Lay My Hat

This is a second attempt at a web site for our cabin in Quebec. I would welcome comments generally on how people would improve the site.

Specific experiences on the following issues particularly sought:

1. Have people found adding a response form (as opposed to just e-mail link) has generated more enquiries and business
2. Has anyone got the ability to direct book on line? How do you do this and does it make a difference to bookings volume?
3. Most effective tips/places to look on getting up the search engines.

However, any improvement tips welcome!

I'm off to review some of your now too

Thanks

Neil

Well done on a great home and website. Your photos are excellent and the whole web layout is clean. I really like the way the photos sell the image of the Canadian mountain holiday and especially like the barbeque by the lake photo. Definitely wish I was there time!

My only advise is that there is a lot of text on each page, resulting in small font and I found I didnt want to read it all!
I also always feel a location map is good for those that dont have any idea where in Canada you are. Maybe you are focussing on Canadian and USA guests more familar with your region.

Best of luck and I'm sure you will have plenty of bookers.

Declan

http://www.niceplace.iowners.net/

Nice site Neil, and a lovely property. I know the area well and have stayed nearby there on a couple of occasions. What I didn't see, and maybe I missed it, was a good photo of Lac Superiour on a lovely sunny day - it seemed both the shots were taken at sunset or nightime. I also go a bit confused about how the cottage sits in relation to the resort. Is it part of the resort or an independent property.

The other area I felt was confusing was the pricing. Had you thought of just having a price for 4 sharing then adding on a per person price for additional people. That seems a bit simpler.

From your testimonials it looks as though you have a good market coming out of the UK and Ireland. Are you also hitting the Ontario/Quebec market and advertising on www.cottagesincanada.com or www.cotttagelink.com? Both of those are relatively inexpensive and bring in a lot of visitors from Ottawa and Toronto.

I agree about the wordiness of the text - there is a lot, and the photographic possibilities are endless in that beautiful area, I would suggest more photos.

Good luck with it!

Hi

Many thanks for your review. This is good advice. You get a bit blind to your own site so these are good obersations. I used to have a location map and so I'm going to add again, plus changing over to a winter theme now so I will take the chance to edit the text a bit.

Great looking place you have too. I was in Nice a few weeks ago but up in the hills. Would love to take the family back so I'll book mark for the future.

Thanks again

Neil

declanja wrote:Well done on a great home and website. Your photos are excellent and the whole web layout is clean. I really like the way the photos sell the image of the Canadian mountain holiday and especially like the barbeque by the lake photo. Definitely wish I was there time!

My only advise is that there is a lot of text on each page, resulting in small font and I found I didnt want to read it all!
I also always feel a location map is good for those that dont have any idea where in Canada you are. Maybe you are focussing on Canadian and USA guests more familar with your region.

Best of luck and I'm sure you will have plenty of bookers.

Declan

http://www.niceplace.iowners.net/

Hi Heather

Thanks for your comments.

I've just changed the pricing but I agree it is unattractive and could be confusing. We're trying to get over that you can rent as four people at good rates as well as the whole cabin for 8 - your approach might be the best. I'm going to try it.

I have more photos but my web editing is limited and I've struggled to get it right - good point about the day time - I never thought about this.

I guess we've gone for UK and Ireland business because we get longer stays, but out of main season other renters get more weekends from Canada so I'm going to try and raise the profile via 'Cottages in Canada'.

I've found your own site which is very helpful. Best of luck.

Neil

cottageguru wrote:Nice site Neil, and a lovely property. I know the area well and have stayed nearby there on a couple of occasions. What I didn't see, and maybe I missed it, was a good photo of Lac Superiour on a lovely sunny day - it seemed both the shots were taken at sunset or nightime. I also go a bit confused about how the cottage sits in relation to the resort. Is it part of the resort or an independent property.

The other area I felt was confusing was the pricing. Had you thought of just having a price for 4 sharing then adding on a per person price for additional people. That seems a bit simpler.

From your testimonials it looks as though you have a good market coming out of the UK and Ireland. Are you also hitting the Ontario/Quebec market and advertising on www.cottagesincanada.com or www.cotttagelink.com? Both of those are relatively inexpensive and bring in a lot of visitors from Ottawa and Toronto.

I agree about the wordiness of the text - there is a lot, and the photographic possibilities are endless in that beautiful area, I would suggest more photos.

Good luck with it!

Neil

What a super property, in a stunning location, but you're not selling it because I refuse to read the script unless you pay for an optician . The print is far too small and there's too much of it. Let the photos do the work. I too tried to figure out where the property was along the lake. This is a very important point.

You're nearly there.

Chianti

Looks gorgeous !

I agree though about the text size and would suggest that you don't do the not quite hidden text thing at the bottom of the home page.

I tried this and EVERYONE told me that it would result in my getting delisted by Google. Not sure if it's true, and technically the text isn't actually hidden, but....

Copyright © Canada Holiday Rentals, 2007 Ski Canada Quebec Log Home Mont Tremblant Vacation

I am also not quite sure about the positioning of the background image. I realise that this is a personal thing, and possible says more about me than about your web design but the fact that it overlaps both the header and the body whilst not fitting either of them is setting my teeth on edge! At any rate it distracted me from paying atention to the things you WANT me to look at.

The red "per night" in your pricing tables seems in fact to have the opposite effect intended as I was scouring the page to find out if it WAS per night before I noticed it (OK old eyes). The yellow works better as a highlight I think.

Is there any way you can get that availability calendar in line in the page- you can with most and it saves a click and a site exit for your enquirers.

Otherwise it's a VERY nice looking site and it's nice to see someone else who thinks that it's worth putting more into the site than just photos of rooms and availability charts

I am convinced that there is a value in providing HEAPS of local info and you have that in spades.

best wishes

John