Taking the plunge

Get some feedback on your site or ad from other rental owners and techies. Also a library of online resources so you can make DIY improvements to your web presence.
ronsat
Posts: 55
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2011 1:03 am
Location: Neffiès, Languedoc, France
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Taking the plunge

Post by ronsat »

Well, hopefully our website is ready for prime time. I would very much appreciate your opinions on it. We do realize that it will always be a work in progress. In particular, we plan on spending late September and October at our maison - travelling around and taking more photos of the tourist sites in the area. Some of the photos date from 1983/1984 when we lived in Montpellier. And we have been adding suggestions from renters.

We are now getting some renters - through TA, VRBO and word of mouth. There are 84 Pezenas listings in HL - so the competition seems to be quite tough in our area.
We are Canadians who love spending time in Languedoc.
http://www.languedocvacationhome.ca
Circé
Posts: 428
Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2010 2:13 pm

Post by Circé »

Hi
I review as a prospective renter, not as a tecchie person.
I thought the description of the property was lacking detail.
Clearly the rooms are on more than one floor, but how many floors are there? Are the stairs steep?
Floor plans would be appreciated.
Does the occupant of the single bedroom have to use one of the ensuite bathrooms for a shower or bath, and do these bathrooms have showers and or baths?
Is the sofa bed a single or a double?
is there any heating? You say elec is extra off-peak, but you don't say why
Where do I park?
Photos should follow HOME in the tabs, get people to look at those and love the place before clicking on PRICE
Do you really need 3 similar pictures of the terrace in the gallery, plus the one on the HOME page?
I've rented 3 village houses within spitting distance of Neffiès for October holidays in the past 8 years. As you say in your post, there are lots of village houses around the Pezenas area and although I think your pricing is in the right ball park I'd probably prefer another house in the first instance, where I don't have to contact you for further essential info. OK so I may I missed some detail, but if it doesn't stare me in the face I'll move on to another advert - and so, I fear, will other potential punters.
Sorry if I sound negative, but you did ask for comment!
Oh, and if I do come can I bring my dog, please?
FelicityA
Posts: 2816
Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2010 2:54 pm
Location: Cotswolds
Contact:

Post by FelicityA »

Not a comment on the actual content because I am only in the process of making a new site for myself, but I think having those badges for HL and VRBO is going to send them off to those sites to maybe find your competition and forget booking with you? I would try to keep them on your own site and not tell them what else is out there.
Essar
Posts: 3243
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2011 5:24 pm
Location: Bournemouth
Contact:

Your site

Post by Essar »

Yes agree with FelicityA - I use a separate page for links out to advertising websites, this page has no inward links at all, it's not accessible from the menu bar. I also use it for testing stuff in alive situation.
You just provide the full page address to HL or others so they can check you've kept your promise. They don't seem to check that the page is very lonely and inaccessible.

Like the site, as you say it will evolve, listen to the comments on here and don't take them to heart everyone wants to help you.

Steve
"Write something, even if it's just a suicide note"
"There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise"
"As for my amnesia, I've had it as long as I can remember"
Real name: Steve
Gender: Male
katz
Posts: 172
Joined: Wed Jun 22, 2011 12:20 pm
Location: Finistere, France
Contact:

Post by katz »

At first glance it seems quite comprehensive though at first I wasn't sure what type of accommodation I was looking at - I'm guessing that it is the equivalent of a town house (in the UK) though it gives the impression that it may be an apartment. I think it would be helpful to state how many people it sleeps rather than leaving people to count the number and type of bedrooms.

On the Contact Us page you don't state your names - personally I like to know who I am dealing with. Presumably you don't live locally as you have a US number, do you have local caretakers who will deal with any issues that may arise during a stay? - if so, people would probably like to know this. Also what are the parking arrangements?

I like clean and simple look.

Bonne chance!
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mpprh
Posts: 873
Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2005 6:07 am
Location: Languedoc, France
Contact:

Post by mpprh »

Firstly - this could be of interest to you - http://the-languedoc-page.com/phpBB3/vi ... 796#p27973 ? Someone is looking for a Canadian in Languedoc.

The website looks nice.

Just a few ideas -

There is a spelling mistake on the first line :wink: .

Possibly have less, but larger text

Your key words - vacation home rental neffies - should be emphasised on your front page.
There is a lot of competition for those words and currently I didn't find your site in the first 70 or so entries on google.com .
Problem is : that is 70 lines of your competitors getting in the way. What I am trying to say is that you need to somehow get your website up to No5 (i.e. above the fold) to really benefit from google. The shortcut is by buying pay per click google adwords but a lot can be done to help the search positioning. Search here for SEO or search engine positioning - it has been discussed before.

A final thought ... the majority of renters are francophones. Should you have a French version, too ?
The Languedoc Page
www.the-languedoc-page.com
Image
tavi
Posts: 2578
Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2011 9:07 pm
Location: Algarve

Post by tavi »

also speaking as a prospective renter....just a small thing but might be worth a try:

On your home page, which I guess will be the first page people see, you might be better off putting the information on your property first rather than things about the village.
In other words...the first line would be "Our vacation home, Libellule, is a lovingly restored three-storey 12th C. village house ".

The village stuff could come lower down. After all, your prospective guests will already know they want your area, that's presumably how they've got to your site. So what they will want to know quickly, (as they'll be looking at other properties), is what your house offers and how yours is the best choice.

Only had a quick look. Good luck!
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kendalcottages
Posts: 2474
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2009 11:08 am
Location: Kendal, between the Lake District and the Dales
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Post by kendalcottages »

When I visit the homepage, for me the main image on the right (labelled rooftop terrace) doesn't load at all. It appears to be clickable but, when I click on it, I get an error 404.
Kendal Holiday Cottages Ltd., Kendal, Cumbria - between the Lake District & the Yorkshire Dales.
ronsat
Posts: 55
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2011 1:03 am
Location: Neffiès, Languedoc, France
Contact:

Thanks for all the comments

Post by ronsat »

I have made several edits (including fixing the typo). Mostly I have restructured the home page and have tried to add information that many of you mentioned was missing.

About the links to VRBO and HL. With HL - the link that I provide them is the link that HL users to find my page. So, I do want to direct them to my home page. Also, I was thinking that the fact that we are listed on VRBO and HL would be considered to add credibility - something we lack given that we are just starting out. Our goal is to get several good TA reviews (through our HL listing) - which then leads to the ability to add the "Rated Excellent" or "Recommended" from Trip Advisor. Another Canadian we know in the area has done this - and she is already booked through the summer.

I have tried also to get more of the keywords in - although I don't hold out much hope for people finding us with google searches (unless they use the word "Libellule"). Seems that most of the listings you get by googling "vacation home rental neffies" are ones from one of the listings agencies - who, of course, pay for the Google ad clicks. I have been playing with various SEO tools - but what I need is to have more links to our site from other sites (such as blogs that renters write.) Our thinking was that most of the visits to the site would be through word of mouth or from VRBO/TA/HL.

Thanks again for all the comments.
We are Canadians who love spending time in Languedoc.
http://www.languedocvacationhome.ca
ronsat
Posts: 55
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2011 1:03 am
Location: Neffiès, Languedoc, France
Contact:

Home page photo not visible.

Post by ronsat »

I checked out the problem with the Terrace photo on the home page. It seems that it didn't work in older versions of IE or Firefox. So, I reloaded it, removed the caption - and it now seems to be OK.
We are Canadians who love spending time in Languedoc.
http://www.languedocvacationhome.ca
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kendalcottages
Posts: 2474
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2009 11:08 am
Location: Kendal, between the Lake District and the Dales
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Post by kendalcottages »

I was using Google Chrome.

Seems OK for me know, though.
Kendal Holiday Cottages Ltd., Kendal, Cumbria - between the Lake District & the Yorkshire Dales.
katz
Posts: 172
Joined: Wed Jun 22, 2011 12:20 pm
Location: Finistere, France
Contact:

Post by katz »

I like the improvements you've made :)

I do agree about making the text a bit bigger - that said most webpages seem to go with smaller font - maybe I just need reading glasses! I use a slightly larger font on my website but I haven't been game enough to ask for it to be reviewed yet...
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