Advertising for the first year !!!!

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.
glynmeek
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Location: North Cornwall
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Advertising for the first year !!!!

Post by glynmeek »

Hi Folks,
This is the first year for our new holiday cottage in North Cornwall i have spent the past 18 months sweating blood and tears building the annex to our house, now i guess the really hard works starts selling it to the public !!. I have over 30 years experience with Short hold tenancy property's but i know this is a whole new ball game. We have had a Web site built for our property, and i would really appreciate if some of you would take a look and give us your honest opinions, also could any of you recommend what you think are the best on-line sites to advertise our property on, we are due to go live with OD in the next few days, we are also with Cornwall On-line, is there any others in our area that you think might compliment, we went live on the Internet on the 23rd April and we have had 3 enquiries and 1 Booking for late May so far, i look forward to your honest opinions, Thanks
www.appletreecottage-tintagel.co.uk
Fail to Prepare or Prepare to Fail
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Ju
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Location: Vendee, France
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Post by Ju »

Hi Glynmeek

Welcome to LMH.

Normally website reviews go in the website review section - but never mind.

I think your site is nice and clean. It is easy to see up front what you are selling. I thin the only thing that is missing is a page about the local area. What is there to do nearby? Are there beaches? If so how far?

In terms of marketing I think OD is your best bet, but some more specific cornwall sites would be a good idea. It is not my area but if it were me I would do a google search as if I were looking for somewhere to stay, then see which sites come up top. Do several different searches using different terms and see which site does best overall.
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Windy
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Post by Windy »

Maybe the admins should move this to the right topic as it's a website review request.

The site is quite basic but does the necessary.

It's quite clean and has some nice touches like the apples as bullets and the nice logo.

It wants some more information on the local area and I think you should move the info on on check on times and pets to the Ts & Cs on the availability page.

The photos are acceptable but give a rather dreary and impression to me. It's partly due to the grey bedding, but also there is not a lot of colour in them. I'd retake some of them.

Get one of the house that is less exposed so the blue sky isn't blown out to white. (Different time of day or HDR photo?).

Perhaps a pot of flowers in the garden to give some colour?

Some flowers or something else colourful in the lounge and kitchen and the lights on in the bathroom.

You can see the difference in the dining room picture.

Hope this helps (it's much easier to criticise others than to do it yourself ;-)

edit - lol Ju - we posted at the same time but seem to agree :-)
tavi
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Post by tavi »

nice clear site! well done.

agree with the others, the photos need better light, some colour/texture? I would retake all photos with all lights on.

outside - is there a barbecue? are there any deck chairs or only the table? agree need some flowers outside.

I would always want to know if I have to bring (or buy) my own
dish detergent, salt & pepper, loo rolls...that kind of thing......
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CSE
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Post by CSE »

On the technical side I cannot find either the site map or the robots file.
Here are some of the errors that can be found:
http://www.seorch.eu/seo-check/www-appl ... -tag-close
http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1 ... lcome.html
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/vali ... lcome.html

Contact form: Despite having required fields I still managed to send blank contact form. Well at least that is what your page said it had done

Presentation. On the first page you say it sleeps four, but I cannot find the description on how many bedrooms/bed types. This is found on the accommodation page.
Looking at the details from your web designer they have a pricing range which limits the amount of pages. Given that I would think about adding more details about accommodation to the landing page and change the accommodation page to give more details about the area (and obviously change the name of the page). You have got something correct in the photos: the table is laid the beds are made etc. But I also have to reinforce the comments made about the garden. For example the picnic bench is totally in the shade. Colour in the garden need not need be plants, they take maintenance to keep looking good. Maybe paint some of the fence panels or the bench or a wall mural.

One comment, which is slightly off topic. The last time I was in Tintagel I do not remember all of the caravans. That was around 10 years ago though. How recent are they or has my memory gone?
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
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964kevin
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Post by 964kevin »

Pretty much as others have said, and one point to add, the photograph with the telephone lines/power lines should be taken from a different angle, or lost.
Small point, but the picture is spoiled by that aspect.....


Kevin
http://www.encantada-vacation.com

Our little piece of Florida, never get tired of being there. Love it and the people to bits.
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kendalcottages
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Post by kendalcottages »

Taking the question about where to advertise...

I think you just have to find out my trial and error as to what's right for you to some extent. What one person (even someone in your area with a similar property) finds works for them doesn't always seem to work for another. Now is probably a good time to try out a number of the major listing sites, particularly when you are going from a standing start and don't have repeat business to rely upon.

You might also find it helpful to read Paolo's How to find the best listing sites to advertise on useful (although it perhaps doesn't apply in quite the same way now that so many people will have search results personalised to them).

Good luck.
Kendal Holiday Cottages Ltd., Kendal, Cumbria - between the Lake District & the Yorkshire Dales.
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

A nice simple site that's well presented. I echo the thoughts you've had already about photos, more local info etc.

You will probably find that you add to this as time goes by. Guests ask questions and once you've gathered that information for one set of guests, it's only natural to share it with others! For example I have been asked about local eating places and shops etc, so I have now added that to my site.

I think your short break pricing is a little too confusing. I guess if I sat with a calculator I could work it out, but I don't want to have to do that! Can you come up with a mechanism of pricing that gives the actual prices so your guests can see in an instant how much it will cost? There are others on here that have more complex pricing than I, that maybe could help with this. Alternatively we have had some threads in the past discussing short break pricing, so perhaps do a search on here.

I can't offer much help with advertising as I accept dogs, so find that the bulk of my bookings are from dog owners, via pet friendly sites. There are some sites that specialise in the South West, so again as said, I would Google (or maybe Bing should be the way forward since the latest Google update :lol: ) some key words to see what comes up for you.
Speyside Steve
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Post by Speyside Steve »

I like your logo and header.

It might just be me but I found your tariff table a bit confusing (especially the short breaks)!

Why only allow Christmas and New Year bookings after 1 November? Many people will book before then and it will be good for your cash flow to get the deposit in early and good for morale to know you have some income to come!

Best of luck with the new venture.
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CSE
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Post by CSE »

964kevin wrote:Pretty much as others have said, and one point to add, the photograph with the telephone lines/power lines should be taken from a different angle, or lost.
Small point, but the picture is spoiled by that aspect.....


Kevin
I saw that and I was going to suggest photoshop it, but I thought nope that would not be giving a good example would it?
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
glynmeek
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Location: North Cornwall
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First year

Post by glynmeek »

Thanks folks for all your useful comments, we thought long and hard about the photos before posting them, but as we felt we had to hit the market live asap we had to go with these for now, but hopefully we are going to retake them with more colour as soon as we have time,on a lighter note the comment about the picnic table being in the shade was due to the photo being taken in early February and alas that's as high as the sun gets, surprised no one spotted the lawn which had only been laid the day before !!!.
In answer to your question Ian and Irene all the Caravans have long gone and they are now Holiday Lodges, some for sale some for rent they were being marketed 2 year ago at 250k, hell of a price to pay for a glorified caravan. Thanks once again to all for your comments we have taken them on board and will be implementing changes as soon as practically possible
Fail to Prepare or Prepare to Fail
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