wondering how much I have to invest to setup a website?

[EmptyNest]

If you are scoping out a budget, budget $3000-$6000 for a site and pro photos. Then count yourself lucky if you get it for less. Prices on both photographers and websites are all over the map so it all depends on who you find and where you find them..

I was also thinking of a range of $5,000 to $10,000. Which in my eyes are reasonable if you consider that you purchase a B&B and the website will bring you the most business. As well as this would be only around 2% to 3% of the purchasing price of the B&B.
.

So then, let me just mention a few "pro" names for you. Most of these will cost you in this price range.Some of these folks sites can be "cookie cutter" but none the less..they usually give you a site that "does the job." These are the folks that are usually at the PAII conferences. Yes there are others out there who do a good job too...but these folks focus on B & B's so they know what you need already.
Jumping Rocks Photography, White Stone Marketing, Acorn Internet Services, Inside Out Solutions

 

[SeeBen21]

If you are scoping out a budget, budget $3000-$6000 for a site and pro photos. Then count yourself lucky if you get it for less. Prices on both photographers and websites are all over the map so it all depends on who you find and where you find them..

I was also thinking of a range of $5,000 to $10,000. Which in my eyes are reasonable if you consider that you purchase a B&B and the website will bring you the most business. As well as this would be only around 2% to 3% of the purchasing price of the B&B.
.

So then, let me just mention a few "pro" names for you. Most of these will cost you in this price range.Some of these folks sites can be "cookie cutter" but none the less..they usually give you a site that "does the job." These are the folks that are usually at the PAII conferences. Yes there are others out there who do a good job too...but these folks focus on B & B's so they know what you need already.
Jumping Rocks Photography, White Stone Marketing, Acorn Internet Services, Inside Out Solutions
.

thank you very much, this for sure helps. I think you know that english isn't my first language so can you pls. explain what you mean with "cookie cutter" I don't think you mean the tool.

 

[DaisyMae]

well, i am a firm believer in you get what you pay for. a great website is definately an investment and if done well, is not going to hurt you in any way. i'm pretty sure you and & i have emailed before, correct, ben?.

I totally agree with you. The most difficult part will be to find the right person/company where you get the service you paid for.
[FONT= 'Times New Roman']And you are correct we emailed before.[/FONT]
.

I totally agree with you. The most difficult part will be to find the right person/company where you get the service you paid for.
[FONT= 'Times New Roman']And you are correct we emailed before.[/FONT]

did i ever tell you the designers we used? we totally felt we got our money's worth with them. if i did not & if you would like to know, just email me.

 

[gillumhouse]

If you are scoping out a budget, budget $3000-$6000 for a site and pro photos. Then count yourself lucky if you get it for less. Prices on both photographers and websites are all over the map so it all depends on who you find and where you find them..

I was also thinking of a range of $5,000 to $10,000. Which in my eyes are reasonable if you consider that you purchase a B&B and the website will bring you the most business. As well as this would be only around 2% to 3% of the purchasing price of the B&B.
.

So then, let me just mention a few "pro" names for you. Most of these will cost you in this price range.Some of these folks sites can be "cookie cutter" but none the less..they usually give you a site that "does the job." These are the folks that are usually at the PAII conferences. Yes there are others out there who do a good job too...but these folks focus on B & B's so they know what you need already.
Jumping Rocks Photography, White Stone Marketing, Acorn Internet Services, Inside Out Solutions
.

thank you very much, this for sure helps. I think you know that english isn't my first language so can you pls. explain what you mean with "cookie cutter" I don't think you mean the tool.
.

"cookie cutter" means they tend to use the same design elements. When you go to a new houseing development there will be perhaps 4 different styles of houses in the development - the houses are "cookie cutter". In web design it means as soon as the site comes up you know who designed it because all their sites have a similar look.
It is not to say it is bad, just that there are certain lelments of design they like, know they work, and use them in almost every site they design. Just as making cookies, you take the ookie cutter and cut out all the cookies.

 

[SeeBen21]

If you are scoping out a budget, budget $3000-$6000 for a site and pro photos. Then count yourself lucky if you get it for less. Prices on both photographers and websites are all over the map so it all depends on who you find and where you find them..

I was also thinking of a range of $5,000 to $10,000. Which in my eyes are reasonable if you consider that you purchase a B&B and the website will bring you the most business. As well as this would be only around 2% to 3% of the purchasing price of the B&B.
.

So then, let me just mention a few "pro" names for you. Most of these will cost you in this price range.Some of these folks sites can be "cookie cutter" but none the less..they usually give you a site that "does the job." These are the folks that are usually at the PAII conferences. Yes there are others out there who do a good job too...but these folks focus on B & B's so they know what you need already.
Jumping Rocks Photography, White Stone Marketing, Acorn Internet Services, Inside Out Solutions
.

thank you very much, this for sure helps. I think you know that english isn't my first language so can you pls. explain what you mean with "cookie cutter" I don't think you mean the tool.
.

"cookie cutter" means they tend to use the same design elements. When you go to a new houseing development there will be perhaps 4 different styles of houses in the development - the houses are "cookie cutter". In web design it means as soon as the site comes up you know who designed it because all their sites have a similar look.
It is not to say it is bad, just that there are certain lelments of design they like, know they work, and use them in almost every site they design. Just as making cookies, you take the ookie cutter and cut out all the cookies.
.

got you. It's always got to improve a language. Thank you to be my teacher. And it makes now sense to me as it looks always the same. Like a cookie cutter.

 

[JBloggs]

If you are scoping out a budget, budget $3000-$6000 for a site and pro photos. Then count yourself lucky if you get it for less. Prices on both photographers and websites are all over the map so it all depends on who you find and where you find them..

I was also thinking of a range of $5,000 to $10,000. Which in my eyes are reasonable if you consider that you purchase a B&B and the website will bring you the most business. As well as this would be only around 2% to 3% of the purchasing price of the B&B.
.

So then, let me just mention a few "pro" names for you. Most of these will cost you in this price range.Some of these folks sites can be "cookie cutter" but none the less..they usually give you a site that "does the job." These are the folks that are usually at the PAII conferences. Yes there are others out there who do a good job too...but these folks focus on B & B's so they know what you need already.
Jumping Rocks Photography, White Stone Marketing, Acorn Internet Services, Inside Out Solutions
.

thank you very much, this for sure helps. I think you know that english isn't my first language so can you pls. explain what you mean with "cookie cutter" I don't think you mean the tool.
.

"cookie cutter" means they tend to use the same design elements. When you go to a new houseing development there will be perhaps 4 different styles of houses in the development - the houses are "cookie cutter". In web design it means as soon as the site comes up you know who designed it because all their sites have a similar look.
It is not to say it is bad, just that there are certain lelments of design they like, know they work, and use them in almost every site they design. Just as making cookies, you take the ookie cutter and cut out all the cookies.
.

got you. It's always got to improve a language. Thank you to be my teacher. And it makes now sense to me as it looks always the same. Like a cookie cutter.
.

got you. It's always got to improve a language. Thank you to be my teacher. And it makes now sense to me as it looks always the same. Like a cookie cutter.

One thing we have heard guests complain about and me myself included, is when searching for a place to stay the websites go from one extreme to another and the information takes forever to find to book the stay. For this, cookie cutter might be a better thing than "totally unique" if that makes sense. I think if there were a standard across the board then we would all benefit.
Example - online reservations - if every website had them, then a guest could easily go to the online page - see the rates, see the availability - with a photo of each room and short description. So for this, when I see a website by ACORN or WHITESTONE I know what I will find - great photos, great information and easy to book rooms. So this cookie cutter style works, in my opinion. Obv the inns are all different, the amenities, the rooms, photos, styles, etc.

 

[Morticia]

If you are scoping out a budget, budget $3000-$6000 for a site and pro photos. Then count yourself lucky if you get it for less. Prices on both photographers and websites are all over the map so it all depends on who you find and where you find them..

I was also thinking of a range of $5,000 to $10,000. Which in my eyes are reasonable if you consider that you purchase a B&B and the website will bring you the most business. As well as this would be only around 2% to 3% of the purchasing price of the B&B.
.

I was also thinking of a range of $5,000 to $10,000. Which in my eyes are reasonable if you consider that you purchase a B&B and the website will bring you the most business. As well as this would be only around 2% to 3% of the purchasing price of the B&B.

If you're buying or building a B&B/Inn in the $2-$3 million range, then yes, you need to spend that kind of money to ensure you get the type of guests who will pay the prices you'll be charging. That guest will not be looking for a 'home made' website, but a highly polished, professional presentation.

 

[SeeBen21]

If you are scoping out a budget, budget $3000-$6000 for a site and pro photos. Then count yourself lucky if you get it for less. Prices on both photographers and websites are all over the map so it all depends on who you find and where you find them..

I was also thinking of a range of $5,000 to $10,000. Which in my eyes are reasonable if you consider that you purchase a B&B and the website will bring you the most business. As well as this would be only around 2% to 3% of the purchasing price of the B&B.
.

I was also thinking of a range of $5,000 to $10,000. Which in my eyes are reasonable if you consider that you purchase a B&B and the website will bring you the most business. As well as this would be only around 2% to 3% of the purchasing price of the B&B.

If you're buying or building a B&B/Inn in the $2-$3 million range, then yes, you need to spend that kind of money to ensure you get the type of guests who will pay the prices you'll be charging. That guest will not be looking for a 'home made' website, but a highly polished, professional presentation.
.

oh, for sure it's not even in the millions. This would not be 2%-3%

 

[sonatainn]

I designed my own website with photoshop, then sliced it and imported the layout into dreamweaver => http://www.sonatainn.com
You can do almost the same thing in Word.
My advise? You are obviously smart enough to visit this forum and ask questions...why not learn html yourself? After 2 hours of video tutorials and light reading, I had enough knowledge to fully design and operate my website.
Get yourself a good web host (I recommend ixwebhosting, but godaddy should be good.)
If you pay someone to do it, one thing you have to factor is...what if you want to make a slight change to it...someone might charge you $250 every time you want to make a small change...something that would take 30 seconds to do.
Also, professionals charge WAAAAY too much on a monthly basis to host your website...even though they themselves are using cheap hosting services. You may pay 200 dollars a month for something that your "professional," is paying 12 dollars a month for.
My advise: Learn HTML basics....hire someone to design your website, but learn to program it yourself so that you can see how to make modifications to it...learn how to edit something from an ftp server....learn how websites are presented and organized....this will save you hours of headaching.
SEO is another matter....there are many tips that you can scour online....but if you pay for SEOing...you'll have a whole team monitoring your SEO...creating blogs and backlinks for your site, which will help alot...I would invest the bulk of my money there.
Good luck!

 

[Breakfast Diva]

I designed my own website with photoshop, then sliced it and imported the layout into dreamweaver => http://www.sonatainn.com
You can do almost the same thing in Word.
My advise? You are obviously smart enough to visit this forum and ask questions...why not learn html yourself? After 2 hours of video tutorials and light reading, I had enough knowledge to fully design and operate my website.
Get yourself a good web host (I recommend ixwebhosting, but godaddy should be good.)
If you pay someone to do it, one thing you have to factor is...what if you want to make a slight change to it...someone might charge you $250 every time you want to make a small change...something that would take 30 seconds to do.
Also, professionals charge WAAAAY too much on a monthly basis to host your website...even though they themselves are using cheap hosting services. You may pay 200 dollars a month for something that your "professional," is paying 12 dollars a month for.
My advise: Learn HTML basics....hire someone to design your website, but learn to program it yourself so that you can see how to make modifications to it...learn how to edit something from an ftp server....learn how websites are presented and organized....this will save you hours of headaching.
SEO is another matter....there are many tips that you can scour online....but if you pay for SEOing...you'll have a whole team monitoring your SEO...creating blogs and backlinks for your site, which will help alot...I would invest the bulk of my money there.
Good luck!.

I really have to disagree here. Pay the money for a professional. Participate in the design process so you end up with what you want.
I highly recommend Acorn. Yes, some of their designs are of the cookie cutter variety, but they don't have to be. Look at many, many, B&B websites and keep a list of the things you really like and don't like. The marketing aspect Acorn did for my website has had amazing results. My design wasn't cheap, but it has paid for itself over and over again.
Whoever you choose to go with, make sure you can have some kind of editor so that you will be able to do updates and changes easily by yourself. Not only does it save you money, but the more you refresh your pages, the better you will do with the search engines.
Also, make sure you don't have to host with your design company. You want your site to be portable so if you ever want to move your host company, you can do so easily.
You are definitely thinking in the right direction! set aside $5,000-$6,000 and get a website that not only works well, looks good, but also does well with your organic search placement. It's worth it. Especially as a new innkeeper you'll be overwhelmed with everything you need to take care of and you don't need the pressure of a do-it-yourself website. IMHO

 

[gillumhouse]

I designed my own website with photoshop, then sliced it and imported the layout into dreamweaver => http://www.sonatainn.com
You can do almost the same thing in Word.
My advise? You are obviously smart enough to visit this forum and ask questions...why not learn html yourself? After 2 hours of video tutorials and light reading, I had enough knowledge to fully design and operate my website.
Get yourself a good web host (I recommend ixwebhosting, but godaddy should be good.)
If you pay someone to do it, one thing you have to factor is...what if you want to make a slight change to it...someone might charge you $250 every time you want to make a small change...something that would take 30 seconds to do.
Also, professionals charge WAAAAY too much on a monthly basis to host your website...even though they themselves are using cheap hosting services. You may pay 200 dollars a month for something that your "professional," is paying 12 dollars a month for.
My advise: Learn HTML basics....hire someone to design your website, but learn to program it yourself so that you can see how to make modifications to it...learn how to edit something from an ftp server....learn how websites are presented and organized....this will save you hours of headaching.
SEO is another matter....there are many tips that you can scour online....but if you pay for SEOing...you'll have a whole team monitoring your SEO...creating blogs and backlinks for your site, which will help alot...I would invest the bulk of my money there.
Good luck!.

I agree with Diva. You MUST have a designer who sets it up so you can easily make changes/updates, etc. Any designer who is not willing to do this is someone you want to pss on. Also make sure YOU own the domain name. and have all passwords and access to everything. I was with the sme hosting company for years but when I decided to change, it was seamless because I had everything I needed to give the new hosting company for the transfer. Thesre are not small issues. They are as vital as having excellent pictures and great navigation and online reservations.

 

[Morticia]

I designed my own website with photoshop, then sliced it and imported the layout into dreamweaver => http://www.sonatainn.com
You can do almost the same thing in Word.
My advise? You are obviously smart enough to visit this forum and ask questions...why not learn html yourself? After 2 hours of video tutorials and light reading, I had enough knowledge to fully design and operate my website.
Get yourself a good web host (I recommend ixwebhosting, but godaddy should be good.)
If you pay someone to do it, one thing you have to factor is...what if you want to make a slight change to it...someone might charge you $250 every time you want to make a small change...something that would take 30 seconds to do.
Also, professionals charge WAAAAY too much on a monthly basis to host your website...even though they themselves are using cheap hosting services. You may pay 200 dollars a month for something that your "professional," is paying 12 dollars a month for.
My advise: Learn HTML basics....hire someone to design your website, but learn to program it yourself so that you can see how to make modifications to it...learn how to edit something from an ftp server....learn how websites are presented and organized....this will save you hours of headaching.
SEO is another matter....there are many tips that you can scour online....but if you pay for SEOing...you'll have a whole team monitoring your SEO...creating blogs and backlinks for your site, which will help alot...I would invest the bulk of my money there.
Good luck!.

I agree with Diva. You MUST have a designer who sets it up so you can easily make changes/updates, etc. Any designer who is not willing to do this is someone you want to pss on. Also make sure YOU own the domain name. and have all passwords and access to everything. I was with the sme hosting company for years but when I decided to change, it was seamless because I had everything I needed to give the new hosting company for the transfer. Thesre are not small issues. They are as vital as having excellent pictures and great navigation and online reservations.
.

Any designer who is not willing to do this is someone you want to pss on.

Knowing you, not quite sure what the bold word was supposed be.

 

[Morticia]

If you are scoping out a budget, budget $3000-$6000 for a site and pro photos. Then count yourself lucky if you get it for less. Prices on both photographers and websites are all over the map so it all depends on who you find and where you find them..

I was also thinking of a range of $5,000 to $10,000. Which in my eyes are reasonable if you consider that you purchase a B&B and the website will bring you the most business. As well as this would be only around 2% to 3% of the purchasing price of the B&B.
.

I was also thinking of a range of $5,000 to $10,000. Which in my eyes are reasonable if you consider that you purchase a B&B and the website will bring you the most business. As well as this would be only around 2% to 3% of the purchasing price of the B&B.

If you're buying or building a B&B/Inn in the $2-$3 million range, then yes, you need to spend that kind of money to ensure you get the type of guests who will pay the prices you'll be charging. That guest will not be looking for a 'home made' website, but a highly polished, professional presentation.
.

oh, for sure it's not even in the millions. This would not be 2%-3%

.

oh, for sure it's not even in the millions. This would not be 2%-3%

Dope slap here. Too early in the morning for math!

 

[gillumhouse]

I designed my own website with photoshop, then sliced it and imported the layout into dreamweaver => http://www.sonatainn.com
You can do almost the same thing in Word.
My advise? You are obviously smart enough to visit this forum and ask questions...why not learn html yourself? After 2 hours of video tutorials and light reading, I had enough knowledge to fully design and operate my website.
Get yourself a good web host (I recommend ixwebhosting, but godaddy should be good.)
If you pay someone to do it, one thing you have to factor is...what if you want to make a slight change to it...someone might charge you $250 every time you want to make a small change...something that would take 30 seconds to do.
Also, professionals charge WAAAAY too much on a monthly basis to host your website...even though they themselves are using cheap hosting services. You may pay 200 dollars a month for something that your "professional," is paying 12 dollars a month for.
My advise: Learn HTML basics....hire someone to design your website, but learn to program it yourself so that you can see how to make modifications to it...learn how to edit something from an ftp server....learn how websites are presented and organized....this will save you hours of headaching.
SEO is another matter....there are many tips that you can scour online....but if you pay for SEOing...you'll have a whole team monitoring your SEO...creating blogs and backlinks for your site, which will help alot...I would invest the bulk of my money there.
Good luck!.

I agree with Diva. You MUST have a designer who sets it up so you can easily make changes/updates, etc. Any designer who is not willing to do this is someone you want to pss on. Also make sure YOU own the domain name. and have all passwords and access to everything. I was with the sme hosting company for years but when I decided to change, it was seamless because I had everything I needed to give the new hosting company for the transfer. Thesre are not small issues. They are as vital as having excellent pictures and great navigation and online reservations.
.

Any designer who is not willing to do this is someone you want to pss on.

Knowing you, not quite sure what the bold word was supposed be.

.

It was supposed to be pass my little finger does not seem to have strngth at times as I type. I drop the A a lot. It is so bad that I usually go back looking for missing A.

 

[swirt]

I designed my own website with photoshop, then sliced it and imported the layout into dreamweaver => http://www.sonatainn.com
You can do almost the same thing in Word.
My advise? You are obviously smart enough to visit this forum and ask questions...why not learn html yourself? After 2 hours of video tutorials and light reading, I had enough knowledge to fully design and operate my website.
Get yourself a good web host (I recommend ixwebhosting, but godaddy should be good.)
If you pay someone to do it, one thing you have to factor is...what if you want to make a slight change to it...someone might charge you $250 every time you want to make a small change...something that would take 30 seconds to do.
Also, professionals charge WAAAAY too much on a monthly basis to host your website...even though they themselves are using cheap hosting services. You may pay 200 dollars a month for something that your "professional," is paying 12 dollars a month for.
My advise: Learn HTML basics....hire someone to design your website, but learn to program it yourself so that you can see how to make modifications to it...learn how to edit something from an ftp server....learn how websites are presented and organized....this will save you hours of headaching.
SEO is another matter....there are many tips that you can scour online....but if you pay for SEOing...you'll have a whole team monitoring your SEO...creating blogs and backlinks for your site, which will help alot...I would invest the bulk of my money there.
Good luck!.

I really have to disagree here. Pay the money for a professional. Participate in the design process so you end up with what you want.
I highly recommend Acorn. Yes, some of their designs are of the cookie cutter variety, but they don't have to be. Look at many, many, B&B websites and keep a list of the things you really like and don't like. The marketing aspect Acorn did for my website has had amazing results. My design wasn't cheap, but it has paid for itself over and over again.
Whoever you choose to go with, make sure you can have some kind of editor so that you will be able to do updates and changes easily by yourself. Not only does it save you money, but the more you refresh your pages, the better you will do with the search engines.
Also, make sure you don't have to host with your design company. You want your site to be portable so if you ever want to move your host company, you can do so easily.
You are definitely thinking in the right direction! set aside $5,000-$6,000 and get a website that not only works well, looks good, but also does well with your organic search placement. It's worth it. Especially as a new innkeeper you'll be overwhelmed with everything you need to take care of and you don't need the pressure of a do-it-yourself website. IMHO
.

Also, make sure you don't have to host with your design company. You want your site to be portable so if you ever want to move your host company, you can do so easily.
I highly agree with you on this. You don't want your designer and host being the same person
I aggree with everything else you said too ... except this one
but the more you refresh your pages, the better you will do with the search engines.
That is largely a myth that only applies to blogs and news sites. Granted, I'm not encouraging outdated or stale content... keep it fresh as needed for potential guests, but the search engines don't care that much about the bubbling of new content on business sites.

 

[Mr.Design]

I have to say, some web designers are making a fortune off of some people!
$5 to $10K?!?!?
For a professional site you only need to spend $1000, TOPS.
You're putting far too much money in to it if you're going over that. This is not the 90's here where only certain people know how to make a site. Millions more have the skills to create a professional site now and the thousands of dollar pricing is dated.
Before anyone goes telling me I'm unrealistic again, I have created hundreds of sites before, have thriving ones of my own now, and also have been in the hosting area for quite a while

 

[Breakfast Diva]

I have to say, some web designers are making a fortune off of some people!
$5 to $10K?!?!?
For a professional site you only need to spend $1000, TOPS.
You're putting far too much money in to it if you're going over that. This is not the 90's here where only certain people know how to make a site. Millions more have the skills to create a professional site now and the thousands of dollar pricing is dated.
Before anyone goes telling me I'm unrealistic again, I have created hundreds of sites before, have thriving ones of my own now, and also have been in the hosting area for quite a while .

It's going to cost at least a couple grand just for photos. And yes, professional photos make a huge difference. The SEO and marketing built into the website adds to the expense.
Does a website have to cost that much? Certainly not. I have a separate business where I created the site and it looks good and is what I need. But it's not my bread and butter...it's not a lodging website...I don't have to compete in a highly competitive market. I would never have done it with my B&B business.

 

[EmptyNest]

I have to say, some web designers are making a fortune off of some people!
$5 to $10K?!?!?
For a professional site you only need to spend $1000, TOPS.
You're putting far too much money in to it if you're going over that. This is not the 90's here where only certain people know how to make a site. Millions more have the skills to create a professional site now and the thousands of dollar pricing is dated.
Before anyone goes telling me I'm unrealistic again, I have created hundreds of sites before, have thriving ones of my own now, and also have been in the hosting area for quite a while .

Sorry I will still tell you..you are unrealistic. I too agree that $5000 is way too much. But, as someone who has freelance web design for the past 10 years, I can tell you..to do it well take lots of time. I have always undercharged because I know there is a niche of folks who just need a nice basic site and cannot afford the big bucks. I can remember days when I would quote someone $500 for a website and they about choked. Sorry folks...I am not giving my time away.
I think the most I have ever charged was $2000. And that included time spent in training so that the person could update their site on their own. I spend lots of time coming up with the 'look" / design I think will be best for them, I usually do the photography if it is in my area and then spend hours upon hours putting it all together.
This is not for the "do it yourselfer" Sure you can learn html..and yes you can put a site together...but what some think is a good site, may not necessarily be a good one. I say let someone who is familiar with B & B's and is a professional do it..not a son, or a cousin, or the kid next door.
And, what have I gotten for all my years hunched over this computer??? A bad back, stiff neck and tendonitis in my right arm/shoulder. I have loved doing it as it has been my creative outlet, but my time at the computer is fast coming to an end. My body can't take it any longer....'nuf said

 

[user 26]

i hope this is not a slam against my 'son' doing my website ...
if i'd had $5000 or even $1000 to pay someone to put together a site at the time, i wouldn't have asked him to take on the task.
our own websites are maybe as much a part of us as our b&b's, and we can get pretty defensive about them.
but i'm shocked at the price of some professional websites with broken links and repeated admonitions to 'check back later for updates' that never come. that's why i want to remind the original poster to view the web developer's portfolio and visit the websites. hopefully he can also speak with some clients to see how responsive the developer is when there are issues and questions and problems and changes. and how much will any changes cost?
there are lots of websites out there - everyone here probably visits 100's each week. some are pretty mom and pop/basic - some are little more than a web page. i have nothing against those little sites if they are up to date. i just prefer the more sophisticated sites.

 

[Mr.Design]

i hope this is not a slam against my 'son' doing my website ...
if i'd had $5000 or even $1000 to pay someone to put together a site at the time, i wouldn't have asked him to take on the task.
our own websites are maybe as much a part of us as our b&b's, and we can get pretty defensive about them.
but i'm shocked at the price of some professional websites with broken links and repeated admonitions to 'check back later for updates' that never come. that's why i want to remind the original poster to view the web developer's portfolio and visit the websites. hopefully he can also speak with some clients to see how responsive the developer is when there are issues and questions and problems and changes. and how much will any changes cost?
there are lots of websites out there - everyone here probably visits 100's each week. some are pretty mom and pop/basic - some are little more than a web page. i have nothing against those little sites if they are up to date. i just prefer the more sophisticated sites..

No slam from me, seashanty.
Catlady, it's not unrealistic and as I've said, I have the experience to back it up.
If people here have been paying over $1000, and even $1000 being on the very high end, they're being snookered.