This is a new rental venture in Corsica. I'm particularly interested to hear about any questions not answered by the site.
1. Which are your target markets in order of importance?
People from mainland France, then from UK
2. Single biggest selling point of your rental property?
Stunning views over the Gravone valley
3. What are the other reasons why someone should want to stay in your place instead of another in the same area?
It has a lot of character and is very spacious.
Site promotion is not critical as it will be linked to from some commercial sites. Any feedback much appreciated. Thanks,
Please review www.villa-corse-location.com
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j.k.shepherd
- Posts: 4
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- Location: Corsica, France
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Paul Carmel
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- Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:25 pm
- Location: Palma Mallorca & Greece
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Hi,
I'm not entirely sure from your posting what it is you are asking! So, not sure if this is appropriate but here's my two penneth . . . . One thing that would make me nervous about booking your Villa is the Testimonials, as on the one hand you say the Villa has never been rented out, yet on the other you have testimonials. If these are from family and friends I would clarify that on your site, because at the moment it looks like you have made these up yourself.
I'm not entirely sure from your posting what it is you are asking! So, not sure if this is appropriate but here's my two penneth . . . . One thing that would make me nervous about booking your Villa is the Testimonials, as on the one hand you say the Villa has never been rented out, yet on the other you have testimonials. If these are from family and friends I would clarify that on your site, because at the moment it looks like you have made these up yourself.
Cheers
PC
PC
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Paul Carmel
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Paul Carmel
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Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
Alexia,
I make no great claims about their search engine ratings but, at least, all meta files and key words are in both languages so the chances of achieving hits is increased. It does seem to be effective as I do get a reasonable number of enquiries from France, Belgium, Holland, etc.
Naturally, the properties, facilities and standards remain the same although prices are in £'s on one site and in €'s on the other.
Alan
That is one of the reasons why I chose vacationfrance for some of my internet marketing. It is not just one bilingual site. It is in fact two separate sites, vacationfrance.com in English and vacancesfrance.com in French, with cross links between them.It's going to be hard to target mainland France and the UK: these are 2 very different markets, with different expectations and standards.
I make no great claims about their search engine ratings but, at least, all meta files and key words are in both languages so the chances of achieving hits is increased. It does seem to be effective as I do get a reasonable number of enquiries from France, Belgium, Holland, etc.
Naturally, the properties, facilities and standards remain the same although prices are in £'s on one site and in €'s on the other.
Alan
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Paul Carmel
- Posts: 3836
- Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:25 pm
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Hi James,
A couple more things, I would suggest you get rid of the link to homelidays as it goes to their main search, not to your property. All this does is give people the opportunity to look at other offerings and take the focus off yours.
Also you might want to think about moving your changeover day to a Sunday, because the UK direct flights to here are on a Sunday and the French can get here any day of the week. That's not to say if you are coming from the UK Sunday is your only option, Easy Jet to Nice onward flight or ferry etc, but a direct flight makes life easy and that's what holidays are about.
Personally I would remove the testimonials altogether, because I have to ask myself would a family member or friend be biased and I don't think they would put pen to paper and say those things.
I realise charging for linen is a very French thing, but don't you think it looks a bit cheap? Why not factor it into your prices?
Hope this is of use, I am not trying have a go, just trying to be helpful.
A couple more things, I would suggest you get rid of the link to homelidays as it goes to their main search, not to your property. All this does is give people the opportunity to look at other offerings and take the focus off yours.
Also you might want to think about moving your changeover day to a Sunday, because the UK direct flights to here are on a Sunday and the French can get here any day of the week. That's not to say if you are coming from the UK Sunday is your only option, Easy Jet to Nice onward flight or ferry etc, but a direct flight makes life easy and that's what holidays are about.
Personally I would remove the testimonials altogether, because I have to ask myself would a family member or friend be biased and I don't think they would put pen to paper and say those things.
I realise charging for linen is a very French thing, but don't you think it looks a bit cheap? Why not factor it into your prices?
Hope this is of use, I am not trying have a go, just trying to be helpful.
Cheers
PC
PC
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Alan Knighting
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James,
If you can discover the actual address your individual page on the "homelidays" site then you could change the link to that address and keep the link. It would look something like http://www.vacationfrance.com/vf/vf2100_en.html which is one of my page addresses.
That will work if the site is made up of a set of static individual pages but probably not if the pages are built from a database when they are displayed. Its may be worth giving it a try.
If it is possible you could also add the address to a signature for your e-mails thereby giving all e-mail recipients a direct link to your web page. Just a tiny bit more basic marketing.
Alan
If you can discover the actual address your individual page on the "homelidays" site then you could change the link to that address and keep the link. It would look something like http://www.vacationfrance.com/vf/vf2100_en.html which is one of my page addresses.
That will work if the site is made up of a set of static individual pages but probably not if the pages are built from a database when they are displayed. Its may be worth giving it a try.
If it is possible you could also add the address to a signature for your e-mails thereby giving all e-mail recipients a direct link to your web page. Just a tiny bit more basic marketing.
Alan
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j.k.shepherd
- Posts: 4
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Useful feedback
Just wanted to say thanks to you all for some really useful feedback, much of which has now been adopted.
James
Hello Mr Shepherd,
You asked if there were questions unanswered by your site. There are a couple of omissions.
You said that the view was the biggest selling point, but you don’t mention that on your homepage, or show it. There is a pic which may be the view but it is not captioned and it’s a smallish pic.
Good views are extremely important selling points and if you have one I would always advise showing it right at the top and stating it too.
I would change the heading on your homepage to something like:
‘Rustic Corsican country villa – stunning views of Gravone valley’
I think the pics on the site are good quality – nice light conditions on most of the externals. But I would show more pics and caption them so we know what we are looking at and why we should care.
You have chosen to write the text in bullet points laying out your main selling points. That’s one way of doing it and can be very effective, but I think if the text is spare, the pictures need to do more work. I would show more of the inside – I think I only saw two rooms and no bedrooms pictured. Unless some rooms let you down and you don’t want to show them, I like to see as many rooms as possible when I am choosing a rental house, and certainly where I will sleep and cook.
On your Location page, I think you should be selling Corsica more. It’s a uniquely beautiful place, and not everyone coming to your site will necessarily have decided to come to Corsica or know how lovely it is. I would definitely put some attractive generic photos of countryside, beach, etc. there. I thought Paul did a good job of this with his Corsican site:
http://www.corsicanholidays.com/Corsica ... _loca.html
You two are lucky, making a living on Corsica!
You asked if there were questions unanswered by your site. There are a couple of omissions.
You said that the view was the biggest selling point, but you don’t mention that on your homepage, or show it. There is a pic which may be the view but it is not captioned and it’s a smallish pic.
Good views are extremely important selling points and if you have one I would always advise showing it right at the top and stating it too.
I would change the heading on your homepage to something like:
‘Rustic Corsican country villa – stunning views of Gravone valley’
I think the pics on the site are good quality – nice light conditions on most of the externals. But I would show more pics and caption them so we know what we are looking at and why we should care.
You have chosen to write the text in bullet points laying out your main selling points. That’s one way of doing it and can be very effective, but I think if the text is spare, the pictures need to do more work. I would show more of the inside – I think I only saw two rooms and no bedrooms pictured. Unless some rooms let you down and you don’t want to show them, I like to see as many rooms as possible when I am choosing a rental house, and certainly where I will sleep and cook.
On your Location page, I think you should be selling Corsica more. It’s a uniquely beautiful place, and not everyone coming to your site will necessarily have decided to come to Corsica or know how lovely it is. I would definitely put some attractive generic photos of countryside, beach, etc. there. I thought Paul did a good job of this with his Corsican site:
http://www.corsicanholidays.com/Corsica ... _loca.html
You two are lucky, making a living on Corsica!
Paolo
Lay My Hat
Lay My Hat
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Paul Carmel
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Hi James,
Me again, sorry mate!
Paolo's post made me go back for another look, I think I would definitely change the photo of the living room. You mention "Natural stone floors", the one in the living room might look nice in the flesh, but on photo it looks like concrete painted grey and makes it look cold - a couple of rugs might do the trick, bright colours mind.
Me again, sorry mate!
Paolo's post made me go back for another look, I think I would definitely change the photo of the living room. You mention "Natural stone floors", the one in the living room might look nice in the flesh, but on photo it looks like concrete painted grey and makes it look cold - a couple of rugs might do the trick, bright colours mind.
Cheers
PC
PC
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Paul Carmel
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Hi James,
I love the idea of a dual-language site. Great thinking! You also have plenty of pictures on the front page as well as the summary info about the house, and that's excellent -- people appreciate that kind of directness.
From the perspective of someone who is totally ignorant of Corsica I would like more information on Corsica itself as a vacation destination, i.e. what makes Corsica special? Why would I go there instead of somewhere closer to home? Also, the ease/difficulty of getting there from your target markets might be useful information. If you're targeting mostly French and British folk, how easy is it to get to your house from London and Paris? I've only done a quick overview of the English version, but I didn't see that.
Also, two technical points: even on the English pages the page title is in French; and, the top-central five images to the left of the yellow image that says "la source doree" are all broken images to me.
Cheers,
-Vrooje
I love the idea of a dual-language site. Great thinking! You also have plenty of pictures on the front page as well as the summary info about the house, and that's excellent -- people appreciate that kind of directness.
From the perspective of someone who is totally ignorant of Corsica I would like more information on Corsica itself as a vacation destination, i.e. what makes Corsica special? Why would I go there instead of somewhere closer to home? Also, the ease/difficulty of getting there from your target markets might be useful information. If you're targeting mostly French and British folk, how easy is it to get to your house from London and Paris? I've only done a quick overview of the English version, but I didn't see that.
Also, two technical points: even on the English pages the page title is in French; and, the top-central five images to the left of the yellow image that says "la source doree" are all broken images to me.
Cheers,
-Vrooje