Advice on my website please...

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.
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swede
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Advice on my website please...

Post by swede »

Hello everybody. I just recently found this forum and I have found it absolutely superb. If I would have found it a year ago would have been even better. Anyway I have this website which is not really contributing with any concrete bookings so far but is more or less used in information purpose by the customers. Feedback on the website would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.letsstayinbudapest.com

Best regards
/Mikael
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Garri
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Re: Advice on my website please...

Post by Garri »

I like the idea of the right sidebar but the images give the impression they are banner ads for external sites. They have no identifiable branding style tying them to your website.

Plus, unless you own all 45 of the Hungary properties as advertised on the HL site, then I see no point sending your punters to your competitors with such a prominent link.
Last edited by Garri on Sat Oct 25, 2008 9:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Mountain Goat
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Post by Mountain Goat »

Mikael, welcome to LMH

Does the booking system work? I was trying to find the price of a long weekend in November or December, and couldn't get a price. I'm using Firefox (and tried with IE) as a browser, and trying to book on available dates.

MG
A-two
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Post by A-two »

It's a minimum 3 night booking, so I think the system will only accept 4 day blocks, ie. including the the morning of check out day. If so, it's a bit confusing, and someone might give up, so maybe I would remove any restrictions to dates, and let people enter whatever dates they want to inquire about, then address minimum stays in response emails? (Often people put in random dates just to get feedback with other info, so making the dates part difficult is counter productive IMHO)

I think you could make thumbnail photos on home page click through to enlargements, they are too small to see, especially floor plan. Photos are good, but I would lose the one in kitchen with someone (you?) cutting up a lemon. No offense, but it's a bit of a giveaway as professionals don't have people in interior photos.

Cancellation policy is very generous. I can cancel the day before arrival and only lose E30? Cool....or did you really mean that?

I would definitely consider staying here and find the website attractive presentation of what looks like a great place to site at reasonable prices. I also like the language options along the top, that works very well.
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Mountain Goat
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Post by Mountain Goat »

Whether 3 nights or a week, I can't get a quote on price or make a booking. Either it doesn't work or I'm just not getting it.

MG
A-two
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Post by A-two »

MG,
I'm having no problem at all on Firefox. I put in booking dates for a week from Nov 22nd to 29th for 2 people - it shows availability, quotes the price and iif you then click the pay now button, it takes inquirer to Paypal account to make payments. Can't see the problem, sorry....maybe you're on IE6? I'm only suggesting that because there are huge browser compatibility problems with IE6 on one website I am working on right now, whereas IE7 and FF are perfect, IE 6 is missing half the site.
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Mountain Goat
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Post by Mountain Goat »

Nope, using two version of FF and two of IE - the most I can do is cause the start/end dates to change colour. The calculate price button is greyed out as well.

Anyone else finding a problem?

MG
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Garri
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Post by Garri »

Works fine for me using FF on OSX.

It makes me laugh when I see people promoting their apartments as an affordable alternative to hotels (and I see many sites taking this marketing approach), but unlike hotels they have a minimum stay policy, in this case 3 nights. I just want to book for 1, maybe 2 nights, so I'll book a hotel - it's easier and cheaper!
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swede
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Post by swede »

Thanks for the help. The booking system has not worked as I planned and I might drop it in the future. People seem to find it complicated and they are sending enquiries instead. It was just sooo much work with it and it feels hard to let it go.

Good point about the banner for holidaylettings, I will move it to another place.
Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

I think the problem with the booking system is the two calendars, one for arrival date and one for departure. It took me a couple of gos to come up with a price. If you have a look at my booking calendar (not my own work though), it uses just one calendar to complete the transaction. The address is www.tinyurl.com/chamoissiere If you test it out, please use the current month, so it doesn't affect my statistics, and I know it is from LMH.
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swede
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Post by swede »

I just checked yours out Helen and it is clearly easier to understand then ours. We made the mistake of not researching the solutions out there and just tried to design our own one from scratch basically.The idea was to become totally independent and we did spend a lot of time and energy on the booking system.
A-two
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Post by A-two »

HelenB wrote:I think the problem with the booking system is the two calendars, one for arrival date and one for departure.
Rubbish! Look at Orbitz.com and Kayak.com for examples of how booking calendars typically work in the travel industry - as you will see, they use two calendars - it's the norm! I wish I had this on my site and would love to have the code if you are willing to share, please contact me by PM.

Sorry, I just don't get the problem, it works fine for me, and given the effort put in to create it, I would not take a couple of comments here as a good reason to get rid of it. Maybe it needs slightly different "labels" for english speaking audience, to explain how it works better.

I would look at the two travel booking sites above and others which use two calendars, then copy their labels. Also, you can add a note underneath for the technically challenged to the effect, "If you are having problems obtaining information you need from the booking calendars above, please complete contact form below and we will work it out for you and respond by email." Then you have best of both worlds.

I would suggest you focus on images instead - there's also a problem with thumbnail enlargements. Each photo opens new window, so I ended up with about 15 windows open - one for each photo. Enlargement should really open an album, so it is then possible to click across all photos in the one new window - by clicking next - previous - close etc., not individual photos.
Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

A-two [/b]
Rubbish

We were asked for our opinions and gave them. Swede had already commented that he was not happy with it. Your opinion is welcome, but your rubbishing of others opinions is out of order.
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Mountain Goat
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Post by Mountain Goat »

It's taken 24hrs and advice from one of our most 'respected' members for me to work it out. Yes, I was technically challenged.

I've never seen two calendars working in tandem like that, and the idea of requesting the code to duplicate this oddity is eccentric to say the least.

I can't actually recall any listing site which uses that twin format.

We've had lectures about how a site-visitor loses interest after 5 secs of waiting for something to happen, whether images or gadgets, and I feel this is a good example of something which doesn't work, plain and simple.

Helen's system is well designed, intuitive and it works.

MG
Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

Orbitz is not two calendars posted side-by-side at all, it is a form with a click to open the calendar.
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