Dedicated Holiday Letting Websites With Live Availability Calendars & Online Booking System
Information
What you will need
A short list of what computer equipment,domain name, PayPal, WorldPay or SagePay account.
An Internet connected computer
Any computer running Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, Mac with OSX or a PC with Linux.
A web browser other than Internet Explorer - not a problem for Mac & Linux users.
While the public website works 100% with IE7, IE8 &IE9, the Administration Backend does not - Chrome, Firefox or Safari are the most popular choice of browser that support HTML5 and CSS3 - at the moment IE & Opera don't support the features we use.
As you will be a webmaster this should not be a problem as you should be checking your website in various different browsers to make sure they all display your website correctly.
There is no software to install - all the changes to your website are made through the browser so a broadband connection is recommended.
Preferably your monitor should have a resolution of 1280x800 or better.
Some photo editing software - there are lots of online ones if you don't have one on your PC - a search for "online photo editor" will give you lots of choice. We particularly like Phixr because you can tweak the save quality easily.
A web browser other than Internet Explorer - not a problem for Mac & Linux users.
While the public website works 100% with IE7, IE8 &IE9, the Administration Backend does not - Chrome, Firefox or Safari are the most popular choice of browser that support HTML5 and CSS3 - at the moment IE & Opera don't support the features we use.
As you will be a webmaster this should not be a problem as you should be checking your website in various different browsers to make sure they all display your website correctly.
There is no software to install - all the changes to your website are made through the browser so a broadband connection is recommended.
Preferably your monitor should have a resolution of 1280x800 or better.
Some photo editing software - there are lots of online ones if you don't have one on your PC - a search for "online photo editor" will give you lots of choice. We particularly like Phixr because you can tweak the save quality easily.
A domain name for your holiday home rental
We need your domain name as part of the checkout/registration process so your new website can be built, and you need to be able to access your domain names account.
If you are getting a brand new domain name then you may need to wait 24 hours for the name to propagate around the world before subscribing to our CMS.
See the domain name guide below.
If you are getting a brand new domain name then you may need to wait 24 hours for the name to propagate around the world before subscribing to our CMS.
See the domain name guide below.
A PayPal account
Whilst not absolutely essential for accepting payments from guests, you can use WorldPay or SagePay or not bother with online payments at all, we are using PayPal as our payment processor for your subscription payments, so you will get a PayPal account by default.
Using PayPal for small businesses is very straightforward to setup, no setup fees to pay, just verify a bank account to transfer your bookings money into. There is a small percentage charge for using any online payment processor - the easiest way to deal with this is to build it into your costs along with electric, gas and other utilities.
There are two advantages to having online payments only:-
The first is automation - administration is a pain in the neck for small businesses, the live availability calendar, booking system and online payments means your guests and website are doing the work of collecting payment, sending emails and keeping the calendar updated. When you receive the "You have money" email from your payment processor, the money is in your account already and the booking calendar is up to date.
The second advantage is you are accepting credit cards. Even in times of austerity people still seem to want to spend now and pay later, accepting only cheques cuts your potential customer base to those with some actual money in the bank.
Using PayPal for small businesses is very straightforward to setup, no setup fees to pay, just verify a bank account to transfer your bookings money into. There is a small percentage charge for using any online payment processor - the easiest way to deal with this is to build it into your costs along with electric, gas and other utilities.
There are two advantages to having online payments only:-
The first is automation - administration is a pain in the neck for small businesses, the live availability calendar, booking system and online payments means your guests and website are doing the work of collecting payment, sending emails and keeping the calendar updated. When you receive the "You have money" email from your payment processor, the money is in your account already and the booking calendar is up to date.
The second advantage is you are accepting credit cards. Even in times of austerity people still seem to want to spend now and pay later, accepting only cheques cuts your potential customer base to those with some actual money in the bank.
What you will get
There are maximum limits set on all items in the CMS - in reality you should never reach them with normal use.
Your installed website comes with around 30 pages already defined, the maximum is 50 pages - what you would write about for 20 pages and make them fit on a navigation menu we are not sure.
You get 5 POP3 email addresses to go with your domain name so you can have info@yourdomain.com and bookings@yourdomain.com for example.
You get 15mb of space for the CMS +5mb for each property page for photos and images. This might not seem much in this gigabyte era, but website images are always small, unless you want a very slow loading website, and Google seems to have added page loading speed into it's search results. Our Harrogate demo website uses just over 8mb - the base CMS uses around 3mb so all the extra photos have used 5mb - we could add 3 times the photos and still not hit the limit.
If you do hit a limit, any previously Green+ button will become greyed out - fill in a Support Ticket if you feel it was unfair and we will review the limit.
Your installed website comes with around 30 pages already defined, the maximum is 50 pages - what you would write about for 20 pages and make them fit on a navigation menu we are not sure.
You get 5 POP3 email addresses to go with your domain name so you can have info@yourdomain.com and bookings@yourdomain.com for example.
You get 15mb of space for the CMS +5mb for each property page for photos and images. This might not seem much in this gigabyte era, but website images are always small, unless you want a very slow loading website, and Google seems to have added page loading speed into it's search results. Our Harrogate demo website uses just over 8mb - the base CMS uses around 3mb so all the extra photos have used 5mb - we could add 3 times the photos and still not hit the limit.
If you do hit a limit, any previously Green+ button will become greyed out - fill in a Support Ticket if you feel it was unfair and we will review the limit.
Domain names for your holiday cottage rental website (or gite, villa, apartment)
To use the 52rentals property rental Content Management System (CMS) you need a domain name - your domain name is your website address - 52rentals.com for this website.
If you already have a domain name and you want to keep it - great, but if are not happy with your current domain name then changing it while having a new website is probably the best time to change, but bear in mind Google likes domain names that have been around a while.
Before getting to the actual name choosing here are a few do's & don'ts:- Keep control of your domain name, register it yourself with your own account at a domain registrar - don't take up the "FREE" domain name offers from web designers or hosting companies. We are not domain registrars and neither are other web designers or most web hosting companies, if somebody else registers your domain name on your behalf then it is in their account and you won't have the log in details, or even worse it will be registered in their name with no mention of you. "FREE" usually means free so long as you use their services or for only the first year. We use FreeParking and LCN for domain registrations.
Domain registration says who is the legal owner of the name AND which server hosts the website. Keeping the registration separate from the hosting protects you if one of the businesses fail - keeping both together could result in your website being offline with you unable to access the domain name details.
If you are in the UK, try to have the .com and .co.uk for your domain name even if you intend to solely use the .co.uk. People when entering the name into their browser URL address tend to put .com if they are not sure or increasingly people don't bookmark sites but put the domain name into Google and search - if localisation is not working properly the .com will come above .co.uk in the results. If you are not in the UK just get the .com, don't get the .net, .org if the .com is already taken. Most other country endings, .fr or .de are usually for registered businesses only and are generally expensive. Anybody can have a .com or .co.uk
If the .com of your preferred name is already taken at least check out who and where they are - 70% of names have no website and are just held, maybe even for sale. Check out any names at The Web Archive to see what they may have been used for in the past.
If you already have a domain name and you want to keep it - great, but if are not happy with your current domain name then changing it while having a new website is probably the best time to change, but bear in mind Google likes domain names that have been around a while.
Before getting to the actual name choosing here are a few do's & don'ts:- Keep control of your domain name, register it yourself with your own account at a domain registrar - don't take up the "FREE" domain name offers from web designers or hosting companies. We are not domain registrars and neither are other web designers or most web hosting companies, if somebody else registers your domain name on your behalf then it is in their account and you won't have the log in details, or even worse it will be registered in their name with no mention of you. "FREE" usually means free so long as you use their services or for only the first year. We use FreeParking and LCN for domain registrations.
Domain registration says who is the legal owner of the name AND which server hosts the website. Keeping the registration separate from the hosting protects you if one of the businesses fail - keeping both together could result in your website being offline with you unable to access the domain name details.
If you are in the UK, try to have the .com and .co.uk for your domain name even if you intend to solely use the .co.uk. People when entering the name into their browser URL address tend to put .com if they are not sure or increasingly people don't bookmark sites but put the domain name into Google and search - if localisation is not working properly the .com will come above .co.uk in the results. If you are not in the UK just get the .com, don't get the .net, .org if the .com is already taken. Most other country endings, .fr or .de are usually for registered businesses only and are generally expensive. Anybody can have a .com or .co.uk
If the .com of your preferred name is already taken at least check out who and where they are - 70% of names have no website and are just held, maybe even for sale. Check out any names at The Web Archive to see what they may have been used for in the past.
Getting a good domain name
There are plenty of lists of getting a good domain name on the web. Here is what most say:-
Don't worry if you cannot get a domain name that obeys every rule, it is probably impossible, just avoid the pitfalls or at least be aware of them. You probably don't even want a short name or trying to build your letting business into a brand.
The two obvious choices are using your holiday home's name - www.dunroamin.com for example or possibly better for search results is using keywords - www.whibycoastcottages.co.uk or www.southdownlodges.com - use words that people will use in searches, your area, town, type of holiday home.
You can try domain names for availability at www.lcn.com
There are a few online tools for generating domain name - do a search for "domain name generator"
- Generally shorter names are better, but all the 3 & 4 letter names have already gone, 5 letters are becoming rare and practically any word that is in a dictionary has gone, so you will probably be joining words together and again the fewer words the better. Overall less than 10 letters is good, definitely keep it below 20.
- Be careful joining words - domain names tend to be all lowercase. Try not to have the same letter ending one word and starting the next, and watch how they join as www.mp3shits.com did unless this a deliberate strategy. Businesses in Scunthorpe or Penistone be especially careful!
- Make sure it's easy to spell, particularly if you try to use foreign names - people misspelling your name and going to the wrong site is not a good start.
- Avoid using numbers or hyphens unless it naturally makes up the name, Formula 1 or 4x4 is OK. Usually people use hyphens because the version without has been taken - most people will type the unhyphenated version and visit your competitor instead.
- Try to get keywords into the name - Google does highlight these when it matches a search and even if it counts for nothing, people are more likely to click on links that contain their search terms.
- You could try to make a completely new word and turn it into a brand.
- If your domain name has naturally the plural and singular version - get both.
- Needless to say to avoid trademarks or well-known brands.
Don't worry if you cannot get a domain name that obeys every rule, it is probably impossible, just avoid the pitfalls or at least be aware of them. You probably don't even want a short name or trying to build your letting business into a brand.
The two obvious choices are using your holiday home's name - www.dunroamin.com for example or possibly better for search results is using keywords - www.whibycoastcottages.co.uk or www.southdownlodges.com - use words that people will use in searches, your area, town, type of holiday home.
You can try domain names for availability at www.lcn.com
There are a few online tools for generating domain name - do a search for "domain name generator"