Hi,
my self catering cottage (South Ferry View) is in Ballachulish which comes under Highlands and Skye. This area is huge with 300 adverts for sel catering and there is no search facility for areas within Highlands and Skye. I will not be renewing my internet advert with visitscotland as the chances of anyone finding it is very remote.
Thanks your hard work with the campaign and best regards,
Alan,
i have a b&b in linlithgow i was unable to find it
Dear Alan,
Im sorry to say that I have been a" member" of the tourist board for 17 years. I have 3 properties which I advertise with them.
Today - again - I have searched for my SC properties in Lochcarron. Nope not there!
Searching under our area, Highlands and Skye, looked at all 300 nope not there!
It took 8 pages before I could find any property which wasnt part of their booking system!!!!
Then I searched using the map, I couldnt click a link for my village as it wasnt there, and the two nearest places didnt give me the option of searching nearby places - how are my customers supposed to find me if I cant when Im looking.
I give up!
Why cant we at least search by putting a place name into a search engine, the old site was terrible this one is usless for me.
again I give up, I will be interested to hear what your other supporters say.
Thanks again for all your efforts on our behalf.
Good evening from an ex-4start vs property. I have looked, as requested, on the "new" website for visitscotland and can tell you, it is worse than the last effort. 1/ there seems to be nothing to do in the Highlands at al in the top destinations!! what happened to Loch Ness and the millions spent on the new "Culloden Battlefield Cenre" ?? Nairn has very little to offer, as does Peebles, both places I know very well and could spend days exploring. 2/ contact details on the accomodation search are still scant and the time between sending an accommodation request and getting a reply.......well I am still waiting....2 hours later... but see centre is closed Sundays...why not Monday. Sunday must be when many potential customers look at bookings? 3/ The search buttons for accommodation are wierd and very confusing, even to an English speaker...all me for further details. I put in Nairn as destiantion and am offered 6 choices? why, when I have specified my preference...??? Glad have not paid to re-join, and wish all those on the site all the best. I await with baited breath all of your comments.
Hi,
Though we're no longer in the grading scheme, so VS doesn't want to help our business, I've taken a look with a view to coming back in, and I have to say I think it's dismal.
I went in through the "Plan your trip" bit. What was there to plan?
What did it offer me? There was nothing at all!
Eventually I got to the point where it offered me accommodation. It showed me a page based on star ratings, and then showed me the list of rated places. Nothing about location (isn't locations pretty significant to a traveller), and the pages were all text heavy - which is pointless for a non-English speaker. (I didn't find any "other languages" pages.)
I tried Googling "Angus B&B". Nothing! Nada!
VS is supposed to be part of my marketing. This can't be a part of mine. We're better off without them.
The e-mail link does appear to work and this is a great improvement, especially for visitors who no longer have to wait up to a couple of days for a reply if they post the e-mail on a Saturday afternoon. The system would benefit from a 'map and pointer', something that I was assured would be put back on the website a couple of years ago. There is a map that shows the general areas but visitors cannot be expected to know where the villages and towns are that they see on the website. Added to this I have queried with VS why the locations of some B&Bs etc are not correct, the locations are put on the website by VS themselves without any input from the provider and, whilst I accept that providers should check their locations are correct, at the end of the day it is the visitors who are likely to suffer. VS have refused to ask providers to specifically check that the locations shown for their accommodation are accurate - despite chasing us to make sure we update our availability etc. Their only comment has been that they are going to put a disclaimer on the system - not fair to the visitors and also, as the call centres surely use the same locations as the website, debateable whether they could actually enforce such a disclaimer. On a recent search for accommodation within 1 mile of a location on Mull, 7 of the 16 results were as much as 10 miles + away. VS have been advised on several occasions over the past year or so. They have done nothing. This could be a disaster for walkers or cyclists. I am getting to know the new website, as usual it will take me a few days to get to grips with it. Considering that visitors generally take only a few moments to search a website before looking elsewhere I still find it over complicated and not user friendly.The aspect of visibility for providers does though seem to have been resolved.
Very many thanks for this, and for all the hard work you have done for a long time now. It looks much better, but I am still not sure (being not very computer literate) if one really needs to keep an up to date availability / allocation with vs.com. I find this difficult to do with time constraints on me, particularly as they seem to want vacancies on a daily rather than weekly basis.If I neglect this, am I likely to get fewer enquiries/bookings? What is your gut feeling?
Hi
Each year, in April, I count the number of entries on the VS site. (I do the same with the Assc as well)
Here is the result of the tally taken last week.
Grand total all regions VS site s/c listings April 2008 3287
compared to record taken in Apl 2007 3672
loss 385, over 10%
Since they have had new s/c members joining then the probable loss rate of VS members may be 15% or more.
Have just had a quick look at the new website and at first glance, it does seem to be an improvement. I had a look at a theoretical trip to Portree and it seemed pretty good on where to stay and what to do. Contact details still seem a bit lost as before, but most people are internet-savvy enough now to work it out. We have now left Visitscotland so would take some convincing to be persuaded back.
Dear Alan
Dear Alan
Thanks for your e-mail.
Well, I'm glad not to see any advert for Swiss watches - or the couple trashing a bedroom!
I think the two options on the home page are confusing as you don't know which to try if I want accommodation, and presumably most people go to the site to get accommodation details. "Visitors' Guide/START PLANNING NOW>>" lists accommodation, and so does "Book your holiday/START SHOPPING>>".
Of course I am particularly prejudiced as they don't bother to list us anywhere - either under bed & breakfast or under self-catering!!! I thought we would be at least mentioned when we are Quality-Assurance-or-whatever-they-call-it inspected, but perhaps we have to pay some huge extra fee to get a mention at all?
I wonder if you could take a couple of minutes (er, well, at least a couple, I'm afraid) and check that I am right about not being listed? If it is indeed the case that we are entitled to be there somewhere (under Mid Argyll, or Inveraray, or even Minard) and I do complain to them, they will probably add us hastily and say I was mistaken and we were always there.... It would be nice to have verification!
Generally speaking, however, the site does seem to be better than the previous disgrace!
Hi Alan,
I have just gone onto the new website. It is absolutely hopeless. There is no easy way to find "self-catering". There is no obvious search button. The thing is set up so that you have to specify how many people and how many rooms, but it seems to treat a self-catering unit as a room for these purposes. The page which was used before at least allowed you to search effectively. As it is no-one will ever find anything.
I suggest that the first filter should be the type of accommodation: everyone knows what that is. Then have a dedicated search format for each type.
I searched on self-catering Dalbeattie and got only 2 cottages, but we are free for that week (12 April) too and I am sure most cottages would be.
Please revert soonest.
Hi Alan
I've had a quick look and have a few points.
First a big improvement in general. However I've always beleived the home page should load quickly, have impact and identity. Visitscotland's home page misses out on at least two of these. Horseriding, sailboarding, not the best pictures of these activities I've seen and no identity. One picture needed to makes you go WOW! and you know its Scotland.
Inspire me. A great idea but the three pictures, better than the pictures on the home page but not inspirational. If you have a heading of "Inspire Me" you have to do exactly that. Scotland has a lot more to inspire people and if Visitscotland cannot find these with their resources they are still not fit for purpose to quote a Scot.
Look at Ireland's advertising, that's inspirational. Look at the advertising for the Army, I'm 61 and spent eleven years in the army but it makes we want to join up. Closer to home look at the advertising for the ferries to Orkney and Shetland, they are inspirational.
Visitscotland has to watch, listen and learn and then steal anything that works and use it.
Although this website is an improvement it still has a long way to go.
I am impressed with the improved website. I can actually find my listing which is a first in 4 years. Unfortunately it still has incorrect contact details. I will endeavour to request they are changed (yet again). I you have time to reply to me with contact details for the web site designed I would appreciate it. Many thanks
Initial Impressions
Contact Details - in the visitor guide section it does give contact telephone but you still have to click on property name and then open up contact details to see web address. No improvement really.
In the Shop section it has not been improved at all.
Visit Britain can show it up front without any issues, so VS should be able to as well.
As you arrive at the site it is quite unclear as to where you are supposed to start to look for accommodation and if you sear both main sections and are presented with different results as you are, it really does not make it easy at all.
Personally, having given up VS as a complete non starter for actually providing any business I find it all just confirms my decision to leave.
Hi
We have looked at the new website and are not at all happy. We live in the busy tourist village of Kingussie and unless you know about the village then it is not easy to find accommodation. It is not even mentioned on the map.
Thanks for the continued update but alas we have decided enough is enough and have subsequently parted company with VS.
One point I would like to make about the new terms and conditions is that my costs have gone up. Whereas before, visitscotland would take the entire rental of bookings they receive and pay the 90% into my account, now I have to pay bank commission on getting that 90% when I take it, as I usually do, by credit card.
Hi Allan
I would be very surprised if VS do not try to pull some kind of a stunt when VS.com is revised. If they couldn't make money with the present format how are they going to make money with the new one? I doubt if the industry will move back en-masse to sign up for the packages like web in a box. Many accommodation providers have now developed good websites with only online booking still thin on the ground. I am trying to persuade our local association to set up an online facility for our members. The technology is there with a little bit of tweaking I am sure. The trade has lost all faith in VS and has learned to survive without VS so why go back. The restructuring taking place will see more and more decision making taking place in Edinburgh so there will be less and less local contact.
Keep the site going. Give it a month or two when the dust settles and I think we will find out some disturbing features in the new structure.
Hi Alan
Just waiting to reserve judgment on the 'new site' until it goes live. I have been informed that the entry costs are to double by my QA inspector.
Hope that you both have a great Easter.
Sorry to be so long in replying. I would be delighted if you would care to continue the battle on our behalf. Anne.
Hello, had a quick look, easier getting to accommodation, but as we are "in the middle" of a huge choice - Page 7 of 13, there is a "sort by section" with the options of A-Z or Z-A which doesn't help much, perhaps they should put the alphabet across the top of the page and give visitors the opportunity to select an area by initial - M for Muasdale........ Mid-Argyll, Kintyre and Islay covers one heck of an area and loads of self catering options. When you look at our details (Jura Apartment) "more images" - the photos are scattered around the web page - I could do better myself !!