Fun In The Sun...or Holiday From Hell? Please 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.
reddevil
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Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:35 pm
Location: Spain

Fun In The Sun...or Holiday From Hell? Please review.

Post by reddevil »

Hi holidaymakers,

This is the first ever re-vamp of our website which we first uploaded nearly 3 years ago.

http://www.spanishcosyhomes.com/SCH1/index.htm

We would really appreciate all your comments, and especially those in the following categories:-

1. What are your first impressions about the look and feel of the site?

2. What things would put you off making an enquiry about this property?

3. What things would encourage you to make an enquiry?

4. Absolutely anything else you want to make a comment about?

Thanks in advance.
Last edited by reddevil on Fri Aug 25, 2006 11:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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What would you attempt to do if you knew you would not fail?
la vache!
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Post by la vache! »

Hi Reddevil,
I'm afraid I'm not really a holidaymaker, but I can give you a little feedback if you like!
1. What are your first impressions about the look and feel of the site?
Very professional, and well laid out the only thing is the colour scheme is very similar to a lot of rental listing sites I advertise on e.g. H-R and holidaylets, so at first glance it doesn't look like a private website, but this is probably a good thing!
2. What things would put you off making an enquiry about this property?
Nothing really, except sometimes (as a reserved English girl)I'm not sure I liked some of the familiarity such as 'your holiday villa' when I haven't yet booked, but that's probably just me!

3. What things would encourage you to make an enquiry?
Excellent photos and very comprehensive information - there is nothing really left to enquire about!

4. Absolutely anything else you want to make a comment about?
Do you need all the navigation on the side, top and bottom?The site may be a little easier to read if the navigation was just on the side!

Overall excellent site.
Gillyann
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Post by Gillyann »

Hallo Redevil - I'm fairly new to these forums, but having seen your website, I would say it is very effective. :D I like the way it tells me everything I need to know if I were searching for a place to stay there, and, I like seeing the bedrooms and living rooms too, very important I feel. The view looks nice also.

Excellent I think :wink:

Gilly
There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.
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Mme Charlotte
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Post by Mme Charlotte »

Hope I can help....

1. What are your first impressions about the look and feel of the site?

Nice and neat, thoughtfully put together. good choice of colours. though the title 'cosy homes' didn't quite fit with the beaches etc... and all the options to click down the side reminded me of one of those sites that just links to everywhere else.

2. What things would put you off making an enquiry about this property?

wasn't immediately obvious where the detail about the property was. and again the title 'spanish cosy homes' made me think of more than one property and possibly an agent. when I clicked through to the villa description page I immediately thought - now this looks nice...

3. What things would encourage you to make an enquiry?

great photos on the 'villa description' page, easy to read pricing table.

4. Absolutely anything else you want to make a comment about?

the orange and blue work really nicely together - use more of the orange near the top of the main page - perhaps to highlight the links to property details - or in a summary box to tell people about the villa. too much text to get lost in otherwise.

you've put tons of work into this so you should be really chuffed with yourself! I might even link to you :D
www.gites-en-france.info

...le good life...
reddevil
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Location: Spain

Post by reddevil »

Gillyann,

Welcome to the Forum.

Thank you for taking the time to review our site and for your comments - it is obviously very important to receive honest feedback from other people.

I have been a member here for about 2 years and have found a wealth of information about renting out a holiday home which has helped us improve our image and therefore increase the number of guests that we have.

Susan,

Your critique was spot on - and your comments have created a lot of discussion with my family!

1. The look and feel of the site? It has taken us nearly 2 years to get this look and, being a prefectionist, I could not stop until it looked kind of professional, so it is good to hear someone who also thinks so. The family discussions have centred around whether a professional looking site would put people off or attract them and I think there has been a couple of threads on LMH about this?? We do not know whether it is a good thing or not but perhaps will give some feedback on the number of enquiries we get after the site has "gone live' next month.

We wonder how other people view this 'professional' site??

2. Your holiday villa or Our holiday villa?? A very nice comment from you and one that had us discussing for ages. Actually, when our site was first went live we had either "our villa' or 'the villa'. It was only after we joined LMH and read Paolo's messages on being 'more personal' and saying 'your' instead of 'the' that we changed. Our discussions concluded that 'your villa' could probably be beneficial in some countries who like this personal approach (maybe Spain and Italy) but would be seen as too personal in other countries like Britain?? Just a thought?? And as our target audience are mainly British and Irish then we are now thinking about changing it back to 'the villa' or 'our villa'.

Again, what do other people think about this?

3. Thank you. We spent most of our holidays trying to get good photos with our basic camera. Out of 400 photos we have managed to get about 15-20 which show on the website. Again, Paolo says that good photos are the most important aspect to getting more guests.

4. Good point about the 3 menus - that is 1 or 2 more than most other sites. We agree that for the visitors this may be confusing. The only reason for including it was for technical reasons in that we think Google may look on us more favourable if there are more links on our pages? We are not sure but will definately bear this in mind.

Thanks again for taking the time to review our site.
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What would you attempt to do if you knew you would not fail?
la vache!
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Post by la vache! »

Please let us know what the result is when you put your new site live Reddevil - I'd be interested to know whether the professional site wins you more bookings, better rankings etc. I remember the debate on this forum regarding 'homemade' vs professional sites!
reddevil
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Location: Spain

Post by reddevil »

Bonjour Madame Charlotte and welcome to the Forum,

Your comments do help and are appreciated.

1. I agree that the ‘cosy homes’ title is easily misconstrued as more than one property and that the long list of options on the left menu can be too off putting for some visitors. I took a peek at your site and actually like the clean look of your menus, which is quite a big contrast to how ours is designed. It is thought provoking to decide on how many links to put there as we wanted to give the immediate impression that the site contains lots of information but do not want to flood it with too much info. In hindsight, we will probably we will reduce the number a little?

2. Nice point about not being immediately obvious where the property was. We will rethink this and maybe put the villa links in the top menu or, as your suggestion, put them in a summary box. Question for you…..does it put you off or attract you if you think a site is run by an ‘agent’ or by the ‘owner’??

3. Thanks. We spent a lot of time trying to get better photos during our recent brief trip.

4. Being part of the colour-blind clan, I do appreciate comments on the colours. Might try to put the top menu in orange and see how that looks.

Merci beaucoup et au revoir
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Mme Charlotte
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Post by Mme Charlotte »

reddevil wrote:Bonjour Madame Charlotte and welcome to the Forum,

Your comments do help and are appreciated.

Question for you…..does it put you off or attract you if you think a site is run by an ‘agent’ or by the ‘owner’??
Thanks - it's good to be on here - there seems to be a wealth of useful advice and helpful people floating round!

The agent thing would put me off if I was looking to book with a home owner... anything that smacks of agent always feels less personal and one of the great attractions about booking a holiday from the person who owns the property is the personal angle... just my opinion tho....

as Susan said, do keep us posted on how the new site works out for you. and thanks for your kind comments about our site, I'll pass them on to our daughter who did the work ( thank good ness for grown up children who have all these useful little skills!)

Mme Charlotte
www.gites-en-france.info

...le good life...
Forrest Gump
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Post by Forrest Gump »

reddevil wrote:Good point about the 3 menus - that is 1 or 2 more than most other sites. We agree that for the visitors this may be confusing. The only reason for including it was for technical reasons in that we think Google may look on us more favourable if there are more links on our pages? We are not sure but will definately bear this in mind.
Google's page rank system works partly on weighing the amount of incoming links to your site with the amount of links on your page. So 3 menus would do your site more harm than good with Google :? Your site could be penalized for this, so if I was you I would do away with the other 2 menus. One is definitely enough. Hope that helps.

Oh, forgot to say - great site! However, with the 'cosy' title yet the 'spacious' lounge it gives two different impressions. I also thought there were more properties than one because of 'homes'. The pictures are perfect though!
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Big Sis..
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Post by Big Sis.. »

Hi Reddevil
Congrats on the site it looks great!!Im jealous :cry: [couldnt find a jealous emotion so this will have to do]

I have thought about doing my own site but im not very good on computers.
Its something I will have to consider in the future.

Im on quite a few websites[some paid,some free,] & I am doing quite well but I think I would have to bite the bullet soon.
Maybe I can pick your brains.

The only thing that I would say is that Spanish Cosy Homes does seem like a company and if I was looking for a home directly from an owner maybe I wouldnt think of it,
But its a very small point.

I rent in Torrevieja as well maybe we can pm each other.and share stories etc.
Do you go out there much or do you live there?
We go about 5 times a year.
Usually out of season.As you have to get your rental income in the peak weeks.
But as you say on your website Torre gets a lot of sunshine & Ive been sunbathing on our Patio in December & Jan[nights are chilly] and been swimming in the sea even then[The pools a bit cold though]

Last went out in The beginning of July and due to go again Oct.
[cant wait]

Anyway congratulations again on the great site :!: :lol:
reddevil
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Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:35 pm
Location: Spain

Post by reddevil »

Welcome to the Forum Forrest Gump,
From what I know about Google you are right in that one (of the many) criteria for ranking websites is the number and quality of links on a page. I wouldn’t have thought that number of menus would affect anything although the quality and number of links may do?
And thanks for the general thumbs up and for taking the time to review the site.

Ros,
Thanks for your compliments about our site. It is great to hear from another Torreviejan and we would very much love to hear your stories about what you think of the area, why you are attracted to it etc etc. But I suppose we shouldn’t bore the rest of the Forum with our talk so yes, please PM me and we can start the ball rolling. Cheers.
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What would you attempt to do if you knew you would not fail?
reddevil
Posts: 244
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:35 pm
Location: Spain

Post by reddevil »

Thanks to your previous comments we have now made the following changes and would still very much appreciate your thoughts???

1. Added a Location Map (it is homemade – but does it look OK?)
2. Used the word “our� instead of “your� villa to make it less personal and less like an agent
3. Slightly reduced the detail in left menu
4. Changed the top menu to orange (was blue)

Isn’t it amazing how you suddenly go blind to these matters when designing your own website (haha).

All further comments are still very much appreciated, especially in the following categories:-

1. Some of my friends have said it is not immediately apparent how to find details about the villa? Any comments?
2. What would put you off sending an enquiry about the villa?
3. What would encourage you to send an enquiry about the villa?
4. Comments about absolutely anything else.
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What would you attempt to do if you knew you would not fail?
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Big Sis..
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Post by Big Sis.. »

Hi Reddevil

Hello again,

We will have to have a chat.Im sure you have a lot of local knowledge we will be a good team because what I dont know I make up :!: [sad but true] :(

Us Torreviejans must stick together as supposedly you have to have a sense of humour to live there[forum comment I got today] I have no sense so hopefully Ive got the Humour [ish] :lol:


Ive noticed that you have links to carjet & skyscanner on your site.
Both sites I use a lot too. :)

Ive just posted a new topic on car rental in Spain.[in which you got a mention] :D

Briefly,[unusually for me] have you tried any other rental sites and are they as good as carjet :?:
reddevil
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Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:35 pm
Location: Spain

Post by reddevil »

Ros,

Rather than hijack this thread I will send you a PM so we can chat via email.

RD
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Mme Charlotte
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Post by Mme Charlotte »

The orange really settles the whole page - very nice :D
www.gites-en-france.info

...le good life...
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