Dear Alan
Since I replied to your e-mail about the new VS website a new piece of sharp
practice has emerged. I mentioned problems which I thought might be peculiar
to our own entry, including the fact that details of how many people it sleeps were omitted from the listing one reaches by clicking on 'Angus and Dundee'.
I thought this was just an error by VS, and phoned up to correct it. I was told that details of price are included in entries only if they have signed up for the VS booking service.
This is just another sneaky way of directing enquirers away from direct contact with the providers. When are VS going to get the message about this aspect? They are supposed to be helping us, not themselves. I hope other people in our position are checking their entries.
Dear Alan
At first I thought the site looked very good, but it still has some irrelevant ads cropping up on the right-hand side. If only they had a Scottish connection!
And I don't like the fact that "Self Catering" is twinned with "Holiday Caravans" in the selection options under "Category/Type" of accommodation (as in "Self Catering and Holiday Caravans") as it is ambiguous. Two separate categories would be preferable.
I was impressed with the selection of language options available to the site-user... but on trying French, German, etc it is then difficult to find your way to looking at accommodation listings. However, as I am not at all bi-lingual I will not criticise that too strongly as it may be obvious to any French/German-speaker which tabs to select!
It would be interesting to hear what someone with a good grasp of another language thinks.
Also, the language choices are still on show when you do get to the accommodation options, but they just take you back to the general description pages instead of translating the page you are on! So it is not as helpful as it at first appears and rather frustrating.
These are just my observations on the category I'm most interested in (self-catering), but I really do appreciate what you have done for everyone across the whole accommodation sector. For instance, it is great to see our website links so much more prominent now!
Dear Alan
I've only checked the South of Scotland area and have come up with the following list of "non accredited" businesses advertised.
Lamlash Cottage - Lamlash
The Beach House - Kildonan
Seven Oaks - Moffat
Stobbo Castle Health Spa
Winton House
The Lochinvar Hotel - St Johns Town of Dalry Jedwater Caravan Park Briar Lea House Premier Inn - Ayr * Sundrum Castle Holiday Park Premier Inn - Locherbie * Bennane Shore Holiday Park and Spa Eyemouth Holiday Park Nisbets Tower - Eyemouth Craigie Guest House - Ayr Premier Inn - Dumfries *
It would seem that VisitScotland have come to some arrangement with Premier Inns *
Dear Mr Keith
Having looked at the site over the last few days and checked every listing on the accommodation section, we have failed to find our B&B on any list!!
It is not only our B&B that is missing, but quite a few other establishment in our town.
We will be contacting VisitScotland.com immediately.
I've just been looking at the new VS site. I can see improvements in some aspects, but I am still very unimpressed. The size of the print is so small as to be a real deterrent. I liked the earlier possibility of clicking on 'Stay somewhere different', which brought us quite a few enquiries but seems to have been ditched. With regard to our own entry (Mill of Blackhall, Angus), I found clicking on 'Map' completely useless; all I could find that was geographically recognizable was a map of the world with an arrow pointing to 'Mill of Blackhall'. The details of how many it sleeps were omitted, and clicking on 'Availability' took me to a different property. Not impressive, but I'll take up these points with VS myself. What a weary business all this is, especially when one looks at the amounts one has paid them over the years. Thanks for all you have done and are doing.
Hi
I've had a look at the VisitScotland website. I wasn't that familiar with the old one as I didn't ever go to it much, even though our accommodation is listed. That's possibly because I found it cumbersome and confusing. I doubt I would ever have used it to look for accommodation for myself.
Anyway, this new one certainly seems clearer to follow and easier to use than the last version. There is much less 'busyness' with clearer signposts so making it much easier to follow and less distracting. I like the Visitor's Guide part although presumably it is incomplete (I noticed unbder D&G under 'Beach' there is only 1, in Stranrear, listed but this section does seem to only include places with a website that presumably have made themselves known to VisitScotland).
They do still seem to do that thing where they have various ways to get to the same information. To find selfcatering accommodation for example, you can click on 'Where to Stay' or on their Accommodation search browser, or through their regional search. I'm not sure if that is good or not.
Personally I find any accommodation search that works through dates and 'number of night's awkward. I might not know when I want to go away on holiday - I'd like to find the place first. I might not realise that I have to change the defaulting '1 night' to say '2' to find accommodation. But at least their Accommodation browser doesn't require
the dates, which I think is good.
On a quick inspection of the new site, yet again the elements relating to fishing (angling?) are badly laid out and lack a coherent guide to fishing in Scotland. The company yet again seem obsessed to feature only those fisheries offering "on line bookings" only - and therefore revenue to the booking agent. A quick search on the "availability" section for the "Outer Isles" (I am based in the Outer Hebrides) produced a nil result - not a good start. Interestingly there is no obvious link to www.fishhebrides.com - another visitscotland site which provides most useful information relating to fishing in our area. The presentation has little to offer a potential fisherman from say France who is looking for Wild Brown Trout fishing somewhere in Scotland. I could develop this argument further it you felt it would be useful. My interest in fishing is that many of my guests come to South Uist specifically for some of the finest wild fishing in Europe - this site does nothing to encourage future visitors.
Hi Alan,
I find the website good, easy to find what you are looking for
Alan
I do not think it fair for me to comment on the accommodation listings as we are no part of it.
However, I recently tried to use the site to plan a trip to the North. I left the visitscotland site in despair after a couple of minutes.
You start by being able to search geographically, and then having chosen a region are just left with a long list of attractions, with no geographical references. No help at all!
Alan,
Just looked at the site. I'm quite impressed and think the map works well and the site is easy to follow.
On the other hand I'm not impressed with the description of Portpatrick and would be interested to hear them elaborate on 'low key seaside town' - especially as the place is absolutely heaving throughout summer!
It's also a shame that they only thing they can only be bothered to mention one of the annual events which takes place.
Likewise with Stranraer. They make the castle sound uninteresting and fail to mention much of the good points of the town such as the Ryan Centre, skateboard park, beach, nearby RSPB reserve, boating lake, pitch and put etc., apart from the abundance of shops. I know many folk don't think it's anything to write home about but on the contrary it has a lot to offer the holidaymaker of all ages.
My overall impression of the site then - disappointing!
Hi
As the owner of a 4 star Holiday Cottage, I have the following, very personal, observations to make about the new site.
In general, the site treats holiday cottages as if they were hotels with rooms to let, and much of the terminology used is not helpful/appropriate to a holiday cottage, which is let in its entirety.
- Search options - would prefer to see 'Self Catering' and 'Caravans' as separate search options. These are different customer markets.
- On Search Results page, the roll-over tags for the cottage name and email both state 'Detailed information of Ferryboat Cottage Hotel/Guesthouse will be opened in a new window'. It is neither a Hotel nor a Guesthouse.
- On Search Results page, the roll-over tag for the 'More images ...' states 'The position plan will be displayed in a new window'. It is not the position plan being selected.
- On Search Results page, 'Sleeps 1-4 (per unit)' is unhelpful. What is a unit, in regard to a cottage?
- In the individual pages for the cottage, 'Board' is meaningless, and to then populate it with details of nearest shop is not really appropriate.
- Unit/Prices page. Again, what is a 'Unit'? Also the prices are presented as if for hotel rooms (charge per room/unit per night). For a cottage, it would be more helpful to customers to display a calendar with weekly charges, as most cottages are booked for full weeks in the main season (link below shows what I mean) http://www.cumbrian-cottages.co.uk/availability.aspx?productid=41195&shortbr
eaksearch=0&StartDate=2008-10-01&Duration=0&StartDateorig=2008-01-01&fromLat
eBargainResults=&hvalue=NaN&fromgrid=1
Apologies if this is a bit of a rant, but I'm keen to get a response to you and don't have much time tonight to put my comments more diplomatically!
We have been away for a few days and I have only had time to have a quick look. There certainly seems to be a lot of information but what you find depends on which way you approach the search. I couldn't find much at all about Dumfries and Galloway yesterday but stumbled across more information today by clicking different links. I also found different bits of information about the same thing that don't seem to be connected. I know what I am looking for and I found it a bit confusing so I think it could be a bit difficult to navigate if you are trying to find out more about the area and facilities. The accommodation section does seem clearer, though I had some difficulty with loadind pages. They kept timing out.
Hello Alan,
I notice that several businesses listed do not show "quality" ratings.
Have VisitScotland changed their policy by allowing "non accredited"
businesses to advertise on their site?
Hello Allan
I have been on the VisitScotland website looking for my property and can only find it under Auchencairn, how many visitors looking for accommodation in this area of heard of this village? I used to come under CD, Kirkcudbright and Dalbeattie as I am situated in the middle, I have been on to VisitScotland Dumfries and am still awaiting a response.
The website is a lot better than it was, but obviously I havent had much response yet as no-one will be able to find me!
Further to my earlier comments, I should add that we were previously listed in their "Stay in a Castle" section. I can no longer find that section and assume they have dropped it!
Hi
Well at least we seem to receive e-mail from both the tab and link on our entry though they still seem reluctant to give any prominence to a web site link.
Hi
I repied yesterday at my disatisfaction with the new visit scotland web site.
This morning I have been trying to use the site to search for hoiliday
accommodation for my family in Tiree. As a user the site does
not seem very user friendly. So much so I gave up and went to the
area's own web site and the ASSC web site.
A few observations
Depending on which search entry you pick up often you are directed
straight iinto the book online page. It is not clear what the
difference between travel guide and book online is ( both mention
accommodation) Not much good to providers if you do not have a book
on line facility.
The entries still do not have direct links to our own web sites therefore encouraging vsittors to book through visit scotland and unwittinggly paying part of our fee to visit scotland as commission.
To get to speciific area there additional clicks required Why so
complicated?