Hi All,
We would be very grateful for any feedback, reviews & constructive comments on our website. We are very new to all of this, we seem to be getting quite a view visitors to our new website but not many enquiries. We have had 3 bookings and they have all gone very well and the holiday makers have left with nothing but praise and promises of return visits. We have one more booking in October which is, in fact, a repeat booking.
Do we need to change anything? Where are the best places to advertise and market the site? Are there any really negative/positive sides to the site?
After studying the forum for a couple of weeks we find it very social and informative.
Regards
Bob & Sue
Please Review Our Site
Bob & Sue,
First, I like the clean design and simple color scheme. Everything is easy to read -- well done!
I would add more keywords to your page titles, and also add a quick paragraph at the top of your homepage making it clear that this is a holiday rental in the Costa del Sol region of Spain. The first paragraph is welcoming and personal, but it doesn't let people know that they can sample your experience.
Also, I think your pictures are fine as they are, but if you wanted to improve them, you could take a page out of architectural and decorating magazines -- their photos always look impeccably lived-in by adding idealized "in-use" touches to a clean room, like a bowl of colorful fruit or vase of flowers in the kitchen, and a dining table set for four people. Small details, though!
Oh, and this is probably because I'm in Linux, but the fonts on your top menu don't always fit within the buttons. For example, your "What's to do?" link just looks like "What's to" to me because the "do?" is on the next line and is mostly obscured by the main part of your page. Are other people seeing this?
Cheers!
First, I like the clean design and simple color scheme. Everything is easy to read -- well done!
I would add more keywords to your page titles, and also add a quick paragraph at the top of your homepage making it clear that this is a holiday rental in the Costa del Sol region of Spain. The first paragraph is welcoming and personal, but it doesn't let people know that they can sample your experience.
Also, I think your pictures are fine as they are, but if you wanted to improve them, you could take a page out of architectural and decorating magazines -- their photos always look impeccably lived-in by adding idealized "in-use" touches to a clean room, like a bowl of colorful fruit or vase of flowers in the kitchen, and a dining table set for four people. Small details, though!
Oh, and this is probably because I'm in Linux, but the fonts on your top menu don't always fit within the buttons. For example, your "What's to do?" link just looks like "What's to" to me because the "do?" is on the next line and is mostly obscured by the main part of your page. Are other people seeing this?
Cheers!
Brooke
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geoffreycoan
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Tue Jul 12, 2005 11:21 am
- Location: Central Brittany, France
- Contact:
The text of the buttons fitted OK on my browser (Firefox 1.0.6 on Windows) but if you increase the text size a bit then they don't fit (which is I guess the problem vrooje's is having.vrooje wrote:... the fonts on your top menu don't always fit within the buttons. For example, your "What's to do?" link just looks like "What's to" to me because the "do?" is on the next line and is mostly obscured by the main part of your page. Are other people seeing this?
Not that I'm an expert but I believe it's a common design mistake that people assume a fixed browser window and font size. Easy to test the effects of this by resizing your browser window to see how the website responds (Bob & Sue's is fine in this respect) and try increasing/decreasig font sizes (notice how the selected tab - e.g. 'Home' - stays a fixed font size but the rest increases and rapidly starts appearing with text on top of text). It's best to avoid fixed font sizes and absolute positioning of text and if you want to overlay text over something else (e.g. the 'tabs' or 'Real Spain Holiday') then make it part of the graphic.
Unfortunately much of this stuff is in the hands of the readers browser so you have to make allowances for them !
Cheers, Geoffrey
Les Vallees Gite, central rural Brittany - http://www.giteinbrittany.com
Review
Hi Sobrano
Checked out your site, unfortunately I don't know much about your location but it looks like a great place to visit.
I found some of your photos small but the enlargement feature is there, lots of pictures inside and out, very informative and colourful. However if your not going to give complete directions don't bother at all. Maybe a mapped location, other than that looks good leave it be.
Best of luck.
Eamonn
Checked out your site, unfortunately I don't know much about your location but it looks like a great place to visit.
I found some of your photos small but the enlargement feature is there, lots of pictures inside and out, very informative and colourful. However if your not going to give complete directions don't bother at all. Maybe a mapped location, other than that looks good leave it be.
Best of luck.
Eamonn
i,ve been everywhere man!
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marcus
- Posts: 624
- Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2005 10:37 am
- Location: Lot-Garonne / Dordogne borders
- Contact:
Hi
I thought way the best photo was the one of your house itself -very Spanish looking - and I would stick a large version of that on the home page. Also you refer to a small terrace area but I couldn't see a picture. I imagine it is very small? Even so a picture would be very useful because it is where people will expect or hope to pass much of their holiday, I think.
It isn't clear whether any of the countryside (mountain etc)photos are taken from the property or are just 'general' Andalucia photos. Even so I would prefer them bigger and brighter, rather than 'clickable'.
Do you have a picture of the village itself, or the street with the house included? All that talk of municipal (I would use the word 'village' or perhaps 'community' instead) pool and medical centres doesn't perhaps portray the property to its best
Perhaps I would try and make it a bit more personal - a bit less 'medical centre' and a bit more 'stunning views of the countryside' kind of thing. Likewise as said above the word 'Home' as a heading on the first page isn't very thrilling.
On a separate issue, are your prices right for this kind of property? Especially given the proximity of the town pool, they sound very low.
We are looking to go away later in the year and will put this on a potential list! I loved Granada when I visited many years ago and it looks like a great location. Best of luck with the rentals.
Marcus
I thought way the best photo was the one of your house itself -very Spanish looking - and I would stick a large version of that on the home page. Also you refer to a small terrace area but I couldn't see a picture. I imagine it is very small? Even so a picture would be very useful because it is where people will expect or hope to pass much of their holiday, I think.
It isn't clear whether any of the countryside (mountain etc)photos are taken from the property or are just 'general' Andalucia photos. Even so I would prefer them bigger and brighter, rather than 'clickable'.
Do you have a picture of the village itself, or the street with the house included? All that talk of municipal (I would use the word 'village' or perhaps 'community' instead) pool and medical centres doesn't perhaps portray the property to its best
Perhaps I would try and make it a bit more personal - a bit less 'medical centre' and a bit more 'stunning views of the countryside' kind of thing. Likewise as said above the word 'Home' as a heading on the first page isn't very thrilling.
On a separate issue, are your prices right for this kind of property? Especially given the proximity of the town pool, they sound very low.
We are looking to go away later in the year and will put this on a potential list! I loved Granada when I visited many years ago and it looks like a great location. Best of luck with the rentals.
Marcus
Hi a lot of the photos are good but I think the internal ones could be better, some were a bit grainy on my computer and the lounge photo showed the light on. I actually had a photo on my site initially that did the same and as Paolo pointed out it could look like it was dark in the daytime.
I thought my photos were ok but not brilliant but after taking advice on this forum I went over and took some more. The most amazing thing since doing this is that I am getting lots of enquires from my own website which was not the case before.
I would also like to find a bit more information on the site such as getting there as we need to make it as easy as possible for people and to reel in a booking. If it is at their fingers tips they might try looking for flights whilst still on your site. The things to do could also be expanded and you could add a FAQ section.
On the home page you should also say how many people the property can accommodate as this is something I would want to know upon arriving at the site. You do have up to 4 on your price list but it would be good to put it on the home page as well.
RE the links section I would remove this until you have some links as browsers hate finding empty pages and they could click out.
It could be I am a bit of a nosy bugger but the overall feeling I am left with is I want to know more. Apart from that the site is clean and easy to use so you are on your way.
We are also in the same kind of market as my villa is marketed as "real Turkey" and I think as our locations are not as well known as others we have to work a little bit harder to market them so the more people know the better.
I hope you take this in a constructive way as I did on my own website review subsequently my website is tons better. Good luck
I thought my photos were ok but not brilliant but after taking advice on this forum I went over and took some more. The most amazing thing since doing this is that I am getting lots of enquires from my own website which was not the case before.
I would also like to find a bit more information on the site such as getting there as we need to make it as easy as possible for people and to reel in a booking. If it is at their fingers tips they might try looking for flights whilst still on your site. The things to do could also be expanded and you could add a FAQ section.
On the home page you should also say how many people the property can accommodate as this is something I would want to know upon arriving at the site. You do have up to 4 on your price list but it would be good to put it on the home page as well.
RE the links section I would remove this until you have some links as browsers hate finding empty pages and they could click out.
It could be I am a bit of a nosy bugger but the overall feeling I am left with is I want to know more. Apart from that the site is clean and easy to use so you are on your way.
We are also in the same kind of market as my villa is marketed as "real Turkey" and I think as our locations are not as well known as others we have to work a little bit harder to market them so the more people know the better.
I hope you take this in a constructive way as I did on my own website review subsequently my website is tons better. Good luck
Always Learning
Thank-you Hanorah, have started changes to the website, having a few problems finding site now though. 
www.realspainholidays.co.uk
www.realspainholidays.co.uk
Hi.Just a little nudge for you- on the clicky bits at the top accommodation is spelt wrongly. A few glasses and a bottle or fruit on the table would be good as the patio looks tiny but so are your prices so pretty good value I think!! 
www.thepetitmanoir.com
www.thepetitmanoir.com
Bob & Sue..had a look at your site - with OS X mac...I think I am seeing something very different - also the clicks don't work - so I am stuck on home page.
Tony at last has got my website almost sorted out now I have been able to send him snap shots of what I'm seeing....so if you want to see what us mac's see please pm me & let me have your email address.
Kind regards
Tansy
Tony at last has got my website almost sorted out now I have been able to send him snap shots of what I'm seeing....so if you want to see what us mac's see please pm me & let me have your email address.
Kind regards
Tansy
Hi,
As others have said you appear to have a few problems with the relative sizes and positions of text, buttons and images on your site. My screen resolution is 1280 x 1084, with large fonts, and I find some of the text on the home page is overlapped, making it difficult to read. The "Holidays" part of the title is overlaid on the navigation buttons, so I can't get to the Accommodation page at all - the button won't work, and nor will the "what's to..." button.
As others have said, I would suggest you have a picture of the property on the home page. I would also like some captions to the other photos on the page - you can do this with the "alt" feature if you don't want them in the text.
As the home page is the first one visitors will see, I think it's important to tell them a little more - you don't say how many people your property accommodates, how many bedrooms you have, is it a house or an apartment, are you in the heart of the village or outside?
You're certainly in a lovely area - we're on the Costa (or will be when we retire!) but we visited Antequera last year and loved it.
Chalky
As others have said you appear to have a few problems with the relative sizes and positions of text, buttons and images on your site. My screen resolution is 1280 x 1084, with large fonts, and I find some of the text on the home page is overlapped, making it difficult to read. The "Holidays" part of the title is overlaid on the navigation buttons, so I can't get to the Accommodation page at all - the button won't work, and nor will the "what's to..." button.
As others have said, I would suggest you have a picture of the property on the home page. I would also like some captions to the other photos on the page - you can do this with the "alt" feature if you don't want them in the text.
As the home page is the first one visitors will see, I think it's important to tell them a little more - you don't say how many people your property accommodates, how many bedrooms you have, is it a house or an apartment, are you in the heart of the village or outside?
You're certainly in a lovely area - we're on the Costa (or will be when we retire!) but we visited Antequera last year and loved it.
Chalky
Chalky
Hi Tansy,
Thanks for your comments - I've just submitted my own review request. I hesitate to ask, but do you realise that you have to "move" the Quicktime picture yourself with your mouse? If you place the cursor over the image, hold down the left button and move the mouse to the left or right you should "get the picture". However, I've not tried my site on a Mac, so it may not work at all. If so, I apologise!!
Chalky
Thanks for your comments - I've just submitted my own review request. I hesitate to ask, but do you realise that you have to "move" the Quicktime picture yourself with your mouse? If you place the cursor over the image, hold down the left button and move the mouse to the left or right you should "get the picture". However, I've not tried my site on a Mac, so it may not work at all. If so, I apologise!!
Chalky
Chalky
I would echo the points above:
- Homepage is not focused enough for me, I would like to see the where, what and why straight up, rather than hear about how you came to live there. There is actually nothing about your house on the homepage. Rather than making people click through to find out more, in many cases this is likely to make them click to the next site.
- Photos desperately need captions so we know what we are looking at and where it is in relation to the house.
- Homepage photos should include at least one of the house itself. They are a bit ephemeral at the moment.
- The pics that are light in shade could be made more striking by adding a drop shadow.
Looks like a lovely part of the world.
- The Title (the text in the blue bar at the top of the browser) should include a more detailed location and accommodation type. It is what people will see in a page of search engine results so should work harder to encourage them to click through.
- Homepage is not focused enough for me, I would like to see the where, what and why straight up, rather than hear about how you came to live there. There is actually nothing about your house on the homepage. Rather than making people click through to find out more, in many cases this is likely to make them click to the next site.
- Photos desperately need captions so we know what we are looking at and where it is in relation to the house.
- Homepage photos should include at least one of the house itself. They are a bit ephemeral at the moment.
- The pics that are light in shade could be made more striking by adding a drop shadow.
Looks like a lovely part of the world.
- The Title (the text in the blue bar at the top of the browser) should include a more detailed location and accommodation type. It is what people will see in a page of search engine results so should work harder to encourage them to click through.
Paolo
Lay My Hat
Lay My Hat