place on every page gives them 'peace of mind', as does a continuing theme of colour and style.
Only other point i'd mention is down to the 'size' of a few of your images both in actual 'width / height' and also 'filesize'. The images are nice and clear, but i feel they'd be just as effective if they were half the size. Maybe you could fit them two abreast and see how that looks.
This would also bring down the fillesize of the images, do you use any sort of Image Optimisation Software? The first image on the homepage is over 85k in size. People who connect to the internet via a modem, download pages at 4k per second, so that one image took 21 seconds to show on my screen. The image beneath it is 95k
I'm sure that by using slightly smaller images and adjusting the 'quality setting' in the image software, you could get both images to be less than the size of one currently .... your site would then load twice as fast.
Ah! Final thing ...... personally i don't like the use of 'hit counters', in most cases they only show 'returning' browsers how few people have been there since their last visit. That said, if your going to use them, why not add a few thousand 'hits' to the counter? ....... who's to know
Hi Kristin,
I agree with what Tony says. In particular your pictures are larger than necessary. You could reduce the homepage ones by a good 50% in kb, and not really notice the difference. If people have to wait a long time for pics to download, many will leave.
I'm assuming that you will re-take the pictures when there is snow everywhere. For your homepage I wouldn't lead with the exterior of your condo. I would go with the view of the lake, but taken in a better, sunnier light. This is your USP so you need to put it right at the top and give people a reason to stick around and find out more.
The next picture I would use is actually one of the ski slopes. There is nothing like a picture of a beautifully groomed piste glittering in the sunshine to get a ski-nut salivating.
Then I would show the condo. This order of pics addresses the potential renter's emotional needs before their practical needs. I believe that is how people choose their vacations.
On your amenities page you have to scroll right to see the whole page - that's a big no-no, and can be corrected by reducing the dimensions of the pictures. These pictures are much bigger than they need to be. I like big pictures for clarity too, but these feel almost life-size!
The picture with the fireplace - light the fire! The best way to do this is to scrunch up some newspaper and light that. You get an exaggerated blaze (briefly) which on a photo will look less exaggerated.
Presumably a high proportion of the people coming here need to be converted into confirmed bookings. If so I would make the pictures/amenities page work harder by writing some persuasive copy to sell the condo itself.
I think you should use the same colour and design as the homepage across all pages, and the same navigation menu on each page is obligatory for the happy surfer.
Good luck with the rentals business, I hope it brings you everything you hoped for.
I agree with what Tony says. In particular your pictures are larger than necessary. You could reduce the homepage ones by a good 50% in kb, and not really notice the difference. If people have to wait a long time for pics to download, many will leave.
I'm assuming that you will re-take the pictures when there is snow everywhere. For your homepage I wouldn't lead with the exterior of your condo. I would go with the view of the lake, but taken in a better, sunnier light. This is your USP so you need to put it right at the top and give people a reason to stick around and find out more.
The next picture I would use is actually one of the ski slopes. There is nothing like a picture of a beautifully groomed piste glittering in the sunshine to get a ski-nut salivating.
Then I would show the condo. This order of pics addresses the potential renter's emotional needs before their practical needs. I believe that is how people choose their vacations.
On your amenities page you have to scroll right to see the whole page - that's a big no-no, and can be corrected by reducing the dimensions of the pictures. These pictures are much bigger than they need to be. I like big pictures for clarity too, but these feel almost life-size!
The picture with the fireplace - light the fire! The best way to do this is to scrunch up some newspaper and light that. You get an exaggerated blaze (briefly) which on a photo will look less exaggerated.
Presumably a high proportion of the people coming here need to be converted into confirmed bookings. If so I would make the pictures/amenities page work harder by writing some persuasive copy to sell the condo itself.
I think you should use the same colour and design as the homepage across all pages, and the same navigation menu on each page is obligatory for the happy surfer.
Good luck with the rentals business, I hope it brings you everything you hoped for.
Paolo
Lay My Hat
Lay My Hat