Lay My Hat

Great feedback! Thanks!! im getting the vibe now about the kids lol

Oh yes spotted the three times! I have changed the way I post my blog and it had a glitch last week so was triple posting. I'll sort that!

Hi Guys

I've changed my homepage go give a bla about where I'm location. If you get a minute could you hell me if it's any better with the text. Thanks

It looks great. I can only reiterate getting someone else to spell check and proof read. There are several typos just on the first page alone. Well done for getting this far though; I like the glimpse I've seen apart from the annoying pop ups. I don't want to email you when I haven't even been on the site more than a few seconds!

Photos looking much much better - you've got some good ones.

Agree with the others - there are no less than 3 pop-ups - that yellow/red thing on the left, the email me invitation and the big enquiry form. All of them completely unnecessary and quite intrusive....let people enjoy the site - it's very inviting.

The pop-ups do look a bit 'over-eager puppy'. I'd ditch the whole 'contact me/I'm not home right now but leave a message/I treasure you and don't want to miss one single grain of your potential interest' thing because it really isn't necessary as you will have a contact page anyway. It does look a bit desperate I think.

On the home page it's 'border' and not 'boarder', and 'you're' rather than 'your'. Much better with the pics being depersonalised though.

Two bedrooms and neither a king? Not everyone wants to spend their holiday in a twin room. Have you thought about making one room a king or at least going for zip & link beds and dressing it as one bed rather than two singles pushed together?

I'm going to whisper this one now because it's the pernickety cow in me coming to the fore - *you could do worse than iron the linen on the bed*. It looks straight out of the packet with the noughts and crosses pattern of folded creases and while that might spell 'new' it doesn't present well.

I really don't want to be negative, but it's hard not to be when someone asks for constructive criticism!

sazzleevans wrote:My husband agrees with you on the personalisation of the photos. In torn. It helps me to imagine being somewhere. Maybe I'm alone on that one though lol

No, there are at least two of us who firmly believe that people shots - well done - are a help rather than a hindrance in promoting a holiday property. When I worked for newspapers, it was an accepted mantra that "faces sell advertising spaces". We always had a big pool shot filled with guests on our website front page.

Unfortunately, the problem with website 'people shots' is that they tend not to be well done and owners are often nervous of asking guests' permission to shoot such material. And embarrassed photographers lead directly to stilted and awkward pictures.

And so, in the gite/B+B industry, this embarrassment has resulted in the generally accepted credo is that 'empty shots' are what guests want and people in the pictures are off-putting to potential bookers. But I don't believe this to be true.

Jimbo wrote: No, there are at least two of us who firmly believe that people shots - well done - are a help rather than a hindrance in promoting a holiday property.

I have to partly agree but as you say Jimbo, they have to be well done, probably staged in some way too. The typical family photos are probably not that appealing to most.

I must admit I have one single person shot on my property, with my wife in it, but I felt it was appropriate for a particular image.

Thanks everyone that's help a lot!! I'm been tweeting it and its looks a lot better already. It's difficult when you know the property so well to give a proper overview. Lots to work on.

Thank you!!!

Jimbo wrote:

sazzleevans wrote:My husband agrees with you on the personalisation of the photos. In torn. It helps me to imagine being somewhere. Maybe I'm alone on that one though lol

No, there are at least two of us who firmly believe that people shots - well done - are a help rather than a hindrance in promoting a holiday property. When I worked for newspapers, it was an accepted mantra that "faces sell advertising spaces". We always had a big pool shot filled with guests on our website front page.

Unfortunately, the problem with website 'people shots' is that they tend not to be well done and owners are often nervous of asking guests' permission to shoot such material. And embarrassed photographers lead directly to stilted and awkward pictures.

And so, in the gite/B+B industry, this embarrassment has resulted in the generally accepted credo is that 'empty shots' are what guests want and people in the pictures are off-putting to potential bookers. But I don't believe this to be true.

I cheered I'm not alone lol

sazzleevans wrote:I cheered I'm not alone lol

Definitely not alone

BUT, and at the risk of going off topic again, I think that it all depends on the holiday that you are selling. If I remember correctly, Jimbo offered a Gite complex with shared pool, and the Apartment At Isla Canela Beach also offers a shared pool. The presence of "other people" is therefore normal and (subject to Jimbo's great advice) does not need to be hidden.

On the other hand, if your offering is a remote hillside Villa with private pool and no neighbours, then its probably more appropriate to show an empty pool - ready for just your family.

I think your right and you can't please everyone! You have to let it play out I think and see if bookings increase for your target market. I have been advertising my holiday let for 10 years now and it's changed. I would never have put a person in a photo to advertise before but this last year I tried it and bookings increased! Plus conversation as quicker.

The pop ups I found annoying but I read an article article on it. It's been there about 2 week now and I enquiries via my website has increased. They have come via the annoying pop up lol They are quick fire questions but for some people maybe it drags them into a conversation with me?

sazzleevans wrote: The pop ups I found annoying but I read an article article on it. It's been there about 2 week now and I enquiries via my website has increased. They have come via the annoying pop up lol They are quick fire questions but for some people maybe it drags them into a conversation with me?

That's really interesting and it all goes to show......

It is much along the same lines as do you 'chase' someone who has shown interest but disappeared from the radar for a week or more. I was always someone who never emailed them again to see if they were still interested as I hate to hassle but lately, if I liked the sound of somebody who had seemed very interested in booking, even asked for an agreement to be drawn up perhaps, but then vanished and especially if that booking period was under 3 months away, I have dared to email them "wondering" if they were still interested in that space. In most cases, I have had a grateful email back, saying yes definitely they wanted to book now but they had just been so busy, they had forgotten to follow it up....

Perhaps some people need a little push to enquire and you are giving them that little (annoying to some) shove.

Yes, that might be it. I hate them but it's increase the conversation with myself and visitors a lot!

sazzleevans wrote:The pop ups I found annoying but I read an article article on it. It's been there about 2 week now and I enquiries via my website has increased. They have come via the annoying pop up lol They are quick fire questions but for some people maybe it drags them into a conversation with me?

I suspect you are tapping into the "instant gratification" nature that the internet and social media is turning so many people to. The guest thinks - I have a question, I haven't got time to go looking for it in the pages of the website, so I'll just ask the question now via this pop up. The owner can then reply and I don't have to research or think.

It's happening more and more on the facebook group I'm admin on; people request what holiday they want, rather than researching what's available. It's very annoying to a lot of the members, but it makes life very easy for the poster. Something to ponder!

Can you delay the time before the pop up appears? Like the chat box that appears on bank websites and such like. It's not there instantly, but appears after a while.