Review Holiday Homes Website

Petey S

Hey guys

We have just launched our brand new holiday home rental site PlacesToStay.com. I would love to hear any feedback you may have on the design and any recommendations you may have for improvements.

We designed the site with the goal of establishing a strong brand identity and also took a responsive web design approach to the site to accommodate iphone and ipad users.

The whole booking process was also simplified, making it easy for the user to access and interact with the booking engine. We believe that good imagery for each of the properties listed is essential in the overall offering of the site, so the site design also accommodates this.

We have also highlighted the property facilities and introduced an effective filter system which allows users to quickly find the property to suit each individual taste.


Thanks for taking time out to check out the site


Petey

tricky D

Don't like that pink/purple colour scheme at all.

Collage image occupies valuable real estate which might be better utilised. I would dump it and use the postcard images instead which are more impactful and to the point.

Search button should say 'Check Availability'. Using 'Search' as the text is confusing.

I would use an orange for many of the call to action buttons.

Up some of the text contrast. Eg. the not included facilities are hard to read.

Add your property: is that free or what is the cost?

I found some of the page load times are slow. This might have been an issue local to me as that was transitory. This might also be producing some weird jumping upwards when loading is eventually finished but I've already scrolled down.

'Tick if you do NOT wish to be included in our mailing list' should be the other way around ie. 'Tick if you do wish to be included in our mailing list'.

Blank page for http://reservations.placestostay.com 404.

Forms and required fields need work. Some info shouldn't be required and required fields need some sort of highlighting.

The breadcrumb is at the top of the page beside the logo. It should be at the top of the main content area (container).

Things to do category is empty. This and events could be better tied in with local accommodation. The text link in an event page is easily missed.


Otherwise, it's up to the standard I would have expected from your group of companies. (We might have crossed paths a long, long time ago)

Mr. G

Can't find an add holiday home or pricing from a mobile anyway.

Graham

Nice responsive layout, shame you couldn't keep the search functionality on the mobile versions of the site.

soirish

Should have bought .ie domain since all properties are in Ireland.

cormee

soirish wrote: »

Should have bought .ie domain since all properties are in Ireland.

A .com is probably more suitable if the site visitors are coming from abroad

Graham

cormee wrote: »

A .com is probably more suitable if the site visitors are coming from abroad

Any particular reason why? Following the same logic shouldn't a .de be registered for visitors from germany, a .com.au for visitors from Australia etc.....

cormee

soirish wrote: »

Should have bought .ie domain since all properties are in Ireland.

Graham wrote: »

Any particular reason why? Following the same logic shouldn't a .de be registered for visitors from germany, a .com.au for visitors from Australia etc.....

In my experience you only really benefit from a .ie if your customers are within Ireland, and searching using Google.ie.

In the same way way a .ie is a recognisable 'brand' to Irish customers, a .com is instantly recognisable to all international customers. While 90% of international customers will probably recognise a .ie, you risk losing the 10% who are more familiar with a .com

Most of the big travel sites seem to use .com over their ccTLD - dicoverireland.com, ireland.com, tourismireland.com being examples.

Ethan.Saaris

Nice responsive layout, but the header is too crowded.

Also, the Open Sans font looks awful in HTML standard bold. Try to use the included weight of 300 or 400.

Other than those suggestions, I love the site!