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Hi All,

We have recently built our website and before we go live on the search engines would appreciate any advice on what we can add to improve it etc....

the address is:

www.labelleepoquefrance.co.uk or .com.

Any feedback good or bad is appreciated.....we used microsoft live small business to build it (free)....it only allows you to do certain things but as we were pushed for time it was quick and very easy to use to achieve what we could.

thanks julie

 

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Location - I would have prefered say 20 kilometres South of Nontron, 550 miles South of Calais or to start at a map of France as a whole then zoom in -

Climate - I would have liked a year round view of rainfall and average temperature. If I am planning a family holiday in July I would not be very worried about the rain in the first four days of April.

Decide what you are trying to do with the tarifs. Either it is cheaper for a long stay ( and I would say you were in three of four night territory ) or if it cheaper out of season say so. As the site is I do not know how much I would be paying.

Otherwise thought it was very good. Sorry sounds like faint praise but I did think it was a good start

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Food - if you are not offering meals yourself, then an idea of location of restaurants would be nice.  Are cooked breakfasts included - if not how much do they cost (and if you are not charging extra then you may well regret it[:)])?

Location - prefer an idea i.e. distance from airport, nearest big town, railway etc.  number of bnearest N road.

Deposits - I'd stick to euros if I were you as it is easier to keep to one currency and no arguements about the exchange rate. If you want to take deposits make it a percentage.  20€ won't stop someone standing you up if they've booked 3 rooms for a week.

It all looks very nice, when do you open?

Good Luck

 

 

 

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It looks pretty impressive. Just a couple of niggles (I'm a professional pedant).

The 'About La Belle Epoque' page is actually about Excideuil.

The first item in 'Local attractions by foot' is '7-8 minutes by car' (5 miles?).

I agree that a simple outline map of France and basic distances/times (Calais, Caen, St Malo) would be a good idea.

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Hi

Had a quick look, first impressions are good, good images.

The coding isn't so good, no tags (although not absolutely neccessary) the way its put together wont get a good google listing if you're after one, quite a lot going on as well for whats needed, 140k page size is quite a lot, on ADSL tho its fine
I wouldn't have the email address on the site as it is either, you'll get a lot of spam.

Overall tho, nothing there puts me off if I was looking for somewhere to stay
good luck with it

edited to add-
picture file sizes in Tariff page are way too large
breakfast times not important, most pages can be cut down and added in others

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The River Loue runs along the back of La Belle Epoque and is constantly populated with local and tourist anglers. Temporary fishing licences can be bought in the town for anyone who would like to fish, if so, we will obtain the licence for you for when you arrive (upon request).

The anglers aren't in the river so I would put :

 

The river Loue runs at the back of La Belle Epoque. This river is very popular with both local and visiting anglers. If you would like to fish during your stay we can help you purchase a temporary license when you arrive.

 

Sorry to be picky !  It is very hard to 'edit' your own work ! (as you will see from my constant typos etc)

It looks lovely by the way[:)]

 

 

 

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[quote user="jon"]

with B and B surely by law breakfast has to be included in the price?

Wondering why bacon and eggs in France?

[/quote]

Hi Jon,

after looking at the other B&B's in the area, it seems sensible to go with a similar offering to theirs. We dont want to lose custom because we are not offering it, when it is something so simple to do.

If we find it unpopular then we can always remove it in the near future.

Thanks to everyone for their input so far, I am looking at making the adjustments this afternoon.

J.

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My only technical problem was when I tried clicking on the flag for the French version.  It did not work - I use Firefox.  So I tried it in IE7 and got a Word document. Maybe it would be better for those looking for a French version if the Word document (explaining that the French version is under construction) were a web page French?

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[quote user="Cassis"]Yes, same version.  Depends on your security settings and whether you

allow .exe processes from unauthorised websites (not advised).[/quote]

My settings ask for permission.

I'm puzzled yours don't show anything [8-)]

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Just a few comments:

Rooms - they look really nice but I always think hanging rails really let them down and remind people that they are (a) not in a private home and (b) not in a hotel.  I would look out for some cheap wardrobes from depot ventes that you could paint white to match everything else, or just as easily, build your own, very small wardrobes in the corner of the room (which is what the OH made me do).

Breakfast - I bet if others are offering full English they're charging a lot more than you.  It's very expensive to produce well and on your prices you don't have much room for manouevre.

Which brings me to prices - WAY TOO CHEAP!  You should be charging at least 50 euros all year for a double and at least 80 for a family room.  I can only presume this is a sideline and you have another income.  B&B is very hard work and you are not going to be reaping many rewards with your prices and offering cooked breakfasts.

Otherwise, the website itself looks great!

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Hi Oscar,

Thanks for the comments......we thought about wardrobes but went for the hanging rails due to space and money.......we may add in the future???  I always found that i have never bothered unpacking when staying in a B & B though the longest we have stayed is for the night so that may be the reason...we have just hung the clothes for the following morning up.

We are not in a touristy town and all the attractions that the Dordogne has to offer are quite far away so that is the reason the room prices are low....I wish we could charge more [:D] but the competition in the town dictates our prices.

Thanks again

Julie

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I think it looks lovely, although I would charge a bit more for the rooms esp if theres a cooked breakfast as bacon is very expensive and you may have to get it imported, as another Band ber  I think it is altogether really rather nice,

 good luck with your new verture

Try putting it on laymyhat.com theres a section on website reviews

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Thanks Lizzy,

Just had a look at yours, so much character really nice house... i really cant charge any more or I will be the most expensive in town! even the hotel is cheap!!!

May have to revert to just continental if it all proves to be too expensive, but time will tell. The French bacon is not too bad also, or is it just that i have forgotten the other [:'(]

Julie

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Well I still think it looks very nice and you're pretty centrally located for visiting quite a few well-known places for day trips.  As I said, unless this is just a sideline for pin money you are really going to be working hard for not a great return and certainly not enough to live on.  Don't be afraid to put your prices up if you start getting bookings - so what's wrong with being the most expensive in the area.  It's probably easy for me to say because I've been doing it for about 6 years now and we started off at a really low rate but rapidly put our prices up.

I shall be very interested to hear how you feel at the end of the season and if you have made any changes in what you offer and what you charge.  Please keep us updated on how it all goes.

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