Looking to build a website

[EmptyNest]

I am curious...do you get all the marketing for the property? Did she give you access to all the listings on line so you can go in and change all the information? Don't know if it will help the SEO or not..but there is a huge amount of directory listings for the current place. If you lose all of that...you really will be starting from scratch. But then again, that may be a good thing if you are going to renovate the place because it really needs it. That way you can put your own spin on things and not be attached to bad old TripAdvisor reviews.

 

[jamesandjill]

I am curious...do you get all the marketing for the property? Did she give you access to all the listings on line so you can go in and change all the information? Don't know if it will help the SEO or not..but there is a huge amount of directory listings for the current place. If you lose all of that...you really will be starting from scratch. But then again, that may be a good thing if you are going to renovate the place because it really needs it. That way you can put your own spin on things and not be attached to bad old TripAdvisor reviews..

She is giving us all OTA travel partners as well as bedandbreakfast.com. Also put us in touch with Groupon. My husband has spoken with the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Working with other hotels in the area to let them know if they are booked we are available. I will be taking new pictures tomorrow of the rooms so they are updated. I do not believe she has advertised locally. My husband and I went to Nashville on Sunday and introduced ourselves. When we make business cards the shop owners were very receptive to allow us to put business cards in their stores. My husband and I need to bring goodwill among the Inn and the Nashville community as a whole.

 

[EmptyNest]

I am curious...do you get all the marketing for the property? Did she give you access to all the listings on line so you can go in and change all the information? Don't know if it will help the SEO or not..but there is a huge amount of directory listings for the current place. If you lose all of that...you really will be starting from scratch. But then again, that may be a good thing if you are going to renovate the place because it really needs it. That way you can put your own spin on things and not be attached to bad old TripAdvisor reviews..

She is giving us all OTA travel partners as well as bedandbreakfast.com. Also put us in touch with Groupon. My husband has spoken with the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Working with other hotels in the area to let them know if they are booked we are available. I will be taking new pictures tomorrow of the rooms so they are updated. I do not believe she has advertised locally. My husband and I went to Nashville on Sunday and introduced ourselves. When we make business cards the shop owners were very receptive to allow us to put business cards in their stores. My husband and I need to bring goodwill among the Inn and the Nashville community as a whole.
.

Great that is what you need to do. Goodwill goes a long way in the town. Working together is critical. You will need to get your OTA last listings updated asap.
Maybe change the name but leave something like formerly xxx inn and then after a little time remove it. With Trip advisor tell them you are new owners and have old bad reviews removed

 

[DH22]

I look at people talking about $5000+ price tags on new websites and I'm wondering... WHERE WOULD I GET SUCH CLIENTS??? .

$5,000 is very reasonable for a really nice site with a decent amount of custom design/features as that requires a good amount of time and expertise to do. One of the more well known lodging website design companies starts around $25,000 for some perspective (not in any way recommending that massive of an investment for an inn website).
However, it is also too common to see people choosing truly awful web design agencies that don't charge much but create sites that would be barely acceptable 10 years ago. This is a waste of money no matter how cheaper it may be.
For most smaller lodging properties, I don't see a fully custom expensive website as a worthwhile investment. Best to invest $1,000 - $3,000 on a slightly custom site (modify an already designed WordPress theme) that a web designer can do relatively quickly. However, if you can spend a little bit of time learning WordPress and SEO, you can create a nice site on your own for the price of a theme which often are between $40-70 (excluding any additional costs such as web hosting, domain, and booking engine). There are some decent free themes, but buying a theme either specific to lodging or multi purpose themes with a premade hotel option can save a significant amount of time. Then you mostly only have to replace text and photos.

 

[MtnKeeper]

I am curious...do you get all the marketing for the property? Did she give you access to all the listings on line so you can go in and change all the information? Don't know if it will help the SEO or not..but there is a huge amount of directory listings for the current place. If you lose all of that...you really will be starting from scratch. But then again, that may be a good thing if you are going to renovate the place because it really needs it. That way you can put your own spin on things and not be attached to bad old TripAdvisor reviews..

She is giving us all OTA travel partners as well as bedandbreakfast.com. Also put us in touch with Groupon. My husband has spoken with the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Working with other hotels in the area to let them know if they are booked we are available. I will be taking new pictures tomorrow of the rooms so they are updated. I do not believe she has advertised locally. My husband and I went to Nashville on Sunday and introduced ourselves. When we make business cards the shop owners were very receptive to allow us to put business cards in their stores. My husband and I need to bring goodwill among the Inn and the Nashville community as a whole.
.

Be careful with GroupOn - you don't want to start off with your prices being so discounted that guests come to expect that's what your prices will be. I would avoid them if at all possible.

 

[EmptyNest]

I look at people talking about $5000+ price tags on new websites and I'm wondering... WHERE WOULD I GET SUCH CLIENTS??? .

$5,000 is very reasonable for a really nice site with a decent amount of custom design/features as that requires a good amount of time and expertise to do. One of the more well known lodging website design companies starts around $25,000 for some perspective (not in any way recommending that massive of an investment for an inn website).
However, it is also too common to see people choosing truly awful web design agencies that don't charge much but create sites that would be barely acceptable 10 years ago. This is a waste of money no matter how cheaper it may be.
For most smaller lodging properties, I don't see a fully custom expensive website as a worthwhile investment. Best to invest $1,000 - $3,000 on a slightly custom site (modify an already designed WordPress theme) that a web designer can do relatively quickly. However, if you can spend a little bit of time learning WordPress and SEO, you can create a nice site on your own for the price of a theme which often are between $40-70 (excluding any additional costs such as web hosting, domain, and booking engine). There are some decent free themes, but buying a theme either specific to lodging or multi purpose themes with a premade hotel option can save a significant amount of time. Then you mostly only have to replace text and photos.
.

Sorry DH22 you are making it sound way too easy to use a theme. It is not. They want to make you think it is all copy and paste but I've never found one I would just leave as is.

 

[EmptyNest]

I am curious...do you get all the marketing for the property? Did she give you access to all the listings on line so you can go in and change all the information? Don't know if it will help the SEO or not..but there is a huge amount of directory listings for the current place. If you lose all of that...you really will be starting from scratch. But then again, that may be a good thing if you are going to renovate the place because it really needs it. That way you can put your own spin on things and not be attached to bad old TripAdvisor reviews..

She is giving us all OTA travel partners as well as bedandbreakfast.com. Also put us in touch with Groupon. My husband has spoken with the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Working with other hotels in the area to let them know if they are booked we are available. I will be taking new pictures tomorrow of the rooms so they are updated. I do not believe she has advertised locally. My husband and I went to Nashville on Sunday and introduced ourselves. When we make business cards the shop owners were very receptive to allow us to put business cards in their stores. My husband and I need to bring goodwill among the Inn and the Nashville community as a whole.
.

Be careful with GroupOn - you don't want to start off with your prices being so discounted that guests come to expect that's what your prices will be. I would avoid them if at all possible.
.

I agree. Don't use Group on and watch how much money you are giving away to OTA's you could regret it. Your location will be a great help as you network with others and build a new reputation for the current place.

 

[JimBoone]

I look at people talking about $5000+ price tags on new websites and I'm wondering... WHERE WOULD I GET SUCH CLIENTS??? .

$5,000 is very reasonable for a really nice site with a decent amount of custom design/features as that requires a good amount of time and expertise to do. One of the more well known lodging website design companies starts around $25,000 for some perspective (not in any way recommending that massive of an investment for an inn website).
However, it is also too common to see people choosing truly awful web design agencies that don't charge much but create sites that would be barely acceptable 10 years ago. This is a waste of money no matter how cheaper it may be.
For most smaller lodging properties, I don't see a fully custom expensive website as a worthwhile investment. Best to invest $1,000 - $3,000 on a slightly custom site (modify an already designed WordPress theme) that a web designer can do relatively quickly. However, if you can spend a little bit of time learning WordPress and SEO, you can create a nice site on your own for the price of a theme which often are between $40-70 (excluding any additional costs such as web hosting, domain, and booking engine). There are some decent free themes, but buying a theme either specific to lodging or multi purpose themes with a premade hotel option can save a significant amount of time. Then you mostly only have to replace text and photos.
.

A theme is a good option, but it is a lot more to it than just changing text and photos to achieve a result that will show off your property the way you want it seen. We can all buy a paint brush, but the hand of an artist will produce different results.

 

[EmptyNest]

I look at people talking about $5000+ price tags on new websites and I'm wondering... WHERE WOULD I GET SUCH CLIENTS??? .

$5,000 is very reasonable for a really nice site with a decent amount of custom design/features as that requires a good amount of time and expertise to do. One of the more well known lodging website design companies starts around $25,000 for some perspective (not in any way recommending that massive of an investment for an inn website).
However, it is also too common to see people choosing truly awful web design agencies that don't charge much but create sites that would be barely acceptable 10 years ago. This is a waste of money no matter how cheaper it may be.
For most smaller lodging properties, I don't see a fully custom expensive website as a worthwhile investment. Best to invest $1,000 - $3,000 on a slightly custom site (modify an already designed WordPress theme) that a web designer can do relatively quickly. However, if you can spend a little bit of time learning WordPress and SEO, you can create a nice site on your own for the price of a theme which often are between $40-70 (excluding any additional costs such as web hosting, domain, and booking engine). There are some decent free themes, but buying a theme either specific to lodging or multi purpose themes with a premade hotel option can save a significant amount of time. Then you mostly only have to replace text and photos.
.

A theme is a good option, but it is a lot more to it than just changing text and photos to achieve a result that will show off your property the way you want it seen. We can all buy a paint brush, but the hand of an artist will produce different results.
.

And Jim knows what he is doing. He was such a good student!!!

 

[JimBoone]

I look at people talking about $5000+ price tags on new websites and I'm wondering... WHERE WOULD I GET SUCH CLIENTS??? .

My husband and I just bought this business and money is really tight right now. There is no way we can afford $5,000!
.

Sounds familiar, starting out there just wasn't any money, paying monthly bills and eating were a struggle, first step was find a job to support myself while we tried to build our business, most years I worked a job and Maxine ran the business with my help evenings and weekends, "if" the business made anything those funds were invested back in the business, we made a life we enjoyed, starting out $5,000 would have been a really good months gross sales, even after years still not a bad month.

 

[user 26]

Hi JamesandJill
Welcome
First thing I see is you've given your email on the forum - I am afraid you are going to receive lots of spam. I don't know if it's too late for you to hide that in your original post. Hopefully it's a 'throw away' email. But I would not open ANY attachments that are likely to come to that email now.
Has the seller also taken her website, too? Is it like 'one of our many properties' kind of website?
Is it like Seashanty's of Boston, Seashanty's of Hyannis, etc? Whatever name you choose, I would get 'formerly known as the xyz inn' on there. It's really important to do this because you don't want prior guests to look it up and see CLOSED.
The reason folks on the forum are dismayed at your loss of the name is that it takes a long time to be 'found' by search engines. If you're the only place in town, that can help enormously.
There are free website builders like wix and weebly, but be sure you get your own domain, not a site with your inn and then weebly hanging off the back of it.
I'm not a fan of 'web pages' such as those provided by b and b dot com. Is that what you mean?
I am guessing you are getting strapped for cash ... maybe you are not. The $5000 figure might scare you but you can get a great website for $1000. And a starter website for a lot less.
Your website is what is going to bring in most of your bookings. Even if you take phone-in reservations, people will look for you online. It has to be responsive, people have to be able to find what they want to know and reserve their room with ease.
Whatever you do, you should get online as quick as you can. Blogs are a great start showing 'getting ready' or renovating or meet the new owners or whatever. Get your place on facebook right away if you're not there already.
Whatever you do, you need the best pictures you can get.
There are some website builders here on the forum.
I wish you well.

 

[EmptyNest]

I am curious...do you get all the marketing for the property? Did she give you access to all the listings on line so you can go in and change all the information? Don't know if it will help the SEO or not..but there is a huge amount of directory listings for the current place. If you lose all of that...you really will be starting from scratch. But then again, that may be a good thing if you are going to renovate the place because it really needs it. That way you can put your own spin on things and not be attached to bad old TripAdvisor reviews..

She is giving us all OTA travel partners as well as bedandbreakfast.com. Also put us in touch with Groupon. My husband has spoken with the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Working with other hotels in the area to let them know if they are booked we are available. I will be taking new pictures tomorrow of the rooms so they are updated. I do not believe she has advertised locally. My husband and I went to Nashville on Sunday and introduced ourselves. When we make business cards the shop owners were very receptive to allow us to put business cards in their stores. My husband and I need to bring goodwill among the Inn and the Nashville community as a whole.
.

I just tried a search for your town on band B.c om and you don't show up! You are going to have to edit that listing so you do. Only when I searched for your inns current name do you show up. NOT A GOOD THING! Because who will know that??? You must come up in a search for your town.
So I googled your town bed and breakfasts. Lots of listings come up..but you are on none of them. That is NOT a good thing either. You should do the same thing and then contact each of those sites to add your NEW name and listing.
I will note that your current name place does come up because someone has paid for a google ad. You will probably not have the funds to continue with that will you???

 

[user 26]

When I first started out I had 'no money' ... it was scary. It all went into starting up. Being a seasonal place, the first month was slow then we picked up speed and I was rolling along in summer. Then, boom, October came in and all the local summer businesses closed (in a tiny harbor town, miles from anything, that was huge). We went from eight rooms booked to one or two a night and then nothing. The cold blew in and I had to pay to winterize the place and get out of there. I was so cold in early November my head hurt ... I wore earmuffs and a hat all the time. I'd come in here and read about buying new towels or just little things and think 'how'?
Anyway ... it's survivable but hard. And if you can figure out how to make it work, it can be wonderful.

 

[Jcam]

I am curious...do you get all the marketing for the property? Did she give you access to all the listings on line so you can go in and change all the information? Don't know if it will help the SEO or not..but there is a huge amount of directory listings for the current place. If you lose all of that...you really will be starting from scratch. But then again, that may be a good thing if you are going to renovate the place because it really needs it. That way you can put your own spin on things and not be attached to bad old TripAdvisor reviews..

She is giving us all OTA travel partners as well as bedandbreakfast.com. Also put us in touch with Groupon. My husband has spoken with the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Working with other hotels in the area to let them know if they are booked we are available. I will be taking new pictures tomorrow of the rooms so they are updated. I do not believe she has advertised locally. My husband and I went to Nashville on Sunday and introduced ourselves. When we make business cards the shop owners were very receptive to allow us to put business cards in their stores. My husband and I need to bring goodwill among the Inn and the Nashville community as a whole.
.

Be careful with GroupOn - you don't want to start off with your prices being so discounted that guests come to expect that's what your prices will be. I would avoid them if at all possible.
.

I agree. Don't use Group on and watch how much money you are giving away to OTA's you could regret it. Your location will be a great help as you network with others and build a new reputation for the current place.
.

I agree group unless you have a ton of other things to sell them like dinners, acohol, trips and so on is not worth it - ie see the maths
room is normally $200 to use round numbers
Group push for you to do 50% off so voucher to customers is $100
Group get %50 of the voucher price - you get £$50 and then that a month later - for me that's less than turning the room round.

 

[JBloggs]

Listen to the experts.
PS Groupon died, and good riddance, please don't even consider giving your business away.

 

[DH22]

I look at people talking about $5000+ price tags on new websites and I'm wondering... WHERE WOULD I GET SUCH CLIENTS??? .

$5,000 is very reasonable for a really nice site with a decent amount of custom design/features as that requires a good amount of time and expertise to do. One of the more well known lodging website design companies starts around $25,000 for some perspective (not in any way recommending that massive of an investment for an inn website).
However, it is also too common to see people choosing truly awful web design agencies that don't charge much but create sites that would be barely acceptable 10 years ago. This is a waste of money no matter how cheaper it may be.
For most smaller lodging properties, I don't see a fully custom expensive website as a worthwhile investment. Best to invest $1,000 - $3,000 on a slightly custom site (modify an already designed WordPress theme) that a web designer can do relatively quickly. However, if you can spend a little bit of time learning WordPress and SEO, you can create a nice site on your own for the price of a theme which often are between $40-70 (excluding any additional costs such as web hosting, domain, and booking engine). There are some decent free themes, but buying a theme either specific to lodging or multi purpose themes with a premade hotel option can save a significant amount of time. Then you mostly only have to replace text and photos.
.

Sorry DH22 you are making it sound way too easy to use a theme. It is not. They want to make you think it is all copy and paste but I've never found one I would just leave as is.
.

I did recommend spending a little to have a designer take a theme that is relatively close but putting their own personal touch on it.
However, for someone who can only put in a minimal investment of say under $100 taking a good hotel theme and simply changing out the content can result in a fairly nice website. In most cases there are probably some things you would prefer to change, but for someone who needs the cheapest option it works well enough as-is until you can afford a more custom site. However, even doing this will require professional photos or at least a good student/hobby photographer who has a little knowledge and a decent camera. Poor to average photos on a website won't convert traffic into reservations.
CSSIgniter has several hotel themes for example. Avada has a hotel demo that can be imported. Themeforest at least a few decent hotel specific themes.

 

[gillumhouse]

I was a start-ip - from scratch om 1995. $$$ is something I have NEVER been well-acquainted with. I had a website before I had a computer - back then, I had no photos because I did not have good ones. I now have pro-photos up. BUT for several many years my photos were ones I took but posted ONLY AFTER they were shredded, and I mean shredded by the photo experts on the Forum. O tool and re=took until approved.
IF you are willing to take advice, you will get the best from here. We WANT you to succeed and be the best you can be. Empty Nest is one who KNOWS web design (also Dimitru and several others - not me), JB is photography, I an expert at nothing. Most of the innkeepers on here are excellent sources of advice - the most is because we sometimes get someone new who THINKS they know everything.

 

[jamesandjill]

I am curious...do you get all the marketing for the property? Did she give you access to all the listings on line so you can go in and change all the information? Don't know if it will help the SEO or not..but there is a huge amount of directory listings for the current place. If you lose all of that...you really will be starting from scratch. But then again, that may be a good thing if you are going to renovate the place because it really needs it. That way you can put your own spin on things and not be attached to bad old TripAdvisor reviews..

She is giving us all OTA travel partners as well as bedandbreakfast.com. Also put us in touch with Groupon. My husband has spoken with the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Working with other hotels in the area to let them know if they are booked we are available. I will be taking new pictures tomorrow of the rooms so they are updated. I do not believe she has advertised locally. My husband and I went to Nashville on Sunday and introduced ourselves. When we make business cards the shop owners were very receptive to allow us to put business cards in their stores. My husband and I need to bring goodwill among the Inn and the Nashville community as a whole.
.

I just tried a search for your town on band B.c om and you don't show up! You are going to have to edit that listing so you do. Only when I searched for your inns current name do you show up. NOT A GOOD THING! Because who will know that??? You must come up in a search for your town.
So I googled your town bed and breakfasts. Lots of listings come up..but you are on none of them. That is NOT a good thing either. You should do the same thing and then contact each of those sites to add your NEW name and listing.
I will note that your current name place does come up because someone has paid for a google ad. You will probably not have the funds to continue with that will you???
.

We will look into it. I knew she has not done any advertising locally. It appears to me that most of the business is from Expedia and Groupon. Starting next year the visitors bureau is listing all hotels in the area for free. So we will wait to do that otherwise it is $ 95 for four months. They do have a listing on us so when people are looking for a room they know we are available. Have already spoken with them. Where else should we be advertising?

 

[user 26]

I was a start-ip - from scratch om 1995. $$$ is something I have NEVER been well-acquainted with. I had a website before I had a computer - back then, I had no photos because I did not have good ones. I now have pro-photos up. BUT for several many years my photos were ones I took but posted ONLY AFTER they were shredded, and I mean shredded by the photo experts on the Forum. O tool and re=took until approved.
IF you are willing to take advice, you will get the best from here. We WANT you to succeed and be the best you can be. Empty Nest is one who KNOWS web design (also Dimitru and several others - not me), JB is photography, I an expert at nothing. Most of the innkeepers on here are excellent sources of advice - the most is because we sometimes get someone new who THINKS they know everything..

I am expert at nothing.

Not True. Gillum finds ways to get her place in the news. She gets guests to come stay with her out in 'podunk' as she calls it. (a hypothetical small town regarded as typically dull or insignificant.) She roasts her own coffee. She is motorcycle friendly and does horse stabling (I know nothing of horses or motorcycles, but she does) Last but not least, have you heard of B&B's for Vets, now run by professional organizations? That was HER idea.
Expert at nothing, indeed.

 

[EmptyNest]

I am curious...do you get all the marketing for the property? Did she give you access to all the listings on line so you can go in and change all the information? Don't know if it will help the SEO or not..but there is a huge amount of directory listings for the current place. If you lose all of that...you really will be starting from scratch. But then again, that may be a good thing if you are going to renovate the place because it really needs it. That way you can put your own spin on things and not be attached to bad old TripAdvisor reviews..

She is giving us all OTA travel partners as well as bedandbreakfast.com. Also put us in touch with Groupon. My husband has spoken with the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Working with other hotels in the area to let them know if they are booked we are available. I will be taking new pictures tomorrow of the rooms so they are updated. I do not believe she has advertised locally. My husband and I went to Nashville on Sunday and introduced ourselves. When we make business cards the shop owners were very receptive to allow us to put business cards in their stores. My husband and I need to bring goodwill among the Inn and the Nashville community as a whole.
.

I just tried a search for your town on band B.c om and you don't show up! You are going to have to edit that listing so you do. Only when I searched for your inns current name do you show up. NOT A GOOD THING! Because who will know that??? You must come up in a search for your town.
So I googled your town bed and breakfasts. Lots of listings come up..but you are on none of them. That is NOT a good thing either. You should do the same thing and then contact each of those sites to add your NEW name and listing.
I will note that your current name place does come up because someone has paid for a google ad. You will probably not have the funds to continue with that will you???
.

We will look into it. I knew she has not done any advertising locally. It appears to me that most of the business is from Expedia and Groupon. Starting next year the visitors bureau is listing all hotels in the area for free. So we will wait to do that otherwise it is $ 95 for four months. They do have a listing on us so when people are looking for a room they know we are available. Have already spoken with them. Where else should we be advertising?
.

Do the google search like I said previously. Any site that come up for your town...in the top page of listings...You should be listed on those sites. Some look like they are free and others of course may charge. Go for the basic listing with those to get your name on the site with a link to your new website. See how it goes and then you can consider some others.