Ardlui Retreat is a high-end holiday park located on the north-western shores of Loch Lomond. Within it’s four acres of private, lochside ground there are three 6 berth log cabins and one ten berth modern hunting lodge that are available for hire on a self catering basis all the year round.
Although the client had an existing web presence, it was proving to be fairly ineffective in generating booking enquiries for the properties and the majority of the client’s bookings were coming via holiday operator Hoseasons….minus some fairly steep commission charges.
Something had to be done that would not only increase the number of visitors (and potential holidaymakers) to the Ardlui Retreat website but also allow the client to handle bookings internally thus avoiding paying third party commission charges.
ardlui
How did Ubisan get this client?
We were recommended to the owners of Ardlui Retreat by Loch Lomond Wakeboard.
We had great success with increasing the number of visitors to Loch Lomond Wakeboard’s website, mainly by inserting a blog into their existing website and optimising the content so that Google could find the pages more easily.
Loch Lomond Wakeboard recognised that our skills in not just building websites but helping to market them would be ideal for helping Ardlui Retreat gain a stronger web presence.
What did Ubisan do?
The client’s existing website was failing to deliver any accommodation enquiries and had no online booking system. The design was failing to properly showcase the holiday park, which includes four star properties, four acres of secluded grounds with a hot tub room, BBQ hut, kid’s playground, private jetty and exclusive lochside access.
The website was practically invisible to search engines – it was averaging five visits a day, with only ‘brand-specific’ search queries, like ‘ardlui retreat’, delivering any traffic. The owners were also losing a quarter of all revenues, as bookings for the self-catering accommodation were being re-directed to a third party holiday booking website, charging 25% commission.
As the holiday season was only weeks away, our approach was twofold: to carry out emergency remedial work on the existing website and to build a new, effective website.
Remedial Work:
- We made the site more search engine-friendly by replacing the Flash animated homepage with a page of real content.
- We increased the number of links to other pages within the site to improve the visitor experience.
- We improved technical aspects by ensuring each page had proper page titles, descriptions and heading tags making it easier for Google to index the site and potential customers to find it.
- We encouraged customer contact by adding tariff and booking information.
- We increased the number of visitors from 5 to 40 visits a day by gaining listings for the client on various local holiday accommodation-related directories at a minimal cost to the client.
- We also made sure listings were up to date on third party agencies and that their booking systems reflected Ardlui Retreat’s.
New website:
- We created a stunning new website that matched the high quality of the accommodation that it was promoting and introduced email newsletter signups and more ways for visitors to interact.
- A booking system was imperative to avoid the loss of revenue caused by sending all holiday bookings to a third party company.
After researching Ardlui Retreat’s requirements, we decided an off-the-shelf package from Supercontrol would offer the greatest flexibility and features along with the best value to the client.
We were instrumental in setting up the Supercontrol package for the client’s four properties and integrating it into the new website.
How did Ubisan provide ongoing support?
Ardlui Retreat have enjoyed ongoing support and advice from us since the website launch. As part of a monthly retainer, our duties have included the following:
- Co-ordination of e-newsletter campaigns to existing and potential customers
- Generation of new website content
- Ongoing search engine optimisation
- Setup and management of Ardlui Retreat social media campaigns (Twitter, Facebook and Youtube)
- Production and delivery of printed on-site marketing materials (flyers, signage, brochures, etc)
- Management and delivery of online customer surveys
- Submissions to relevant and traffic-generating travel directories and online resources.
What were the results?
Quick delivery
After only four weeks of development time, Ardlui Retreat’s new website was launched and immediately started receiving bookings, enquiries and increases in traffic.
Search visibility
The website was constructed to encourage search engines to discover it and each page was fully optimised to be ranked for search terms that were popular and that would deliver potential customers.
Additional revenue
At least 25% was saved due to implementing the site’s own online booking system. Payment is no longer lost to third party commissions.
Increased occupancy rates leading to an increase in revenue
Ardlui Retreat has seen an increase of occupancy rates of 60% as a result of its improved web presence and search engine positioning. The website is attracting a greater number of visitors who convert into customers.
To compare the new website after a year’s trading and to last month…it’s clear to see that everything is heading in the right direction.
| MAY 2010 (prior to Ubisan) |
May 2010 (12 months on) |
September 2011 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unique Visitors | 802 | 1904 | 2106 |
| %age of traffic from search engines | 19% | 38% | 50% |
| no. of online bookings | 4 | 15 | 19 |
What does the client say?
“The difference that Ubisan has made to my business has been huge. The work Colin has carried out has been amazing and made a huge amount of difference to my business.”
“We’ve just had our busiest summer ever and this is due directly to the expertise and hard work that Colin at Ubisan has supplied to my business.”
“I wouldn’t hesitate in enlisting Ubisan’s services on any other projects I’ll be working on in the future.”
