Lay My Hat

Hello

We have just launched our holiday cottage in Moreton in Marsh (Cotswolds) on the World. I'd be really pleased for any comments on our first stab at a web site (www.moretoncottage.co.uk).

All comments, feedback and suggestions gratefully received.

thanks

Warren

Hi Warren
Nice site / photos

Not sure if it is me but it took a while to load
Ran a webpage test - see link
http://www.webpagetest.org/result/170218_X3_CZ1/
Fist view 6 seconds
Fully loaded 12 seconds

Other thoughts

Might want as separate pages
Availability
Where are we? - Google map
Rates - Could not find this anywhere ??

You have a button for "book with TripAdvisor" , wondering why you would not want to take the booking direct ??

Images - Maybe some showing the outside of the cottage?
Maybe mention if you have parking?

Maybe a floor plan ?

Hope this helps

Larry

Hi Warren,

Well done with your new site, it looks really good!

The cottage looks very cosy with the log burner and you can tell everything is to a high standard, I particularly like the image showing the soaps provided, it's the little things that really count!

Do not take these as criticisms but I have a few suggestions that I think would help.

First impressions matter, the photos you've used are good, but I would add a bit more variety such as adding a photo inside the cottage and one of the private garden to give guests a good idea of what you are offering.

I'd show all local information on a separate tab instead of your homepage, perhaps combine this with your weather tab. To me the homepage should be getting people to try and find out more about your accommodation and booking. I'd also have a map so people can see how close you are to town and the train station.

The cottage tab is really good, I particularly like the itinerary list you have in each room, very clear (might do something similar on my website). I would have a photo of the bathroom in your gallery, and as VillaAntonio suggested, having some exterior photos of the cottage.

Your availability looks a bit worrying unless you've just opened. Is the calendar up to date? If you're struggling to get bookings I'd fully recommend signing on to a holiday letting agent such as Sykes who take commission but can get your cottage exposed to thousands of people and have bought us quite a few bookings. The page is good, but I'm guessing there's a reason why you're not taking bookings direct?

The only other thing I'd add is a FAQ with the basic details, check in and out times, what's provided, parking, key collection, food deliveries etc.

That all said, you should be very happy with the website you have so far, I'm sure you'll soon get some good bookings in.

Jay

I'm not quite sure why you're offering 2 different places to book (HA and TA) when on a period I checked 17-24 March, TA was nearly £100 more expensive - £801.50 as compared with £707.40.

HA shows a £62.40 booking fee and TA doesn't appear to have one at all.

I think you should help your guests and tell them which site to book on or better still try to get them to book direct with you. Once you've diverted them from your site to TA/HA, they may decide to book somewhere else instead!

Only a few minor comments to add - I think the Christmas tab is a bit too prominent - also what about New Year - not sure this merits a tab.

Overall clear and well laid out - I think that one more photo would remove the 1/1 which is lurking at the bottom of the page and also look a bit more even.

A floor plan would help, and lastly a tab for FAQs and local attractions/links page.

newtimber wrote:Once you've diverted them from your site to TA/HA, they may decide to book somewhere else instead!

Agree with newtimber.
You've gone to all the time & effort of setting up your own website so it would seem very generous of you to then send any visitors away & into a sea of competitors, where you may well get forgotten among the ubiquitous 'you might also like' ads from TA/HA. Then all your hard work will have gone to waste.
Other than that, looks pretty good.

Thank you all for such amazing feedback - really helpful. We've made most of the changes suggested now to the web site and removed our external booking partners from the 'Book Now' page, replacing instead with a direct booking via freetobook.

As suggested, we've removed the local information from the homepage and separated this out. We've made rates etc. more prominent too.

Still to do - floor plan, upload more external photos, review Christmas tab, info on parking.

I really appreciate all your comments and suggestions - we're new to this business and learning every day...

All the best

Warren