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Kay Nein

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Joined
Feb 13, 2012
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Hello, Ladies & Gents!
We are almost done with revisions on our new website. There are a number of things that I'm not thrilled about, but with 5 opinions going into it, I'm ok with letting some things slide. And if you compare to our old website, Holy Cow this is Beautiful!
shades_smile.gif

We're done with major restyling, but I am looking for any tweak recommendations or areas that are not clear or may be confusing for the guests.
Thank you!!
NEW: https://www.blueridgeinnbandb.com/index22.html
OLD: http://www.blueridgeinnbandb.com/index.html
 
So much better. Can I ask a "weird" question? Is this a ship? Because all the pictures in the slides on the front page seem to be as if the floor is slanted to the left... or that just my screen?
Are you intentionally not leaving them a way to leave you a note? There is no way to contact you other than copy down the email address. Not a form, nothing clickable.
 
I opened it in both Chrome and IE. It was a tad slow with the photos. Otherwise nice.
 
So much better. Can I ask a "weird" question? Is this a ship? Because all the pictures in the slides on the front page seem to be as if the floor is slanted to the left... or that just my screen?
Are you intentionally not leaving them a way to leave you a note? There is no way to contact you other than copy down the email address. Not a form, nothing clickable..
Wow, that's funny about the slant. I never noticed that. It's obvious now... Maybe I can get him to rotate a few to make them straight. It was not intentional.
Good Point about a contact form! Thanks!
 
So much better. Can I ask a "weird" question? Is this a ship? Because all the pictures in the slides on the front page seem to be as if the floor is slanted to the left... or that just my screen?
Are you intentionally not leaving them a way to leave you a note? There is no way to contact you other than copy down the email address. Not a form, nothing clickable..
Wow, that's funny about the slant. I never noticed that. It's obvious now... Maybe I can get him to rotate a few to make them straight. It was not intentional.
Good Point about a contact form! Thanks!
.
Otherwise, have him use the distort function on PS to skew the picture into what resembles a straight line. You should be able to fix the focus in such a way that they look even. (Isn't it weird, now that I mentioned it, you won't be able to unsee it, either.)
If you use a contact form, captcha is nice to prevent the bots from filling it out.
 
So much better. Can I ask a "weird" question? Is this a ship? Because all the pictures in the slides on the front page seem to be as if the floor is slanted to the left... or that just my screen?
Are you intentionally not leaving them a way to leave you a note? There is no way to contact you other than copy down the email address. Not a form, nothing clickable..
Wow, that's funny about the slant. I never noticed that. It's obvious now... Maybe I can get him to rotate a few to make them straight. It was not intentional.
Good Point about a contact form! Thanks!
.
Otherwise, have him use the distort function on PS to skew the picture into what resembles a straight line. You should be able to fix the focus in such a way that they look even. (Isn't it weird, now that I mentioned it, you won't be able to unsee it, either.)
If you use a contact form, captcha is nice to prevent the bots from filling it out.
.
Yes, I see it on all the pages now. In my email I asked him not to make our guests seasick!
I believe most of those shots are zoomed in and the original pic can be rotated. I've asked him to fix that. it's driving me crazy. Thanks alot!
whatchutalkingabout_smile.gif

 
Congrats on the new site! What a huge improvement. They should LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU k9, you do your homework!
My immediate intuition has kicked in on this and I have a few things, do you want them here or in an email? I don't want to be "pedantic" as another innkeeper here likes to say. But I thought I could use that in a sentence for once! I will drop some here for your perusal:
whatchutalkingabout_smile.gif

Examples: The porch photo - photos draw the eye to the furthest point and I see a chain link fence and a car. This is something so teensy that would make a huge impact on the viewer.
I know for some reason someone there has said to keep the room photos for the room pages? As there are common area photos only on the header, which to me is not good. People are booking a room, so yes those areas are important, but you need to SHOW THEM THE MONEY! Show them a room, if not there, add it onto the HOME PAGE somewhere. You don't need to have such a short homepage. Am I correct in thinking it is not a new site, but a reworked site? Which is why the size (website resolution) is so small?
The advice these days is:
Optimize for 1024x768. For most sites this will cover most visitors. Most logs show that 92-99% of your visits will be over 1024 wide. While 1280 is increasingly common, there are still lots at 1024 and some below that. Optimize for this but don't ignore the others.
1024 = ~960. Accounting for scrollbars, window edges, etc means the real width of a 1024x768 screen is about 960 pixels. Some tools are based on a slightly smaller size, about 940
Larger Photos
You have to get larger images, better compression on the images to make them clear. This is the #1 important aspect of your new website, #1. The rest is gravy, as they say.
I love that you have main level floors and suites etc shown that way on the menu as that is always a question!
Things to do page is nice - the links on the things to do is eveyr nice! Consider making the images CLICKABLE to those sites of interest. Of course, again, larger, cleaner images would be preferred.
Header font
Why two fonts? and why is bed and breakfast clearer and appearing larger font size than the inn name? You want the inn name to be biggest and baddest!
Love the FAQs page - but do you hand out glasses with it? Why is the font so much smaller than other pages? :)
 
Very nice site, love the larger pictures and the drop down for the accommodations.
I used FF and it did come up rather quickly.
The fontof your Inn name should be the same and in large the inn name, reduce B&B.
Don't make me hunt to find your phone number or booking link. - both should be visible on every page I did see the contact info tab at the bottom (after skimming page) but you should give it a more prominent location on your page.
I also think having your complete address on each page is important, in the bottom box would be fine but have it there. And also have it before your directions on the location page. People with GPS want that first.
Photos should be easy to straighten through most any photo shop software. And while you are straightening, try to photo shop out the power cords to give a cleaner look. We all know TV's, lamps etc. have to be plugged in
wink_smile.gif
but seeing the cords in the picture moves my eyes straight to the cords. I agree with JB about the pic of the front porch as well. A beautiful front porch so try taking another angle or put a large potted plant at that end of the porch to camouflage the view.
And one last thing BREAKFAST - you need to devote real estate to your second B!!!
 
Just wanted to say I see that the same font text style is on your sign, and all. Don't feel you need to keep it and work with the same, when you can do better. The sign is the sign out front, don't let it cloud the issue for you. Get a nice header font for the website. :)
 
Before I look why is one https? you don't need a secure site for a B & B
 
You all have valid points. Thanks for your feedback.
We spent 3 hours this morning going over the site and sending more changes to the webguy. His response:
You’re being way to nitpicking. We definitely need to talk about this. This site looks great and needs to get on with it. I don’t think if I worked on this thing for 10 years I could ever get it to satisfy you.
Holy S*^%! Now I'm super duper upset...
 
You all have valid points. Thanks for your feedback.
We spent 3 hours this morning going over the site and sending more changes to the webguy. His response:
You’re being way to nitpicking. We definitely need to talk about this. This site looks great and needs to get on with it. I don’t think if I worked on this thing for 10 years I could ever get it to satisfy you.
Holy S*^%! Now I'm super duper upset....
K9 said:
You all have valid points. Thanks for your feedback.
We spent 3 hours this morning going over the site and sending more changes to the webguy. His response:
You’re being way to nitpicking. We definitely need to talk about this. This site looks great and needs to get on with it. I don’t think if I worked on this thing for 10 years I could ever get it to satisfy you.
Holy S*^%! Now I'm super duper upset...
Wow! Time to look for a new webmaster! Nitpicking?? It's your business, your livelihood! You'd better nitpick!!
 
I love the old front door with the stained glass and old hardware. I think all of you who still have the great old front doors should combine them into a montage, like one I saw in Ireland of their beautiful doors.
mpo008.jpg
 
I love the old front door with the stained glass and old hardware. I think all of you who still have the great old front doors should combine them into a montage, like one I saw in Ireland of their beautiful doors.
mpo008.jpg
.
I want to move to Ireland just for the doors ... j/k ... I like their style.
 
So much better. Can I ask a "weird" question? Is this a ship? Because all the pictures in the slides on the front page seem to be as if the floor is slanted to the left... or that just my screen?
Are you intentionally not leaving them a way to leave you a note? There is no way to contact you other than copy down the email address. Not a form, nothing clickable..
Eric Arthur Blair said:
Are you intentionally not leaving them a way to leave you a note? There is no way to contact you other than copy down the email address.
Copy down is right! The way it's set up, you can't even highlight it and copy it to paste into an e-mail. You can highlight the e-mail address but as soon as you release the mouse to do the copy, the contact info window disappears. You literally have to copy it down with pen and paper then manually type it into an e-mail. Not good.
 
You all have valid points. Thanks for your feedback.
We spent 3 hours this morning going over the site and sending more changes to the webguy. His response:
You’re being way to nitpicking. We definitely need to talk about this. This site looks great and needs to get on with it. I don’t think if I worked on this thing for 10 years I could ever get it to satisfy you.
Holy S*^%! Now I'm super duper upset....
WHAT the ???? You are paying this dude. When I do work, it isn't done until my client LOVES it!!! And many times, I won't even charge for extra clean up etc...anything to make my client happy!!! A website is your baby...you want it to be the best it can..and sorry to say, you still have a way to go.
 
You all have valid points. Thanks for your feedback.
We spent 3 hours this morning going over the site and sending more changes to the webguy. His response:
You’re being way to nitpicking. We definitely need to talk about this. This site looks great and needs to get on with it. I don’t think if I worked on this thing for 10 years I could ever get it to satisfy you.
Holy S*^%! Now I'm super duper upset....
Hummm, if this person thinks it looks great as it is, I would be consulting another web designer.
 
You all have valid points. Thanks for your feedback.
We spent 3 hours this morning going over the site and sending more changes to the webguy. His response:
You’re being way to nitpicking. We definitely need to talk about this. This site looks great and needs to get on with it. I don’t think if I worked on this thing for 10 years I could ever get it to satisfy you.
Holy S*^%! Now I'm super duper upset....
K9 said:
You all have valid points. Thanks for your feedback.
We spent 3 hours this morning going over the site and sending more changes to the webguy. His response:
You’re being way to nitpicking. We definitely need to talk about this. This site looks great and needs to get on with it. I don’t think if I worked on this thing for 10 years I could ever get it to satisfy you.
Holy S*^%! Now I'm super duper upset...
K9 is this a family friend or relative? The answer makes me think so, and this is what we always say, they don't get it. They do not understand ANY of the whole B&B image. I hope you are not paying good money for this, I am upset too!
 
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