Looking to build a website

[Lee2014]

I was a start-ip - from scratch om 1995. $$$ is something I have NEVER been well-acquainted with. I had a website before I had a computer - back then, I had no photos because I did not have good ones. I now have pro-photos up. BUT for several many years my photos were ones I took but posted ONLY AFTER they were shredded, and I mean shredded by the photo experts on the Forum. O tool and re=took until approved.
IF you are willing to take advice, you will get the best from here. We WANT you to succeed and be the best you can be. Empty Nest is one who KNOWS web design (also Dimitru and several others - not me), JB is photography, I an expert at nothing. Most of the innkeepers on here are excellent sources of advice - the most is because we sometimes get someone new who THINKS they know everything..

I am expert at nothing.

Not True. Gillum finds ways to get her place in the news. She gets guests to come stay with her out in 'podunk' as she calls it. (a hypothetical small town regarded as typically dull or insignificant.) She roasts her own coffee. She is motorcycle friendly and does horse stabling (I know nothing of horses or motorcycles, but she does) Last but not least, have you heard of B&B's for Vets, now run by professional organizations? That was HER idea.
Expert at nothing, indeed.

.

I am expert at nothing.

Not True. Gillum finds ways to get her place in the news. She gets guests to come stay with her out in 'podunk' as she calls it. (a hypothetical small town regarded as typically dull or insignificant.) She roasts her own coffee. She is motorcycle friendly and does horse stabling (I know nothing of horses or motorcycles, but she does) Last but not least, have you heard of B&B's for Vets, now run by professional organizations? That was HER idea.
Expert at nothing, indeed.

I totally agree, Seashanty!

 

[JimBoone]

I am curious...do you get all the marketing for the property? Did she give you access to all the listings on line so you can go in and change all the information? Don't know if it will help the SEO or not..but there is a huge amount of directory listings for the current place. If you lose all of that...you really will be starting from scratch. But then again, that may be a good thing if you are going to renovate the place because it really needs it. That way you can put your own spin on things and not be attached to bad old TripAdvisor reviews..

She is giving us all OTA travel partners as well as bedandbreakfast.com. Also put us in touch with Groupon. My husband has spoken with the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Working with other hotels in the area to let them know if they are booked we are available. I will be taking new pictures tomorrow of the rooms so they are updated. I do not believe she has advertised locally. My husband and I went to Nashville on Sunday and introduced ourselves. When we make business cards the shop owners were very receptive to allow us to put business cards in their stores. My husband and I need to bring goodwill among the Inn and the Nashville community as a whole.
.

I just tried a search for your town on band B.c om and you don't show up! You are going to have to edit that listing so you do. Only when I searched for your inns current name do you show up. NOT A GOOD THING! Because who will know that??? You must come up in a search for your town.
So I googled your town bed and breakfasts. Lots of listings come up..but you are on none of them. That is NOT a good thing either. You should do the same thing and then contact each of those sites to add your NEW name and listing.
I will note that your current name place does come up because someone has paid for a google ad. You will probably not have the funds to continue with that will you???
.

We will look into it. I knew she has not done any advertising locally. It appears to me that most of the business is from Expedia and Groupon. Starting next year the visitors bureau is listing all hotels in the area for free. So we will wait to do that otherwise it is $ 95 for four months. They do have a listing on us so when people are looking for a room they know we are available. Have already spoken with them. Where else should we be advertising?
.

We are members of the chamber of commerce for several of the small towns in our area, these get us a listing on their websites and brochure, also a member of our local tourism group. Being a member helps me to be known in the community and I see it as a long term investment, if people come to the area I'll get a share of that business, it is more than the direct booking I may receive now as a direct result of my being a member, but starting out it has to depend on your budget.
I'm old, I like reading and I'm a pack rat and save stuff, but I don't think most folks today are that way and that makes print advertising expensive. I feel I get more results from online advertising. As EN says below, search and see what pops up for your area, but be selective, some years back I searched and found a lot of visitor sites for our area all operated by the same local web company, I bought into the idea, but in actual practice they were all low volume sites that did not bring me many web referrals and it was not cost effective. On a positive side I got decent results purchasing a spot on the local ski area site, sometimes you just have to see what works for you.
Note that change is constant, what works great today may not be as good in a few years when the next new thing comes along, you have to continue to watch and change with the times.

 

[gillumhouse]

I am curious...do you get all the marketing for the property? Did she give you access to all the listings on line so you can go in and change all the information? Don't know if it will help the SEO or not..but there is a huge amount of directory listings for the current place. If you lose all of that...you really will be starting from scratch. But then again, that may be a good thing if you are going to renovate the place because it really needs it. That way you can put your own spin on things and not be attached to bad old TripAdvisor reviews..

She is giving us all OTA travel partners as well as bedandbreakfast.com. Also put us in touch with Groupon. My husband has spoken with the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Working with other hotels in the area to let them know if they are booked we are available. I will be taking new pictures tomorrow of the rooms so they are updated. I do not believe she has advertised locally. My husband and I went to Nashville on Sunday and introduced ourselves. When we make business cards the shop owners were very receptive to allow us to put business cards in their stores. My husband and I need to bring goodwill among the Inn and the Nashville community as a whole.
.

I just tried a search for your town on band B.c om and you don't show up! You are going to have to edit that listing so you do. Only when I searched for your inns current name do you show up. NOT A GOOD THING! Because who will know that??? You must come up in a search for your town.
So I googled your town bed and breakfasts. Lots of listings come up..but you are on none of them. That is NOT a good thing either. You should do the same thing and then contact each of those sites to add your NEW name and listing.
I will note that your current name place does come up because someone has paid for a google ad. You will probably not have the funds to continue with that will you???
.

We will look into it. I knew she has not done any advertising locally. It appears to me that most of the business is from Expedia and Groupon. Starting next year the visitors bureau is listing all hotels in the area for free. So we will wait to do that otherwise it is $ 95 for four months. They do have a listing on us so when people are looking for a room they know we are available. Have already spoken with them. Where else should we be advertising?
.

I target market with one "shotgun".
Shotgun = the least expensive of the major online Directories (Bnbfinder - they also have an excellent PR Dept. which I make use of)
Target = I know I get horses that need overnight stabling, motorcycles, bicycles & hikers rail-trail users..... Those I list on sites (and in print) that people with those interests are likely to use. (The horse website that does best costs me a whole $40 per year)
On my own website - I have packages for covered bridges,wineries, Elopements, and various activities

 

[JBloggs]

I am curious...do you get all the marketing for the property? Did she give you access to all the listings on line so you can go in and change all the information? Don't know if it will help the SEO or not..but there is a huge amount of directory listings for the current place. If you lose all of that...you really will be starting from scratch. But then again, that may be a good thing if you are going to renovate the place because it really needs it. That way you can put your own spin on things and not be attached to bad old TripAdvisor reviews..

She is giving us all OTA travel partners as well as bedandbreakfast.com. Also put us in touch with Groupon. My husband has spoken with the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Working with other hotels in the area to let them know if they are booked we are available. I will be taking new pictures tomorrow of the rooms so they are updated. I do not believe she has advertised locally. My husband and I went to Nashville on Sunday and introduced ourselves. When we make business cards the shop owners were very receptive to allow us to put business cards in their stores. My husband and I need to bring goodwill among the Inn and the Nashville community as a whole.
.

I just tried a search for your town on band B.c om and you don't show up! You are going to have to edit that listing so you do. Only when I searched for your inns current name do you show up. NOT A GOOD THING! Because who will know that??? You must come up in a search for your town.
So I googled your town bed and breakfasts. Lots of listings come up..but you are on none of them. That is NOT a good thing either. You should do the same thing and then contact each of those sites to add your NEW name and listing.
I will note that your current name place does come up because someone has paid for a google ad. You will probably not have the funds to continue with that will you???
.

We will look into it. I knew she has not done any advertising locally. It appears to me that most of the business is from Expedia and Groupon. Starting next year the visitors bureau is listing all hotels in the area for free. So we will wait to do that otherwise it is $ 95 for four months. They do have a listing on us so when people are looking for a room they know we are available. Have already spoken with them. Where else should we be advertising?
.

I target market with one "shotgun".
Shotgun = the least expensive of the major online Directories (Bnbfinder - they also have an excellent PR Dept. which I make use of)
Target = I know I get horses that need overnight stabling, motorcycles, bicycles & hikers rail-trail users..... Those I list on sites (and in print) that people with those interests are likely to use. (The horse website that does best costs me a whole $40 per year)
On my own website - I have packages for covered bridges,wineries, Elopements, and various activities
.

I target market with one "shotgun".
Shotgun = the least expensive of the major online Directories (Bnbfinder - they also have an excellent PR Dept. which I make use of)
Target = I know I get horses that need overnight stabling, motorcycles, bicycles & hikers rail-trail users..... Those I list on sites (and in print) that people with those interests are likely to use. (The horse website that does best costs me a whole $40 per year)
On my own website - I have packages for covered bridges,wineries, Elopements, and various activities

I am shocked by the modesty of your postings, you are one of the best sellers for not only your B&B, but your city, and your state.
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." - Mark Twain

 

[JBloggs]

Listen to me, yes listen.
This is what happens on this forum...
A newbie shows up and is overwhelmed by the helpful responses and they don't take them as they are intended, to be helpful. What they don't realize is there is a vast array of expertise found here. They could pay consultants thousands of dollars to receive MUCH LESS than the sort of feedback they get here FREE OF CHARGE.
Yes, take some of it with a grain of salt. So I hope anyone new reading this will understand, they usually don't, but if they can this is not just a place to talk recipes.
These are STELLAR INNKEEPERS here, and former experienced innkeepers, and hospitality experts, webdesigners, marketing experts, social media gurus, and so on. Yes, experts. Don't take to the hills on a reply you don't like or agree with, use a fine toothed comb. There are some who have never listened a day in their life, they do the same thing they have always done and complain about the results.
But for those who want to improve their business, to be the best they can be, let this forum save you thousands of dollars in conference or consulting fees. You won't even have to take us out to lunch.

(Although a thank you goes a long way)

 

[gillumhouse]

I am curious...do you get all the marketing for the property? Did she give you access to all the listings on line so you can go in and change all the information? Don't know if it will help the SEO or not..but there is a huge amount of directory listings for the current place. If you lose all of that...you really will be starting from scratch. But then again, that may be a good thing if you are going to renovate the place because it really needs it. That way you can put your own spin on things and not be attached to bad old TripAdvisor reviews..

She is giving us all OTA travel partners as well as bedandbreakfast.com. Also put us in touch with Groupon. My husband has spoken with the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Working with other hotels in the area to let them know if they are booked we are available. I will be taking new pictures tomorrow of the rooms so they are updated. I do not believe she has advertised locally. My husband and I went to Nashville on Sunday and introduced ourselves. When we make business cards the shop owners were very receptive to allow us to put business cards in their stores. My husband and I need to bring goodwill among the Inn and the Nashville community as a whole.
.

I just tried a search for your town on band B.c om and you don't show up! You are going to have to edit that listing so you do. Only when I searched for your inns current name do you show up. NOT A GOOD THING! Because who will know that??? You must come up in a search for your town.
So I googled your town bed and breakfasts. Lots of listings come up..but you are on none of them. That is NOT a good thing either. You should do the same thing and then contact each of those sites to add your NEW name and listing.
I will note that your current name place does come up because someone has paid for a google ad. You will probably not have the funds to continue with that will you???
.

We will look into it. I knew she has not done any advertising locally. It appears to me that most of the business is from Expedia and Groupon. Starting next year the visitors bureau is listing all hotels in the area for free. So we will wait to do that otherwise it is $ 95 for four months. They do have a listing on us so when people are looking for a room they know we are available. Have already spoken with them. Where else should we be advertising?
.

I target market with one "shotgun".
Shotgun = the least expensive of the major online Directories (Bnbfinder - they also have an excellent PR Dept. which I make use of)
Target = I know I get horses that need overnight stabling, motorcycles, bicycles & hikers rail-trail users..... Those I list on sites (and in print) that people with those interests are likely to use. (The horse website that does best costs me a whole $40 per year)
On my own website - I have packages for covered bridges,wineries, Elopements, and various activities
.

I target market with one "shotgun".
Shotgun = the least expensive of the major online Directories (Bnbfinder - they also have an excellent PR Dept. which I make use of)
Target = I know I get horses that need overnight stabling, motorcycles, bicycles & hikers rail-trail users..... Those I list on sites (and in print) that people with those interests are likely to use. (The horse website that does best costs me a whole $40 per year)
On my own website - I have packages for covered bridges,wineries, Elopements, and various activities

I am shocked by the modesty of your postings, you are one of the best sellers for not only your B&B, but your city, and your state.
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." - Mark Twain
.

Thank you

 

[adfbroker]

We are one of the leading Instrument providers, when it comes to financial instruments such as LOAN,SBLC and Bank guarantee e.t.c. Either for Lease or Sale with low rate percentage. For more enquiry please call +44-744-877-7923 [email protected] MR Aaron Bowles.

 

[jamesandjill]

Listen to me, yes listen.
This is what happens on this forum...
A newbie shows up and is overwhelmed by the helpful responses and they don't take them as they are intended, to be helpful. What they don't realize is there is a vast array of expertise found here. They could pay consultants thousands of dollars to receive MUCH LESS than the sort of feedback they get here FREE OF CHARGE.
Yes, take some of it with a grain of salt. So I hope anyone new reading this will understand, they usually don't, but if they can this is not just a place to talk recipes.
These are STELLAR INNKEEPERS here, and former experienced innkeepers, and hospitality experts, webdesigners, marketing experts, social media gurus, and so on. Yes, experts. Don't take to the hills on a reply you don't like or agree with, use a fine toothed comb. There are some who have never listened a day in their life, they do the same thing they have always done and complain about the results.
But for those who want to improve their business, to be the best they can be, let this forum save you thousands of dollars in conference or consulting fees. You won't even have to take us out to lunch.

(Although a thank you goes a long way).

Thank you and if your ever in our area stop in for a cup of coffee or tea.

 

[dumitru]

I look at people talking about $5000+ price tags on new websites and I'm wondering... WHERE WOULD I GET SUCH CLIENTS??? .

$5,000 is very reasonable for a really nice site with a decent amount of custom design/features as that requires a good amount of time and expertise to do. One of the more well known lodging website design companies starts around $25,000 for some perspective (not in any way recommending that massive of an investment for an inn website).
However, it is also too common to see people choosing truly awful web design agencies that don't charge much but create sites that would be barely acceptable 10 years ago. This is a waste of money no matter how cheaper it may be.
For most smaller lodging properties, I don't see a fully custom expensive website as a worthwhile investment. Best to invest $1,000 - $3,000 on a slightly custom site (modify an already designed WordPress theme) that a web designer can do relatively quickly. However, if you can spend a little bit of time learning WordPress and SEO, you can create a nice site on your own for the price of a theme which often are between $40-70 (excluding any additional costs such as web hosting, domain, and booking engine). There are some decent free themes, but buying a theme either specific to lodging or multi purpose themes with a premade hotel option can save a significant amount of time. Then you mostly only have to replace text and photos.
.

Sorry DH22 you are making it sound way too easy to use a theme. It is not. They want to make you think it is all copy and paste but I've never found one I would just leave as is.
.

Interested to try out one of my themes?

 

[Savoir Faire]

You've gotten a lot of great advice here, but I want to say a few things balancing what you've heard.
1) It *is* possible to code your own website and do a good job of it. If you have ever worked with html even a little and a willingness to learn new things you can save a fortune doing it yourself. I did my own site using Wordpress and a theme I customized.
2) SEO is very important, but it only takes 2-4 weeks to start getting picked up by Google. For me it was 10 days from my website going live to my first call "Hi I found you online, do you have any availability for .. " Getting hooked into Expedia will be priceless for your online findability.
3) I'm not sold on the notion it's a bad idea to start over with a new name. Especially if there are bad reviews out there or you are doing a different concept than the original owner (e.g. she was beach-y, you will be country western). In my experience, people don't particularly care if you have 10 reviews or 100, they just want to see that no one's had a negative stay.

 

[gillumhouse]

You've gotten a lot of great advice here, but I want to say a few things balancing what you've heard.
1) It *is* possible to code your own website and do a good job of it. If you have ever worked with html even a little and a willingness to learn new things you can save a fortune doing it yourself. I did my own site using Wordpress and a theme I customized.
2) SEO is very important, but it only takes 2-4 weeks to start getting picked up by Google. For me it was 10 days from my website going live to my first call "Hi I found you online, do you have any availability for .. " Getting hooked into Expedia will be priceless for your online findability.
3) I'm not sold on the notion it's a bad idea to start over with a new name. Especially if there are bad reviews out there or you are doing a different concept than the original owner (e.g. she was beach-y, you will be country western). In my experience, people don't particularly care if you have 10 reviews or 100, they just want to see that no one's had a negative stay..

Expedia and that ilk is nothing but money-grabbing commission-sucking entities that use YOUR commission money to out-market you making you, the innkeeper, dependent on them to fill rooms. IF at all possible, do NOT fall into that trap. You will never have a marketing budget to beat them at #1 in a search for YOUR name.
Changing the name of an inn is not the end of the world - especially if it has a bad rep - it just makes it harder to get attention. With an inn with a bad rep, that is a good thing.

 

[EmptyNest]

You've gotten a lot of great advice here, but I want to say a few things balancing what you've heard.
1) It *is* possible to code your own website and do a good job of it. If you have ever worked with html even a little and a willingness to learn new things you can save a fortune doing it yourself. I did my own site using Wordpress and a theme I customized.
2) SEO is very important, but it only takes 2-4 weeks to start getting picked up by Google. For me it was 10 days from my website going live to my first call "Hi I found you online, do you have any availability for .. " Getting hooked into Expedia will be priceless for your online findability.
3) I'm not sold on the notion it's a bad idea to start over with a new name. Especially if there are bad reviews out there or you are doing a different concept than the original owner (e.g. she was beach-y, you will be country western). In my experience, people don't particularly care if you have 10 reviews or 100, they just want to see that no one's had a negative stay..

1. If you have no EXPERIENCE with wordpress, you need to have someone who does do the site. And you spend your time innkeeping and getting the business going.
2. If you use Google Webmaster Tools, google search can find you in a day....for your particular name...the real SEO takes longer as there are lots of competitors trying for the same front page listing.
3. I too think it will be ok to change the name of the inn in this case. They can't have it...so what else could they do but start over. It will work out for the best.
4. Don't give your money away to sites like Expedia. WAY OVER RATED as far as I am concerned.

 

[user 26]

It is only worth your valuable time trying to build your own wordpress website if you find it easy and you know what you're doing. I can build a drag and drop website but could not figure out wordpress. I can maintain and update a wordpress website, and I do ... but build one? No. I applaud those of you who have the skills to do this ... but not everyone can do it.