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Hi there,
I am into online marketing and what this person has written to you makes sense
The call to action on any page should be visible without having to browse down on the page. Visitors usually dont want to read too much, they would prefer getting the information right in front of them. so i would reckon keeping your information limited to what guest are looking for.
Highlight the unique part of your B&B, make sure they are visible and highlighted eg pricing, call to action, benefits, advantages, and whatever is special and unique compared to your competitors.
Contacts and social media icons like facebook, twitter etc should look good on the top right hand side of the page. i would suggest you have them on each page. Looking at your website, i find that area is available and you can highlight these fields there.
If you want to know about bounce rate, you would have to take up an account with google analytics. it would provide you, every details, from the number of visits on your website each day, unique visit, no of bookings, geographies of visits and what not. you will get all that you want. However it depends if you really need them as it would cost.
Also if you get web tools and you have the your website ftp access, u can do all this yourself with no extra cost. Its very easy.....
Hotelogix said:
Contacts and social media icons like facebook, twitter etc should look good on the top right hand side of the page. i would suggest you have them on each page. Looking at your website, i find that area is available and you can highlight these fields there.
That only works if the innkeeper USESa nd is ACTIVE on Facebook, twitter etc. Don't assume every person online uses social media. Why would that be so important? This website is for B&B reservations, not sending them off to follow you on social media.
There would be NOTHING WORSE imo than to have all of that on the in a primary location on the website only to click over and see NO UPDATES for months, and no activity. If you are not able to maintain activity on Twitter/FB then don't have the link ANYWHERE on your website! Same goes for a blog. Don't do it if people go and think you have died or something, since the last activity was last January.
SAME WITH SPECIALS. I clicked on someone here who had Valentine's Special on their website still, do you even realize it is JUNE?
.
I just updated my site getting rid of May info and it weighed on me until I got it done. I have, however, found things I missed that were embarrssing to find. Really outdated stuff.
Had a guest call once and ask for a pkg I wasn't running. Turned out that just because I removed the link from the packages page did not mean the special deal page itself disappeared. Thus, I learned about the 'private' folder to remove pages from view.
We sold them the pkg at the price on the page they found and I learned something important.
 
I just clicked over to look (even though I know your website and the webdesigner well)
*BOOK NOW* is easy to see and at the bottom for that reason - it is on every page
Your phone number AND 800# is on every page, easy to contact you.
Now you can see why I feel the linkedin group are just so off it ain't funny! There is a dude on there arguing with me that most every hotel offers free WIFI, I told him never in my life have I seen a hotel offer free WIFI, not yet. Every B&B I have seen does!
So take it for what it is worth. I am sure the guy telling you this has a web design company...if he is soliciting you let me know and we can ban his butt..
Re: Free WiFi - I just bought a Living Social deal for 2 nights in a large suite at a fancy 4 star hotel in a large metro city in our state (Father's Day and late anniversary getaway for my dh & me). It looks like there is a charge for Internet in the rooms, even at the retail cost of this suite, but WiFi is free in the lobby. I think this is so odd. Same thing happened when I went to a B&B conference years ago at an upscale hotel. I'm not planning to bring a laptop or anything where we need Internet access because I'll have my smartphone.
I will keep the forum posted....
 
Hi there,
I am into online marketing and what this person has written to you makes sense
The call to action on any page should be visible without having to browse down on the page. Visitors usually dont want to read too much, they would prefer getting the information right in front of them. so i would reckon keeping your information limited to what guest are looking for.
Highlight the unique part of your B&B, make sure they are visible and highlighted eg pricing, call to action, benefits, advantages, and whatever is special and unique compared to your competitors.
Contacts and social media icons like facebook, twitter etc should look good on the top right hand side of the page. i would suggest you have them on each page. Looking at your website, i find that area is available and you can highlight these fields there.
If you want to know about bounce rate, you would have to take up an account with google analytics. it would provide you, every details, from the number of visits on your website each day, unique visit, no of bookings, geographies of visits and what not. you will get all that you want. However it depends if you really need them as it would cost.
Also if you get web tools and you have the your website ftp access, u can do all this yourself with no extra cost. Its very easy.....
Hotelogix said:
Contacts and social media icons like facebook, twitter etc should look good on the top right hand side of the page. i would suggest you have them on each page. Looking at your website, i find that area is available and you can highlight these fields there.
Do not lead your traffic OFF your website to FB & Twitter by making those links SO easy to find. Guests cannot make reservations on FB and Twitter so why send them there so quickly?
I have those links at the bottom of pages so guests can see I'm 'cool' if they get that far but to lead them away from the site to FB where they get all distracted? No, not a good idea.
Besides which there's not much on FB that isn't on my website already.
.
Although we have a twitter account, I don't feel it is of much value to our B&B so I do not have a link on our website or ever promote it. I have a relatively small Facebook icon (link) and a Google +1 button towards the top right of our page.
It is not difficult to set up custom page tabs which can take bookings on Facebook. I don't have my reservation system embedded into my Facebook simply because I have set up webervations to exactly match the look of our website. It is too wide to fit in a custom facebook tab. But I do have a "Reservations" button/link to a custom page that says the easiest way to book is online through our website and there is a link to make their reservation. I also have an "Accommodations" tab that has a photo and description of all of our rooms, each with a two month availability calendar shown and a Book Now button.
Re: WiFi
Every hotel I have stayed at in the past 5 years has had free Wifi in the rooms. I haven't stayed at any fancy hotels in a long time, but Best Western, Holiday Inn, Ramada, and similar hotel chains always have free WiFi.
 
I agree with Maddie that if you want your *Book Now* link to your online rez & your phone number contact to really jump out at potential guests, it needs to be in the upper right of each of your pages. People just don't like to even look at the bottom of a list or scroll to look for anything...
 
Hi there,
I am into online marketing and what this person has written to you makes sense
The call to action on any page should be visible without having to browse down on the page. Visitors usually dont want to read too much, they would prefer getting the information right in front of them. so i would reckon keeping your information limited to what guest are looking for.
Highlight the unique part of your B&B, make sure they are visible and highlighted eg pricing, call to action, benefits, advantages, and whatever is special and unique compared to your competitors.
Contacts and social media icons like facebook, twitter etc should look good on the top right hand side of the page. i would suggest you have them on each page. Looking at your website, i find that area is available and you can highlight these fields there.
If you want to know about bounce rate, you would have to take up an account with google analytics. it would provide you, every details, from the number of visits on your website each day, unique visit, no of bookings, geographies of visits and what not. you will get all that you want. However it depends if you really need them as it would cost.
Also if you get web tools and you have the your website ftp access, u can do all this yourself with no extra cost. Its very easy.....
Hotelogix said:
Contacts and social media icons like facebook, twitter etc should look good on the top right hand side of the page. i would suggest you have them on each page. Looking at your website, i find that area is available and you can highlight these fields there.
Do not lead your traffic OFF your website to FB & Twitter by making those links SO easy to find. Guests cannot make reservations on FB and Twitter so why send them there so quickly?
I have those links at the bottom of pages so guests can see I'm 'cool' if they get that far but to lead them away from the site to FB where they get all distracted? No, not a good idea.
Besides which there's not much on FB that isn't on my website already.
.
Although we have a twitter account, I don't feel it is of much value to our B&B so I do not have a link on our website or ever promote it. I have a relatively small Facebook icon (link) and a Google +1 button towards the top right of our page.
It is not difficult to set up custom page tabs which can take bookings on Facebook. I don't have my reservation system embedded into my Facebook simply because I have set up webervations to exactly match the look of our website. It is too wide to fit in a custom facebook tab. But I do have a "Reservations" button/link to a custom page that says the easiest way to book is online through our website and there is a link to make their reservation. I also have an "Accommodations" tab that has a photo and description of all of our rooms, each with a two month availability calendar shown and a Book Now button.
Re: WiFi
Every hotel I have stayed at in the past 5 years has had free Wifi in the rooms. I haven't stayed at any fancy hotels in a long time, but Best Western, Holiday Inn, Ramada, and similar hotel chains always have free WiFi.
.
How did you do those custom tabs? Just point me to a set of directions and I'll be fine. I thought those things were all apps I had to sign up for.
 
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