Name of your website?Exclusive holiday villa in South France with private pool & lake
Your name?
Sue Birch
Your Location (city, etc)
Ygos St Saturnin
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Our family have a poolside villa & quaint woodcutter's cottage in the sunny South France for rent. Various photos show not only the accommodation but also the trout lake, badminton net & authentic bread oven. We offer a fine dining service as well as a take away menu for customers who don't want to self-cater all the time. There is a section on places to visit which includes the coast at Biarritz, a nature reserve, an Eco museum & local spa towns. We have a page giving directions to us & another showing our prices & availability.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
Desperation! We have previously advertised through a company who insisted on sole agency & then only got us bookings for 6 to 8 weeks of the year. We live in a very beautiful part of the world & have a gorgeous property & would love to be able to show the world just what a wonderful holiday/vacation they would have if they came here. Unfortunately I'm a complete novice at this (& really too old to learn) so any advice would be very gratefully received.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
This month & this is it & apologies for all the mistakes I'm sure I've made.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I was told it had to be easy to remember, & I thought alliteration is always good. But if you've got another suggestion please let me know.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
Ah! They're probably slicker, more professional, clearer, funnier... shall I go on?
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
Get more bookings than the 6 to 8 weeks we've been getting.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
What success? Anyway when you live in the South West of France time isn't a problem, every day's a holiday. Money is another issue.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I'd build gites. Oh you mean develop the website, not campsite! I'm sorry you-re moving too fast for me, just a few more weeks booked is all I ask at the moment.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
No, we"ve just got the one villa & cottage. Oh you mean the website, not campsite. Well, we'd have to build those gites.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
You have no idea- you are still talking about the website aren't you? You see when we bought this property it was a derelict ruin with no electricity, no plumbingn no ceilings, no septic tank... So the website is really no big deal. (Yeah right)
What has been your biggest challenge?
The septic tank. Oh alright, learning to speak a foreign language, & I don't mean French I can cope with that just about. But you kids have no idea what it's like trying to decipher what you're going on about. My first computer was an abacus & I haven't really moved on from there.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Well I guess time will tell. But if I have to crawl back to our advertising agents I shall be really miffed.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
Hasn't been running long enough to know.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
A week. It's not going anywhere is it? I'll just let it run until either it runs out of steam or I do.
Replace this with a question of your own
Am I talking to a real person?
What is your website address?
Exclusive holiday villa in South France with private pool & lake
No trackbacks.
Comments
