Last week Heather Bayer, (AKA the Cottage Guru), cast her eye on our web site and wrote a review on her highly respected blog

For those of you who don’t know of Heather she lives in Canada and writes on the subject of self-catering holiday lets. She is a highly respected international expert in the field and her site is always full of challenging and exciting articles that help us owners improve the way we operate.

To have been singled out by Heather for a review is praise indeed! To have been described as one of her “Favourite Vacation Rental Sites” is a bit like having Sir Alex Ferguson say you are not a bad footballer

My Favourite Vacation Rental Sites – Windermere Lodge

by CottageGuru on January 30, 2010

Two years ago this March I presented a seminar at the Cottage Life Show in Toronto with the sub-title “Getting Your Message Across”. I talked about social media and the importance of creating more than just a listing to create a following of potential renters, and suggested using Wordpress to create a website using the blog function to open a conversation with visitors. There was some interest and a few searching questions at the end, but some attendees were skeptical of the approach saying it was a ‘fad’ and more of a method of keeping friends informed of the latest recipes. I guess I was a year or two ahead of the game and am thinking that this year’s presentation called “Key Strategies for Successful Vacation Rental” (one of which is social media marketing) will have much more impact.

I’ll be using some examples and the most powerful is John Hobson’s Windermere Lodge in the beautiful Lake District in northern England . John uses a combination of web sites, blogs and Twitter to get his message across and looking at his fast-filling availability calendars, it appears to be a very successful strategy. The website is the core of the mix so I’m basing my review primarily on that but will be exploring more of this strategy in later posts.

Winner of several awards for tourism and marketing, this comment from the judging panel at the Cumbria Tourism Awards 2008 says it all:

“They felt that the owners of Windermere Lodge had put their hearts into the creation of their site, which had huge quantities of information for visitors. There were “things to do on a rainy day”, ideas for walks, wildlife to see, gardens and houses to visit, a comprehensive events calendar and much more. In all sections there was imagination and impressive attention to detail. The site was also innovative in several ways. An up to date blog, a visitors’ on-line forum and two video tours, showing the area across the seasons completed this impressive package”

This is probably the most comprehensive vacation rental web site I’ve visited in my search for the best examples of holiday rental promotion, so with my “I’m a renter” hat on, I started to explore.

Like most potential rental guests looking for a holiday rental I wanted to make sure the accommodation and price met my criteria and was pleased to see a link to both availability and rates on the home page. Why some owners want to hide these away and make them difficult to find is quite beyond me, but they were easy to find here.

The photo galleries are great – nice sharp pictures showing everything I would want to see and vividly portraying the stunningly beautiful countryside, as well as the immaculate set-up of the lodge itself. A couple of touches in the photos that I particularly liked and are worth emulating are the laid-up dining table, and flowers on a coffee table. They show attention to detail as well as putting life into the pictures. Windermere Lodge is a small property so more attention is paid to the exterior and the surrounding landscape which is an attraction in itself.

It’s worth pointing out here that small doesn’t mean insignificant and packaged well, a smaller property can have as much impact visually as a 5 bedroom villa with all the bells and whistles.

What really blows me away about this site is the information packed into it. Let’s just start with the Our Location page Not just comprehensive directions but a map dotted with places of interest with a note on how to access Wikipedia descriptions. And…a really useful link to a live traffic information page. Then onto the section on The Local Area and Things to do which further breaks down into pages covering what to do on a rainy day, the local pub, local homes and gardens to visit, and Beatrix Potter.

I’m a walker and runner and wanted to know if I could find information on hiking trails in the area, and of course I found that in the Links section. I also located details on shopping locally and when I was just wondering about how I would stock up on the essentials if I arrived late at night after a long flight, there was a link to a page on ordering a Welcome Pack….mmmm…yes, I’ll substitute the toilet roll and bin bags for a bottle of wine I think!

Sticky Features

What kept me around this site was the wealth of information and the attention to detail, giving the feeling I wouldn’t be disappointed by the accommodation either. I think I am going to develop a ‘Sticky’ ratings system with a 5 star being ‘Can’t get away from it’ to the 1 star ‘Fell right off’. In this case Windermere Lodge definitely warrants a five star Sticky rating!

On the Downside

With the amount of information included, the site is very busy looking and could be overly so to those used to more simplistic efforts. I also got a little lost once I found the Blog page and then realized that Windermere Lodge was not the only one that John rents at Limefitt Park – there’s also Kingfisher Lodge and Otter Lodge, both of which accept pets. I looked for a site map which might have shown how the sites all fit together and the structure of each but couldn’t find one. I’m sure John will let me know if I missed it!

I like testimonials and they are often the first place I’ll visit on a site. Since the home page is quite practical and fact-filled, I would like to see a testimonial on there – perhaps even in the strap line. The Guest Book page has so much wonderful feedback that could be used to make the introduction a tad more welcoming.

Verdict

Information packed, feature filled, sticky, and overall a fun site to visit. I’m not that keen on the design but that didn’t detract from what was within. I’ve seen beautifully designed and presented sites that kept me enthralled for less than a minute because I’m looking for good content rather than a flashy look. Besides, the relatively plain look of the site is superseded by the great photos within. All in all, a great site with lots of learning points for owners interested in how to create more interest for their visitors.