www.vtflats.com (Bulgaria) - can you please review?

[vtflats]

Hi all LayMyHatters
having been a guest visitor to this forum for a few months, I have been amazed at the support and information sharing going on among fellow holiday home owners. Having finally gotten around to register, we hope to be able to share our knowledge and mistakes made along the rocky road of improving bookings for our 3 holiday apartments in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria.
We would welcome your input on our website www.vtflats.com
The website is still under construction, we are in the process of adding films from interior and views of each apartment.
The main areas we would appreciate your feedback on is on the "conversion effectiveness", ie how well our website urges visitors to book without being distracted by too much irrelevant information and "clutter".
Please give us the good, the bad and the down right ugly - we want to hear it all

Many thanks for now

[Cotterdale]

Hi I had a very quick look.
The first thing I saw was your calendar on your home page. it's not very inviting also your link font is hard to read.

[Lisac]

Hi

It just goes to show that not everyone agrees on here! I like your home page all the colours match nicely. I would look at the caligraphy text tho. Not too sure about that. Who is the booking system with? It looks pretty good?

[Cotterdale]

Hi I like the colours but the calendar is to much for me, so I agree everyone like different things.
One thing I would have a look at! you do have a number of errors here is a link for you to check you pages http://validator.w3.org/
I do hope it helps.

[vtflats]

Thanks for reviewing and for pointing us to the validator link, we will take your feedback onboard.
I agree with the calendar being quite prominent on the first page. The idea of having the calendar on the home page to mimic hotel websites and get the website visitors to quickly book without getting too much into the detail of our other pages unless they absolutely want to but it could be alot neater...The question is how? Do you perhaps have suggestions on how to keep the calendar on the homepage but minimizing the space it takes?

The booking system is with VIPvillas.com as we can take credit card payments with this system.

Many thanks again,

[Cotterdale]

What about doing a nice calendar photo on your home page which links to your calendar or who is the calendar with maybe you can show less months at once. I only show 2 months then a arrow to other months. I find most people who book our cottage view about 4 pages first before booking some a lot more. I am in the middle of doing some changers to my website but you are more than welcome to take a look.

[Cotterdale]

Hi I have just saw you use vipvillas you could ask Andy if it is possible to have less calendar months showing. He is always so helpful

[AMC]

Hi vtflats

I think that your website is quite good.
Each page is very informative for its particular heading.
I think that the front page is very good really because the top of the page tells you just what you need to know in just a few sentences and then the calendar and availability is on show without searching. I went through the process and it is easy to navigate and book.

I would be inclined to include a couple more images of the property itself (maybe not quite as large but include a few more).

But on the whole i like it.

Good luck with your bookings.

[juliet]

Hi vflatts,
I see that you have now put your calendars on another page rather than the front page. Is that a strategic move or you just fancied changing it around?
Just curious.

[lasourcetranquille]

Hi vtflats,

Couple of quick points from me...

I'm not sure about the home page. There is a little bit of descriptive text but below that just seems to be lists of links which are a little overwhelming. I'd have a bit more info aboutthe apartments.

You have a link to the home page amongst the script buttons at the top - but I'd link the logo image to home too as that is the accepted norm.

Links in general seem very confused - you have the buttons at the top, then you have all the text links at the bottom, then you introduce another few links (like maps, availability and booking form) in another format too. There is no consistency.

I tried to get to a contact us page and gave up - there doesn't appear to be one except in French and Bulgarian?

Do you have a landline phone number? I'd be very wary about booking in Eastern Europe using just a mobile phone number (but that may just be me!)

Can you change the colours on the calendar? The black is very off-putting and it's not clear if it means available or unavailable.

Hope that helps - I not trying to be negative but you wanted an honest opinion..

[Harborfields]

Just a quick note regarding the big picture on the page about the town (http://www.vtflats.com/index.php?idt=veliko) -- I would crop off the bottom to remove the street light and the car parked under the tree as they detract from the otherwise impressive scene.

[juliet]

Hi harbourfields,
I think that I would agree with your comments, however I don't think vflatts is following the thread anymore as there was no reply to my previous comment.