Picking a domain name...

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Arks

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It's time for me to get a domain name for my guest house website (thought I won't be posting a site anytime soon).
The building I'm buying was built in 1895 as an enlargement of the St. Mark Hotel here, which dated from before the civil war. The oldest part of the hotel burned in 1910, but the "new" addition from 1895 still exists and will be my guest house.
NOTE: St. Mark isn't the real name of the old hotel, but close. I'm not giving out the real name until I have the domain name secured.
We've decided to name the guest house "St. Mark Guest House". So I did a "whois" search for available domain names.
The following are all already taken:
StMark.com
TheStMark.com
StMarkGuestHouse.com
SaintMark.com
But I did find that TheSaintMark.com is available. Should I go with that? It's not bad. Remember-able, as long as people know to spell out the word saint. Adding "guesthouse" on the end makes it kind of long to type, and I don't want to use "BnB" or similar because it's not really a B&B and I don't want to mislead people.
I DO want to go with a .com address. People just don't remember anything but dot COM extensions.
dot NET and dot WHATEVERELSE just aren't a great alternative.
 
If there are that many that are that close, I'd go for a different name. Go for some variation based on the location or attraction.
 
guesthouseStMark.com
(name of town)lodging.com
Think of the term(s) that people would search for. What is drawing people to the town? Sometimes the best domain name doesn't even having the establishment name in it, but has a name that is a major keyword
 
I would use CitynameStMark.com unless the city name is REAL long. OR how about StMark1895.com or 1895StMark.com
 
I would use CitynameStMark.com unless the city name is REAL long. OR how about StMark1895.com or 1895StMark.com.
gillumhouse said:
I would use CitynameStMark.com unless the city name is REAL long. OR how about StMark1895.com or 1895StMark.com
The city name IS real long. But I've seen others here in the state put the date in like that. For Arkansas, 1895 is really old, so maybe I need to crow about that!
Of course, I can then sit back and wait for the calls from guests saying, I can't find 1895 Mark Street on my map.
 
Make sure there are not others with the same name in other ciites or states, you will battle google for places. I battle it out in google and TA for a place in TEXAS and have even had people to book there and call us.
 
I would use CitynameStMark.com unless the city name is REAL long. OR how about StMark1895.com or 1895StMark.com.
gillumhouse said:
I would use CitynameStMark.com unless the city name is REAL long. OR how about StMark1895.com or 1895StMark.com
The city name IS real long. But I've seen others here in the state put the date in like that. For Arkansas, 1895 is really old, so maybe I need to crow about that!
Of course, I can then sit back and wait for the calls from guests saying, I can't find 1895 Mark Street on my map.
.
I won't worry about a long name if it's description or memorable. Our domain name is 18 letters before the .com It's long to type, but it can be useful to remember your name, your area name, etc. We get excellent rankings on google. If your area or city name is long, it's ok as long as that's what people are interested in.
 
Are you tied to the "guesthouse" part? What about inn or something similar? I assume hotel is out as it is not what you are doing.
 
Are you tied to the "guesthouse" part? What about inn or something similar? I assume hotel is out as it is not what you are doing..
I'm pretty set on Guest House (but I don't have to include "guesthouse" in the URL).
I want people to realize it's not a B&B and it's not a hotel. When I see "inn", I think 24-hour front desk, or at least an owner or manager onsite all night. I'm probably not going to have that, at least in the beginning. And it certainly won't fit the image of a lodge.
 
Don't forget - thinking of your online presence, if you go for online directories for lodging SAINT will put you in the back of the line alphabetically. 1895GuestHouse.com will be at the front, numbers are before letters. If it is THE1895GuestHouse.com again...THE is back of the line, end of the list.
 
Are you tied to the "guesthouse" part? What about inn or something similar? I assume hotel is out as it is not what you are doing..
I'm pretty set on Guest House (but I don't have to include "guesthouse" in the URL).
I want people to realize it's not a B&B and it's not a hotel. When I see "inn", I think 24-hour front desk, or at least an owner or manager onsite all night. I'm probably not going to have that, at least in the beginning. And it certainly won't fit the image of a lodge.
.
I agree that bnb, guesthouse, inn will complicate the url. I looked at the city names list in my atlas and about the longest name I could find would be the prescottvalleystmark.com and that would not be too bad. or maybe 1895ArkansasStMark.com
 
I would use CitynameStMark.com unless the city name is REAL long. OR how about StMark1895.com or 1895StMark.com.
gillumhouse said:
I would use CitynameStMark.com unless the city name is REAL long. OR how about StMark1895.com or 1895StMark.com
The city name IS real long. But I've seen others here in the state put the date in like that. For Arkansas, 1895 is really old, so maybe I need to crow about that!
Of course, I can then sit back and wait for the calls from guests saying, I can't find 1895 Mark Street on my map.
.
Arkansawyer said:
The city name IS real long.
Swirt's point about using the city name or attraction name is to help in search engine optimization. The fact is, most people won't type your url into their browser to find you - they will type your name, or your town plus hotel, or whatever into google (still the most visited web page every day). You should set up your domain to build on whatever advantage you can take from starting from scratch. If you want to buy the domain name myinn.com, that 's fine - but then just point it to the other one.
 
This is where I'll be staying tomorrow and Monday nights at my aspiring innkeeper seminar:
http://eurekaspringsromancebb.com/
Notice that their domain name has nothing to do with the name of the establishment, which is "Arsenic and Old Lace Bed and Breakfast". They've certainly taken the search engine thing to heart!
Just looking at the photos, it looks like it was built recently specifically as a B&B.
 
To quote our Scottish guests this week "Eich" not sure how to spell it. I am adamantly opposed to an inn using the word "PREMIERE" I want to knock them right off their high horse! DOWN! GET DOWN!
Heck maybe we should start selling wine and make some real money around here! Wonder who I can bribe? Oops, did I say that aloud?
 
To quote our Scottish guests this week "Eich" not sure how to spell it. I am adamantly opposed to an inn using the word "PREMIERE" I want to knock them right off their high horse! DOWN! GET DOWN!
Heck maybe we should start selling wine and make some real money around here! Wonder who I can bribe? Oops, did I say that aloud?.
Joey Bloggs said:
Heck maybe we should start selling wine...
Only if it's the premier wine in the area.
 
This is where I'll be staying tomorrow and Monday nights at my aspiring innkeeper seminar:
http://eurekaspringsromancebb.com/
Notice that their domain name has nothing to do with the name of the establishment, which is "Arsenic and Old Lace Bed and Breakfast". They've certainly taken the search engine thing to heart!
Just looking at the photos, it looks like it was built recently specifically as a B&B..
I would leave "the" off as well. People don't/won't remember to type that.
 
To quote our Scottish guests this week "Eich" not sure how to spell it. I am adamantly opposed to an inn using the word "PREMIERE" I want to knock them right off their high horse! DOWN! GET DOWN!
Heck maybe we should start selling wine and make some real money around here! Wonder who I can bribe? Oops, did I say that aloud?.
Oh, yeah....there's a place in our State that touts being a "premiere" something lodging. That's gotten attacked on TA!
 
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