Would be grateful for reviews of www.theolivehouseitaly.com

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.
mfarmer
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Location: Italy
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Would be grateful for reviews of www.theolivehouseitaly.com

Post by mfarmer »

Would be grateful for reviews of www.theolivehouseitaly.com

Our target markets:

Hikers
Cyclists
Families
Beach and sun worshippers!

Larger groups of guests.

Unique compared to other local villas:

Views and location; within half an hour to beaches, national parks, ski resorts, hiking trails, historic and culturally important town and cities, close to authentic Italian restaurants and the international homes of Pasta and Truffles
Size of property and gardens
Access to public transportation and linking roads
Onsite assistance from us as onsite owners
Value, we have decided to provide value for money
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wallypott
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Post by wallypott »

Hi & welcome Mark

Just a few comments, when I tried to pull up your booking T & Cs it opened an email window for me.

Some of your photos are great but some show the top of cupboards, which just seems a bit of an interesting feature to show!

I had to go to the HL site to find out if you were booked or not - it might be a good idea to add a calendar to your own site (many of us here are fans of PIMS holiday rental management system, which will also automatically update your HL calendar). Otherwise, once I go to the HL page, I might well wander off to see someone else's property.

The You tube video is great. And your pricing seems very reasonable. You dont seem to have a pool - but I'm not sure about that. You to pick ups from the airport, but does that mean I don't need a car? Are there shops, buses etc near by?

Hope thats a start, others will be along with much better advice than mine though.
mfarmer
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Thanks

Post by mfarmer »

Thanks for taking the time to review my site!
Very good of you.

Could you tell me which gallery on the site is just showing the tops of cupboards? Couldn't find it!

Have corrected the booking page issues, thanks for spotting those.

Which there was a free booking system out there!

...any further comments anyone?
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CSE
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Post by CSE »

This page http://www.theolivehouseitaly.com/moreinformation.html
automatically opens up this website.
http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/rental ... gna/265190
It that meant to happen?
The first page is tiled home, which is not good for SEO work. The tiles for the other pages are not brilliant either.
The Meta Description tag should be reduced.

I cannot find prices or calendar. Are you relying on holidaylettings?
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
mfarmer
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Post by mfarmer »

Thanks for that feedback, any views on what would make better page names for SEO?

Relying on holiday lettings booking system at the moment...any suggestions on an alternative?

Meta tag description, will have to work out how to look at that.
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CSE
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Post by CSE »

Tiles:
Your first page is Home. The rest are named what you call them in your index. It is often suggested that for SEO work, here is a what Google has to say on the matter:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot. ... sults.html
ON line booking systems often come up on the forum.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
mfarmer
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Post by mfarmer »

We are relying on holiday lettings at the moment.
Can someone point me in the direction of forum discussions on booking system options?
Struggling with this SEO page changes and meta tags....
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

pizza-salsa
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Post by pizza-salsa »

hi there, I don't know about SEO or meta tags, so my comments are purely on the look and feel of the website, from the view of somebody who might want to rent it.

I am Italian, and no-where on the first page did the info tell me where in Italy your house is.... Roccascalegna does not ring any bells, had to look it up on wikipedia. Maybe you can add it to the first sentence ".....deep in the hills of rural Italy, in the central region of Abruzzo."

half way through the second paragraph, I would add which sea the beaches are on ".....Le Morghe and Vasto on the Adriatic"

I like the rest of the site and the pictures you have used, and have found the site easy to navigate.
Hope this helps!
buona fortuna!
mfarmer
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Thanks

Post by mfarmer »

Thanks for that- really useful feedback. Will make those changes.
hobbo
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Post by hobbo »

Firstly I should like to say well done it's not easy putting together a website and it is difficult to spot any discrepancys etc..

I hope the following will help without sounding like nit picking..

moving from the home page to other pages the page seems to jump to the right.

prices, 'with special prices for one guest or more' I didn't understand so I went to 'Pricing and bookings' to see if I could find out.. and saw that the price for a peak season weekend was more expensive than a full week? The nightly rate for a weekend is £380 whilst a full week is £80 cheaper at £680 (I presume you really mean that the weekend nightly rate is £190, making the whole weekend £380..)
I also noted that the link was to Holidaylettings where your competitors also advertise (whether this is an issue depends on if you offer better than they do) I would be tempted to incorporate their calendar on a page of your site (rather than link to it) the iframe code required is at the bottom of the HL edit calendar page.

I never did find out what you meant by 'with special prices for one guest or more' :?

Hope this helps,
I have a very responsible position, if anything goes wrong I'm responsible ..
www.villa-in-kalkan.co.uk
mfarmer
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Made those changes

Post by mfarmer »

Hi there,

Had changed the booking system and amended the prices. Would be grateful if you could take another and see what you now think??


Cheers,

Mark
hobbo
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Post by hobbo »

I like the booking page, much better, however if I were looking to book a party of 3 persons I would be confused..
For a booking of three guests or more you have one price and for three guests or less another.. would be probably be better to say for groups of 1-3 the price is £x and for groups of 4-8 the price is £y or something similar, currently you have 2 prices for a party of 3..


just as a separate point here, we used to give a reduced rate for 'under occupancy' but then simplified our pricing structure to just the higher rate and still had a full calender, I sometimes give a discount for under-occupancy out of peak season but only based on expected reduced energy water and cleaning costs.

the bottom of the screen is obscured by the 'wibiya' bar and you have to minimise this to read the weekend break peak details.

I'm still not sure about the phrase 'with special prices for one guest or more' unless it is that all your prices are special?


hope this helps
I have a very responsible position, if anything goes wrong I'm responsible ..
www.villa-in-kalkan.co.uk
lorra62
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Post by lorra62 »

Im not an expert but from a visitor point of view, your website and place looks great, the christmas offer sounds lovely shame there isn’t a flight from manchester.
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wallypott
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Post by wallypott »

About the villa page - nice and clear points. Extra space between to help cool & essential and provisions.

Bottom bullet has not enough spaces after it so it doesn't line up with the others. (In my browser at any rate).

Can't see the bottom line of the page because of the banner.

Bookings page upto is 2 words not one.

Your security deposit is on the low side for 4 bedrooms, I would double it at least. My 6 bedroom is 500€ (off site) and my 2 bedroom is 100€, but I am on site and only take one about 50% of the time.

The third photo in the gallery is the one with the view of the top of the cupboard.

The above is just nitpicking but its what stood out for me.

I think for your place 100€ security deposit is not worth the hassle of taking it.
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