Would like your input on our Brittany Gite Website

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.
geoffreycoan
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Jul 12, 2005 11:21 am
Location: Central Brittany, France
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Would like your input on our Brittany Gite Website

Post by geoffreycoan »

Hi there,

After a lot of hard work (and looking/borrowing design ideas from other websites) I finished our Brittany Gite website in January 2005 and we did fairly well with bookings for our first rental year last year.

This year we started off better than I hoped and have already booked out Easter and August and about half of June and July - three of the bookings being returning guests.

Of our 14 bookings last year, 9 came through ebay and 5 came through notices on mine and a friend's company notice boards.

I'm fairly happy with the website design (although there's always more things to change) and customers that are referred there for more details (from ebay or work adverts) say it's informative and well laid out, but it's just not seeming to get ANY enquiries or bookings from "internet marketing".

Would appreciate some other points of view.

Some other details on my frustrations:
  • I've been advertising on Google Adwords since June 05, have had 1043 clicks (at a cost of £129) and believe I've only received one enquiry that I can attribute to Google (and that didn't turn into a booking)
    My Google analytics reports show over a 3 month period that I've had 489 visitors via Google adwords but they viewed on average 2.8 pages, only 1% has looked at the contact us page and 9% the rates page.
    Similar results from Google, MSN and Yahoo searches, my "most interested" customers (in terms of average page views) have come from ebay, my weblog (only started on Jan 1st) and GiteLink
I know I shouldn't expect miracles and every visitor to turn into a customer, but just a few more enquiries would be nice!

Thanks, Geoffrey
Les Vallees Gite, central rural Brittany - http://www.giteinbrittany.com
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Garri
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Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:26 pm

Post by Garri »

Hi Geoffrey,

It seems that eBay is becoming an increasingly popular way for people to search and 'order' holiday accommodation - my sister, not the most net savvy of people uses this method.

Possibly has something to do with 'security' e.g. rankings of sellers (and buyers from the onwers' perspective) and the mentality that you're gonna snag a good deal.

A good number of clicks on Google but poor conversion may have something to do with how your website funnels its traffic. Check out your stats re:funnelization and see if there are any patterns, bottlenecks that can be attributed to anything in your web site design and navigation in particular.

Personally, I like the look of your accommodation but the website doesn't inspire me to delve deeper so I would definately be one to click elsewhere, sorry.

For ebayers it's just nice to see the place in more detail away from the quagmire of the ebay screens. These people are already converted and just want more confirmation that the place exists and any extra info. So, they are unlikely to be critical.
moose
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Joined: Sun Oct 02, 2005 10:22 am
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Post by moose »

On a very superficial level I clicked in and was immediately drawn to the tone of green - but I didn't like it. I think it makes the page a bit wishy washy and yet the property piccy itself looks lovely so it detracts from the focal point.

But I think its the other piccies (especially on your home page) that let it down, they seem quite higgledypiggledy - countryside, St Michel, your lounge.... and also they are all different sizes - I think if you could uniform and organise them differently it might make the viewer 'want to see more'. Also not sure about the photos of what appears to be the back walls of your house!

If you have a photo of the pool on the lawn than on the gravel it might be more appealing to families. My kids are 3 and 2 - I'd rather they were running around on grass. You obviously have a lovely gravelled courtyard but we don't so in my mind I'm picturing the pool in the driveway!


Hope this helps. The property itself looks lovely - I just don't think you're doing it justice!
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Garri
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Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:26 pm

Post by Garri »

moose wrote:On a very superficial level I clicked in and was immediately drawn to the tone of green - but I didn't like it. I think it makes the page a bit wishy washy and yet the property piccy itself looks lovely so it detracts from the focal point.
To follow on from Moose's point ... on first impression, other than the map of Brittany, the place could be in Shropshire! There's no style to the page really.

Look at Moose's site. Great example of how to convey a mood for the place by styling the photos in the header - they're blended in, not just stuck on a page randomly. In fact, Moose's site gives me no doubt that I'm on a page about a holiday home in France. It's instantaneous. Without reading any detail I know what I'm in for.
Hope this helps. The property itself looks lovely - I just don't think you're doing it justice!
Totally agree - quality of website is not aligned to that of the house (a common problem in my opinion)
geoffreycoan
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Jul 12, 2005 11:21 am
Location: Central Brittany, France
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r/e: Moose and Garri's feedback

Post by geoffreycoan »

moose wrote:... I was immediately drawn to the tone of green ... I think it makes the page a bit wishy washy ...

But I think its the other piccies (especially on your home page) that let it down, they seem quite higgledypiggledy - countryside, St Michel, your lounge.... Also not sure about the photos of what appears to be the back walls of your house!

Hope this helps. The property itself looks lovely - I just don't think you're doing it justice!
Thanks Moose for your comments, to the point which although a bit brutal was the sort of feedback I was looking for.

Interesting to read things from someone else's point of view, because I can see all your points as being true but none of them were what I intended when I designed the site !

I personally liked the Green I thought it was calming and reflected the countryside. Colours are a matter of personal taste so it'd be an easy change to the CSS to make them say a mid-blue and see if the clickthrough improves.

On the mixture of pictures on the homepage, I'd actually deliberately put a variety to try to entice people in - a sort of "there's lots to see and do and here's a selection". Should I stick to just photos of things to do, or just the property or what ? As a quick fix I've resequenced the photos on the home page to put the house ones first, then the local area ones, and removed the "back of the house photo" which is a fair cop which was actually chosen to show the size of the garden but showing the back end of the barn isn't the best image.

I'll also try to improve the masthead picture, Moose's is much better. I tried to do one when I first started the site and it looked naff so I just stuck to a simple picture of the house.

Ironically today I actually got our first booking via Google, so just goes to show that the site does work for some people!

Please keep the feedback coming - what about the other pages of the site ?
Les Vallees Gite, central rural Brittany - http://www.giteinbrittany.com
moose
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Joined: Sun Oct 02, 2005 10:22 am
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Post by moose »

Sorry GC - never meant it to come across as brutal. Green is a good calming colour - I think you just need to be careful which green you use!!!! I think classic shades work better than adventurous but thats just my style in general.... and I accept not everyone elses!! I've always been drawn to the use of blue (on websites) - to me it spells sun, sea etc but if I wasn't using blue I'd use a darker green!!!!

Piccies definately making more sense now. On a very personal note I'm not sure about the repeat appearance of the (barn) roof? Not sure if its the roof of the dwelling or just an example of a roof - but to either end not sure what it represents. We have a fantastic cartwheel which I wanted to put on the site cos I think its magnificent - but it was the same thing - did it say anything to the viewers - not really so I just have to admire it privately!!!!!

Glad you got a successful google!!!!

If it makes you feel any better this is my first season so you're listening to a complete novice!!!! Go with your guts!!!
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