Website review

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.
userfuser
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2016 7:13 am

Website review

Post by userfuser »

Hello

If anyone haves time to give opinion regarding website, it would be very much appreciated
I used lodgify and still on trial period so no private domain at the moment

www.villa-sandra.lodgify.com


Thank you
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Casscat
Posts: 2692
Joined: Sat Jul 05, 2014 10:43 pm

Post by Casscat »

Hi there, and welcome to Lay My Hat :) I'm not able to comment on techie aspects, but as an initial comment I would simply say that you need to put something more on the home page than 'Villa Sandra - whole house'. At first glance I have absolutely no idea where Villa Sandra is, so you might want to say that it's in Croatia! :D
userfuser
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2016 7:13 am

Post by userfuser »

Casscat wrote:Hi there, and welcome to Lay My Hat :) I'm not able to comment on techie aspects, but as an initial comment I would simply say that you need to put something more on the home page than 'Villa Sandra - whole house'. At first glance I have absolutely no idea where Villa Sandra is, so you might want to say that it's in Croatia! :D
Hello,

Thank you for your advice, it is very logical. :D
newtimber
Posts: 1945
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 5:57 pm
Location: Brighton
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Post by newtimber »

The loading of the pictures is incredibly slow (we don't have fast internet). I was left with the words "Whole House" and just text on the screen for nearly 30 seconds. The images really need compressing and saved to the size you want them to be displayed.
userfuser
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2016 7:13 am

Post by userfuser »

newtimber wrote:The loading of the pictures is incredibly slow (we don't have fast internet). I was left with the words "Whole House" and just text on the screen for nearly 30 seconds. The images really need compressing and saved to the size you want them to be displayed.
I agree, I also noticed the issue, this is lodgify software and
I will try to see with them is there any possibility to speed up the loading without me to resize the pictures, although I can resize them easily because the software is very user friendly I wonder if the quality would be worse in that case.
OrangeBlossom
Posts: 44
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2014 12:03 am
Location: Tavira, Algarve, Portugal

Villa Sandra website

Post by OrangeBlossom »

Hi Sandra,

I'm no website officionado but as an amateur, here's what I think.

I found the people button confusing and apparently in contradiction with the text on the home page.

The site defaulted to '2' next to the people button, the text on the main page doesn't clearly contradict that. It says "Owing to its size and layout, it is ideal for several families who would like to spend a quiet seaside holiday together or for the guests who like their own privacy and space." That implies to me that each family could book separately, but the banner says 'whole house'. By the way, the last clause is not a good English translation from German, it should say "or guests" not "or the guests"

The text on the home page doesn't say enough about the villa other than where it is. If I was looking for a place for 12-18 people I might well have given up on the site before I got to the info that Villa Sandra would in fact be suitable.

Going deeper into the site you find there are 9 bedrooms and a maximum of 18 people and the home page says the villa is rented as a whole house. So if rented as a whole house, why is there an option for 2 people (or 4, or 6 or whatever). Are the prices different? Would you accept as few as 2 people, unless they were paying the full price? Your pricing section doesn't suggest that you would. Given that there are separate dining rooms and kitchens, if you do in fact rent different sections of the villa separately, then this should be made clear. If a whole group wanted the house, would any of the kitchens be suitably large for the whole group to cook together?

The amenities listed include 'private' terrace and 'private balcony'. If the house is only available as a whole, what else could they be other than 'private'? This suggests that there might be other people in the villa at the same time as you that you did not know. There's also a contradiction with other text, which mentions 'balconies' plural.

Positively, I didn't personally have a problem with the pictures loading slowly except on the gallery page.

I found it a bit irritating that there were only 2 buttons on the home page both leading to the menu. People are lazy and might not want to look at the menu to see what other tabs were available. I guess you're trying to build a free site and are limited in the number of tabs but perhaps there's a better way around the problem.

I've focussed on the negatives, sorry, but trying to be helpful. The house looks great.
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kevsboredagain
Posts: 3207
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 9:32 am
Location: France
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Post by kevsboredagain »

I found it very slow to load and navigate which I think is because there are so many pictures in the sliders. Or it could be the large photo album on the home page which slows it down even more. I would try putting this on it's own page. The slowness made looking for actual details difficult.

Testing using a free webpage loading analysis site showed a load time of over 25 seconds for the home page.

I'm seeing some descriptions in German and other parts in English.

On the home page I did not understand "whole house" What a weird name I first thought. Then the text underneath the big slider is a narrow column. Why not use more of the available space and even break it up a bit?
userfuser
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2016 7:13 am

Re: Villa Sandra website

Post by userfuser »

OrangeBlossom wrote:Hi Sandra,

I'm no website officionado but as an amateur, here's what I think.

I found the people button confusing and apparently in contradiction with the text on the home page.

The site defaulted to '2' next to the people button, the text on the main page doesn't clearly contradict that. It says "Owing to its size and layout, it is ideal for several families who would like to spend a quiet seaside holiday together or for the guests who like their own privacy and space." That implies to me that each family could book separately, but the banner says 'whole house'. By the way, the last clause is not a good English translation from German, it should say "or guests" not "or the guests"

The text on the home page doesn't say enough about the villa other than where it is. If I was looking for a place for 12-18 people I might well have given up on the site before I got to the info that Villa Sandra would in fact be suitable.

Going deeper into the site you find there are 9 bedrooms and a maximum of 18 people and the home page says the villa is rented as a whole house. So if rented as a whole house, why is there an option for 2 people (or 4, or 6 or whatever). Are the prices different? Would you accept as few as 2 people, unless they were paying the full price? Your pricing section doesn't suggest that you would. Given that there are separate dining rooms and kitchens, if you do in fact rent different sections of the villa separately, then this should be made clear. If a whole group wanted the house, would any of the kitchens be suitably large for the whole group to cook together?

The amenities listed include 'private' terrace and 'private balcony'. If the house is only available as a whole, what else could they be other than 'private'? This suggests that there might be other people in the villa at the same time as you that you did not know. There's also a contradiction with other text, which mentions 'balconies' plural.

Positively, I didn't personally have a problem with the pictures loading slowly except on the gallery page.

I found it a bit irritating that there were only 2 buttons on the home page both leading to the menu. People are lazy and might not want to look at the menu to see what other tabs were available. I guess you're trying to build a free site and are limited in the number of tabs but perhaps there's a better way around the problem.

I've focussed on the negatives, sorry, but trying to be helpful. The house looks great.
Hey OrangeBlossom

The people button is part of the template and I can not change it,it is a setup that shows the max possible number of guests in the house,I understand what you are saying but it can not be changed.

Several families together can book a whole house(up to 18 persons) it is written like that because in my experience usually 1 family takes ground floor, second family takes first floor and third the last floor, but they all know each other as friends or part of distant family and they book together and arrive together, each of them haves they own floor, bathroom, kitchen, bedrooms but they are together spending a nice vacation.

Text, I agree it needs improvement in order to present the house in a better way, but I have to admit that I am not much of a talent for that.My question for you is what would be the starting point of presenting the house, because in my opinion you first need to know which type of guests you want. The probability of making a booking is much higher for several families because in that situation number of guest is often more then 16 and the cost is split between 3 families which makes the price and capacity more acceptable opposite the situation when you have 9 friends, also disposable income is bigger for families(husband, wife-mature persons with steady jobs....), just my opinion, all comments are welcomed

Private, also part of the website template, one can just enter the number of amenities

The menu is always present at the top of the page?

Thank you
userfuser
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2016 7:13 am

Post by userfuser »

kevsboredagain wrote:I found it very slow to load and navigate which I think is because there are so many pictures in the sliders. Or it could be the large photo album on the home page which slows it down even more. I would try putting this on it's own page. The slowness made looking for actual details difficult.

Testing using a free webpage loading analysis site showed a load time of over 25 seconds for the home page.

I'm seeing some descriptions in German and other parts in English.

On the home page I did not understand "whole house" What a weird name I first thought. Then the text underneath the big slider is a narrow column. Why not use more of the available space and even break it up a bit?

Hey Kevsboredagain

Yes, I will change the text and also use more of the space
German version is not finished yet, also this is a trial version of the website so I pressume that some issues will get better with subscription(loading...)
OrangeBlossom
Posts: 44
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2014 12:03 am
Location: Tavira, Algarve, Portugal

Re: Villa Sandra website

Post by OrangeBlossom »

userfuser wrote: The people button is part of the template and I can not change it, it is a setup that shows the max possible number of guests in the house...
That's fine but it defaults to the minimum number rather than the maximum. You might question whether the template you are using is the right one for your property.
Several families together can book a whole house(up to 18 persons) it is written like that because in my experience usually 1 family takes ground floor, second family takes first floor and third the last floor, but they all know each other as friends or part of distant family and they book together and arrive together, each of them haves they own floor, bathroom, kitchen, bedrooms but they are together spending a nice vacation.

...My question for you is what would be the starting point of presenting the house, because in my opinion you first need to know which type of guests you want. ..
Why not lay out a couple of different scenarios by explaining a bit more about the house. (your overview says that some of the bedrooms have single beds and others double, but it's not immediately obvious from the site whether this is 2 doubles and 1 twin on each floor, or what.) Eg. you might say 'The house is laid out with 3 (fairly) self-contained floors. Each has 3 bedrooms (2 doubles and a twin) and has an independent kitchen, dining room, bathroom and balcony. It is therefore supremely suitable for rental by an extended family or a group of 3 families but is also great for a group of 12-18 friends (either couples or singles).' Then you might say something about the communal areas where the whole group can be together.
Private, also part of the website template, one can just enter the number of amenities
see my comment above about the template.

Hope that helps.
userfuser
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2016 7:13 am

Re: Villa Sandra website

Post by userfuser »

OrangeBlossom wrote:
userfuser wrote: The people button is part of the template and I can not change it, it is a setup that shows the max possible number of guests in the house...
That's fine but it defaults to the minimum number rather than the maximum. You might question whether the template you are using is the right one for your property.
Several families together can book a whole house(up to 18 persons) it is written like that because in my experience usually 1 family takes ground floor, second family takes first floor and third the last floor, but they all know each other as friends or part of distant family and they book together and arrive together, each of them haves they own floor, bathroom, kitchen, bedrooms but they are together spending a nice vacation.

...My question for you is what would be the starting point of presenting the house, because in my opinion you first need to know which type of guests you want. ..
Why not lay out a couple of different scenarios by explaining a bit more about the house. (your overview says that some of the bedrooms have single beds and others double, but it's not immediately obvious from the site whether this is 2 doubles and 1 twin on each floor, or what.) Eg. you might say 'The house is laid out with 3 (fairly) self-contained floors. Each has 3 bedrooms (2 doubles and a twin) and has an independent kitchen, dining room, bathroom and balcony. It is therefore supremely suitable for rental by an extended family or a group of 3 families but is also great for a group of 12-18 friends (either couples or singles).' Then you might say something about the communal areas where the whole group can be together.
Private, also part of the website template, one can just enter the number of amenities
see my comment above about the template.

Hope that helps.
I hope I do not get law suit, because I took some of that text :oops:
Hells Bells
Posts: 13173
Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 8:42 am
Location: French Alps
Contact:

Post by Hells Bells »

We're here to help, not land you with a lawsuit. We realise that we may not always have to write copy in our 1st language, and as you are finding out it can be difficult.
userfuser
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2016 7:13 am

Post by userfuser »

[quote="HelenB"]We're here to help, not land you with a lawsuit. We realise that we may not always have to write copy in our 1st language, and as you are finding out it can be difficult.[/quote

I seriously do not expect lawsuit, it was ment to be a joke.
Yes it is quite difficult for a non native speaker, thnx for help
Hells Bells
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Location: French Alps
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Post by Hells Bells »

I have had the problem myself putting things into French.
userfuser
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2016 7:13 am

Post by userfuser »

HelenB wrote:I have had the problem myself putting things into French.
It is a procedure, it takes some time but I think it is worth a try.
I still got a lot of work and I hope that one day I will receive enquiry from my own website. All those listing sites failed this year, I do not know the reason but it is not only the situation with me but also with other people I know.Probably it is because football championship and other situations which are happening in EU, it is good idea to be independent rental owner, free from listing sites, at least in some degree.
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