Please can you have a look at my site?

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Crossways
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Location: United Kingdom
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Please can you have a look at my site?

Post by Crossways »

Hi,
i would love your feedback.
Many thanks. www.devonholidayhouses.co.uk
la vache!
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Post by la vache! »

At a first glance, the homepage looks very crowded. Maybe the photos are supposed to be artistic, but they don't work for me. I'd rather see the house than the tree in front of it. I don't like lots of different text on the page. And the photos of the bedrooms aren't good I'm afraid - the beds look very badly made up - in one photo you can see that a quilt has been put on and you can see the mattress underneath. And there is a person in one of the photos, which looks strange.
The photo gallery page doesn't work very well because if you want to click on one of the photos in the bottom of the gallery, you have to scroll up to see the photo. Maybe you should use lightbox2 instead?
On the plus side, the navigation is clear. But I didn't like the fact that the rates were only available via a pdf download (I wouldn't bother and would look elsewhere).
And the About Us page hardly says anything so I would put it in a less prominent position on the menu.
I see you are with BFB - if I were you I'd make more mention of the facilities you have for young children (cots, high chairs, toys etc) to reinforce the idea you are child friendly.
Sorry it is rather negative, maybe I just haven't had a very good day, but I think there are lots of things you could do to improve the site.
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CSE
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Post by CSE »

It is late and I am about to hit the sack.
The centre column, in white with all the details in it is only @550 wide. That is far too small for most screens these days.
I am using FF and the photos at the top on the first page all overlap.


I will come back when I have some time to give a fuller review. In the mean time I hope some other regular reviewers will post their thoughts.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
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cottageguru
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Post by cottageguru »

Looks nice but there are a few things I want to feed back on.

I agree with LV about the photos - some of the more artistic ones were totally lost on me. I wasn't sure why you would have one of a cupboard door but that could just be me looking for different things.

I quite like the Nav Bar at the foot of the page although the first one titled, Food and Drink, goes to the Children page. You could put that bar at the top and put a link to your photo gallery in the left column.

It is not immediately obvious that this is a large family cottage - I had to read through the text on the home page to find that it will sleep up to 14 people. In fact it's all a bit confusing as to what people have to rent since you begin by saying it will sleep 8 - 10 then say that Crossways can only be rented with the Garden Flat. I got lost at that point.

What I'm trying to say is that it may be a better idea to pull out the most important points so that visitors to the site are not having to work to find the information they need for decision making. I think this was the point LV was making when she said it was too busy on the home page.

The rates page is a little confusing too. Actually I couldn't find the rates although I guess you have them on a pdf that I didn't open. You would be better to put the rates on the web page since you may lose visitors at this point if they are not clear.

For some reason I was not able to open all the images in the gallery.

I don't intend to sound negative but you have a great product here that perhaps could be packaged a bit better.
Heather

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CSE
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Post by CSE »

Having had another look but for some reason I am finding everything overlapping everything else. I wonder why this is and no one else has mentioned it. I use FF; I also have a button which changes FF to read website like IE


My web design source suggests that your website is rather slow in loading. Here are some hints on how to overcome this.
http://code.google.com/speed/articles/
Other things it brought up include:
You use some frames that Google does not like.
Most of the pages have the same or similar names. Maybe think about changing these to overcome some down marking with Google.
There some minor errors in the coding. (nothing to worry about)
http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1 ... index.html
There are no site map or robots txt files.
But things like alt text for photos and H1-2-3 are all in place. Some good work in the coding.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
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cottageguru
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Post by cottageguru »

I'm not seeing any overlap and am using FF.
Heather

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www.cottageblogger.com
www.twitter.com/cottageguru
Crossways
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Post by Crossways »

Many thanks for your help- i will forward the technical stuff to the lady that looks after the site and set about changing the text.
FelicityA
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Post by FelicityA »

Actually I liked your arty photographs which made it look like a display out of 'Interiors'. I didn't notice the badly made bed or the person so I must be unobservant and perhaps therefore not the best person to comment!

I wonder if you should have a calendar that doesn't advertise other properties down the side - it looked messy to me and you don't want people wandering off to other sites when they are looking up your dates - I was being tempted to Amalfi on that page! I use dateblocker linked to some of the sites I advertise on and I don't think they do that. It is free to use (and I have nothing whatsoever to do with the company!)

I haven't yet looked at it all but those are my first thoughts.
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CSE
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Post by CSE »

This is odd. I still see the website all messed up.
Here is a link to a zip file with screen shots.
http://www.ribeirasacra.com/temp/devon.zip
Inside are 3 screen shots.
FF is the one i get looking at your website with FireFox.
ie_upper is one of Internet explorer. It is of the upper half and the main photo does not show until i pan down. That view is shown in the screen shot called ie_down.
I wonder what is different on my PC to all of yours?
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
Wendy@NorthIdaho
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Post by Wendy@NorthIdaho »

I have a few questions and comments about the site:

You mention that the house and flat are only available together but then on the rates have separate rates, so to me it was confusing as to whether or not I could rent one or both. I think I understood that during high season only together? but maybe at other times separately? So perhaps want to make all that a bit clearer.

Why have linens provided for one place but not the other? this is probably my American side coming out :)

House and flat have separate availability calendars, but have to be rented together? except for last minute? Again confusing to me.

Love the maps, great to see the location.

Why is the photo gallery link on the maps page? It may be a bit lost in between the 2 maps

The twin beds look a bit crumpled and I do see the mattress, might want to fix that.

I like the arty pictures but would use them as fillers perhaps on other pages. When I go to the photo gallery I want to see what the house looks like. A few arty pic's here are o.k. as I do appreciate them.

I like your "about Salcombe" and "about us" pages but they are pretty similar, perhaps combine them? Not sure why the link to the photo gallery is here also, it really needs it's own page I think.

I agree with another comment that the home page is very busy and somewhat confusing...

I'm sorry as this seems so critical and I just went through this with my website and it really seemed so overwhelming I wanted to quit! But I have a better website now (I think so anyway...) and despite the "pain" am a "better person for it" :lol:

Your place really sounds nice for a large get together and it looks very lovely and clean.

Wendy

p.s. didn't see any overlapping on my computer, using IE
New Vacation Rental called DayStar Lodge! (Sold Narrows Cottage now have a rental management company called A-List Rental Management)
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