Updated website (with SuperControl & Master Cancel)

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.
AndyPearce
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2015 10:56 am
Location: Kidwelly, South Wales
Contact:

Updated website (with SuperControl & Master Cancel)

Post by AndyPearce »

Hi all, after years of manually taking direct bookings and asking for bank transfers I've finally signed up to use Super Control so that people can book direct on our website.

We've also signed up for Master Cancel which gives us and our guest a bit of peace of mind hopefully in this Covid-19 era

Any thoughts appreciated;

http://www.dyffrynhouse.co.uk
SPJ
Posts: 468
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2015 9:01 am
Location: Aquitaine
Contact:

Post by SPJ »

Looks good to me Andy. I think you've pitched it just right. Reassuring / informative. The master cancel sounds like a good idea - of course the test is always in the experience of the claim.

If you don't mind, I may steal/borrow some of your wording of your terms and conditions about COVID.
SusanMay
Posts: 125
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2012 6:23 pm
Location: Dorset

Post by SusanMay »

Website looks good and I like the Covid / cancellation updates.

The booking system is easy to use but seems a little bit hit and miss. I had to refresh a few times after watching a spinning circle spin and spin.

I was interested in how you have priced for parts of weeks but I'm finding the pricing / number of days you can select a bit confusing. For example, if you have a start date of Saturday 1st March you can book 2, 3 or 4 nights for the same price and then the number of nights you can select jumps straight up to 25.. Pick a week later and the same thing happens but the number of nights you can select jumps from 4 to 18 this time.

Start date of Friday 5th March does let me pick any number of days up to a week, but 1 night costs the same as 3, and 4 nights the same as 7. Perhaps that's what you want but might be simpler to just let people book a short stay of 3 nights from Friday, 4 nights from Monday, or a whole week? If I was a punter I'd make sure I was getting the most days I could for the same price anyway!
Joanna
Posts: 1091
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2007 3:12 pm
Location: Chester, North West England & Sidmouth, East Devon
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Post by Joanna »

Looks generally OK but there is a slight glitch when I first go to the home page - it flashes a black background before the white background loads.

Also, I would prefer to see the house and location first and the Covid-19 stuff taking second place. On my PC the first screenful is just the beach photo, the coronavirus update and the master cancel statement - I have to scroll to see the house photos. The coronavirus and master cancel are extras to seal the deal, not your main selling points.

Our focus lately has been so much on covid-19 that it's easy for us to forget that people are primarily looking for a nice place to stay and that's what they want to see first.
Jo

Joint owner of Baker's Cottage in Chester & Chandler's Cottage in Sidmouth
newtimber
Posts: 1945
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 5:57 pm
Location: Brighton
Contact:

Post by newtimber »

I'm interested in how you are managing to clean a 12 bed property with pets in such a short space of time in the Covid-19 era. Advise from VisitEngland etc says removed of all non-essential items etc and everything has to be cleaned and then disinfected and you have games rooms and are eco-friendly which presumably means you need to use less chemicals/disinfectant. I think people want to know what you are doing to make their stay safe.

Regarding the master-cancel I found your terms and conditions very unclear. Why can I cancel at any time from 60 days before my stay? If it's 70 days before I stay, why do I have to wait 10 days before I can cancel?

And in the master cancel terms it has:-
• Reimbursements:
Only lodging costs are refunded. Additional extras, including but not limited to cleaning fees, taxes and other ancillary charges, will not be refunded.
Why are cleaning fees and taxes retained for cancellations?

And then there is
Administration Charges
We will make an administration charge of £15 for the following: cancellations ...
Your front page says that:-
This allows you to book with peace of mind knowing that you will not lose out should you need to cancel.
I'm very confused, as you appear to advertise that I won't lose out and then in the terms and conditions, it seems to say I won't get all the money I paid back. If I don't get all my money back, I have lost out haven't I?

It then has this:-
In line with Sykes Cottages booking conditions ...
If I am booking directly with you, what has Sykes Cottages got to do with your terms and conditions?
AndyPearce
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2015 10:56 am
Location: Kidwelly, South Wales
Contact:

Post by AndyPearce »

SPJ wrote:Looks good to me Andy. I think you've pitched it just right. Reassuring / informative. The master cancel sounds like a good idea - of course the test is always in the experience of the claim.

If you don't mind, I may steal/borrow some of your wording of your terms and conditions about COVID.
I don't mind at all if you borrow some of the wording.

With regards to the policy I've read the insurers T&C's very carefully and it really is a no quibble policy - only nuclear disaster and riots aren't covered! With renewed outbreaks and lockdowns a possibility until a vaccine in place we prefer the peace of mind this gives us and our guests.
AndyPearce
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2015 10:56 am
Location: Kidwelly, South Wales
Contact:

Post by AndyPearce »

SusanMay wrote:Website looks good and I like the Covid / cancellation updates.

The booking system is easy to use but seems a little bit hit and miss. I had to refresh a few times after watching a spinning circle spin and spin.

I was interested in how you have priced for parts of weeks but I'm finding the pricing / number of days you can select a bit confusing. For example, if you have a start date of Saturday 1st March you can book 2, 3 or 4 nights for the same price and then the number of nights you can select jumps straight up to 25.. Pick a week later and the same thing happens but the number of nights you can select jumps from 4 to 18 this time.

Start date of Friday 5th March does let me pick any number of days up to a week, but 1 night costs the same as 3, and 4 nights the same as 7. Perhaps that's what you want but might be simpler to just let people book a short stay of 3 nights from Friday, 4 nights from Monday, or a whole week? If I was a punter I'd make sure I was getting the most days I could for the same price anyway!
Thanks for the feedback Susan, my testing hasn't shown those issues but I'll be sure to do a bit more now you've raised it. With regards to our pricing we do indeed charge the same for 3 or 4 nights when those length stays are allowed. We've been running Dyffryn House for 11 years and we do find that people want to book the right amount of nights even if they could have more nights for the same price! We think that most people will book the max number of nights for the price but it saves phone calls from the "but I only want 2 nights, I don't care if it's the same price" brigade!
AndyPearce
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2015 10:56 am
Location: Kidwelly, South Wales
Contact:

Post by AndyPearce »

Joanna wrote:Looks generally OK but there is a slight glitch when I first go to the home page - it flashes a black background before the white background loads.

Also, I would prefer to see the house and location first and the Covid-19 stuff taking second place. On my PC the first screenful is just the beach photo, the coronavirus update and the master cancel statement - I have to scroll to see the house photos. The coronavirus and master cancel are extras to seal the deal, not your main selling points.

Our focus lately has been so much on covid-19 that it's easy for us to forget that people are primarily looking for a nice place to stay and that's what they want to see first.
The background colour change is intentional to grab attention, not a glitch but I can see how you might think it was!

It's hard to know what to do for the best with Covid and our sort of business - I can't wait to relegate the banner stuff about Covid and MasterCancel to the bottom of the page but my wife thinks it's important to lead with that at the moment from feedback shes had on Facebook.
AndyPearce
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2015 10:56 am
Location: Kidwelly, South Wales
Contact:

Post by AndyPearce »

newtimber wrote:I'm interested in how you are managing to clean a 12 bed property with pets in such a short space of time in the Covid-19 era. Advise from VisitEngland etc says removed of all non-essential items etc and everything has to be cleaned and then disinfected and you have games rooms and are eco-friendly which presumably means you need to use less chemicals/disinfectant. I think people want to know what you are doing to make their stay safe.
We have 4 cleaners, our housekeeper helping and my wife going over for changeovers. Our eco products do the same as normal cleaning products but without the nasty chemicals BioHygiene do some great eco friendly products that qualify for PASC standards for Covid. We are also steam cleaning hard surfaces. We are removing all bedding including duvets, pillows, mattress and pillow protectors and putting a cleaned set on every time as well as professionally laundered bedding changes. My wife has been very thorough about making sure we can adhere to PASC standards and the 'Good To Go' requirements.
newtimber wrote:Regarding the master-cancel I found your terms and conditions very unclear. Why can I cancel at any time from 60 days before my stay? If it's 70 days before I stay, why do I have to wait 10 days before I can cancel?
That's just the terms of the policy that we have to protect us - I'm not sure why. We've never had any early cancellations but if we did we'd probably refund the guests completely and then process the claim within the final 60 days.
newtimber wrote:And in the master cancel terms it has:-
• Reimbursements:
Only lodging costs are refunded. Additional extras, including but not limited to cleaning fees, taxes and other ancillary charges, will not be refunded.
Why are cleaning fees and taxes retained for cancellations?
We don't charge any cleaning fees or taxes so even though this is part of the wording that Master Cancel advise us to use in effect this will not have an impact on the guest in any way
newtimber wrote:And then there is
Administration Charges
We will make an administration charge of £15 for the following: cancellations ...
Your front page says that:-
This allows you to book with peace of mind knowing that you will not lose out should you need to cancel.
I'm very confused, as you appear to advertise that I won't lose out and then in the terms and conditions, it seems to say I won't get all the money I paid back. If I don't get all my money back, I have lost out haven't I?
You're right thanks, need to get rid of that £15 charge mention, thats from our legacy terms.
newtimber wrote:It then has this:-
In line with Sykes Cottages booking conditions ...
If I am booking directly with you, what has Sykes Cottages got to do with your terms and conditions?
Same as above, this needs removing -something else I missed in my rush to get the changes live!

Thanks for all the feedback and taking time to look through it all properly :D
AndyPearce
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2015 10:56 am
Location: Kidwelly, South Wales
Contact:

Post by AndyPearce »

Joanna wrote:Looks generally OK but there is a slight glitch when I first go to the home page - it flashes a black background before the white background loads.

Also, I would prefer to see the house and location first and the Covid-19 stuff taking second place. On my PC the first screenful is just the beach photo, the coronavirus update and the master cancel statement - I have to scroll to see the house photos. The coronavirus and master cancel are extras to seal the deal, not your main selling points.

Our focus lately has been so much on covid-19 that it's easy for us to forget that people are primarily looking for a nice place to stay and that's what they want to see first.
We've. now changed it round - you're quite right that we should be focussing on the positives on a holiday!
AndyPearce
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2015 10:56 am
Location: Kidwelly, South Wales
Contact:

Post by AndyPearce »

SusanMay wrote:For example, if you have a start date of Saturday 1st March you can book 2, 3 or 4 nights for the same price and then the number of nights you can select jumps straight up to 25..
You had me worried for a minute as it shouldn't allow a stay starting on Saturday but the 1st March is a Monday. Basically we only do full weeks bookings from Friday to Friday so this is why a Monday booking will only allow 4 nights - to take you up to the next friday. ive no idea why it jumps to 24 nights then but I suspect it is due to the fact that I set up the same pricing in a block up until the 26th March so it sees this as the longest I can book under those terms. I'll speak to Supercontrol about this as it does seem a little odd!
SusanMay
Posts: 125
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2012 6:23 pm
Location: Dorset

Post by SusanMay »

Whoops, sorry to worry you! It doesn't seem to be going into a spin any more on me either :)

A bit of an aside but looking at your Covid-19 statements I'm wondering about "Should any guest develop Covid-19 symptoms they must return home to self isolate".

Can we say this? The NHS Poster for Visitors says anyone with symptoms must arrange a test and then go home (if they can) if it comes back positive. Negative and they can stay as planned.

This is the link from the PASC website:

https://426dad06-dd67-4020-82b8-e449f80 ... 7e965b.pdf
newtimber
Posts: 1945
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 5:57 pm
Location: Brighton
Contact:

Post by newtimber »

AndyPearce wrote:
We have 4 cleaners, our housekeeper helping and my wife going over for changeovers. Our eco products do the same as normal cleaning products but without the nasty chemicals BioHygiene do some great eco friendly products that qualify for PASC standards for Covid. We are also steam cleaning hard surfaces. My wife has been very thorough about making sure we can adhere to PASC standards and the 'Good To Go' requirements.
I'm very impressed and thanks for the information on BioHygiene. It'll be great for the hard surfaces. What are you using on the sofas and curtains and pool table and other non-hard surfaces? I couldn't find anything except Ramsol which isn't exactly eco friendly.
Tremewan
Posts: 65
Joined: Tue Jan 07, 2014 11:35 am
Location: Yorkshire Dales

Post by Tremewan »

Andy, may I ask whether you used an online web-builder for your sites? If so, which one and who does your hosting please?
AndyPearce
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2015 10:56 am
Location: Kidwelly, South Wales
Contact:

Post by AndyPearce »

Tremewan wrote:Andy, may I ask whether you used an online web-builder for your sites? If so, which one and who does your hosting please?
I don't use an online web builder I'm afraid I use a website development tool for Mac called Rapidweaver. It's a nice compromise for someone like me who has some web development skills but doesn't want to code from scratch. I host my own websites as I have a reseller account with a hosting company.
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