Forest Side’s Website Officially the UK’s Best
We’re thrilled to announce that we have been named as the winners of Avon Data’s recent competition to find the UK’s best hotel website…
The Bristol based company have been pioneers in hotel management software for more than 30 years, providing hundreds of hotels around the UK with data solutions to help them efficiently run every aspect of their business.
The competition to find the UK hotel industry’s best website was launched by Avon Data on social media platform Twitter in June. Hotels from around the country flocked to enter and the Avon Data team then began the process of assessing each hotel’s website against three criteria; use of imagery, social media integration and overall user friendliness.
Sarah Cade, Avon Data’s MD, said: ‘’Forest Side’s simple and elegant website perfectly captures the essence of the beautiful gothic mansion and its breath-taking surroundings.’’
Sarah went on to add: ‘’There are three key reasons why Forest Side’s website works so well…
Great pictures: The website hosts a selection of high quality images that flawlessly encapsulate the blend of style, luxury and stunning natural beauty that The Forest Site offers all visitors. When it comes to hotel marketing, a compelling picture really is worth a thousand words. The images on The Forest Side’s website do all the talking necessary and remove the need for large bodies of text which can quickly lose people.
Integrated with all social channels: The links to their other social channels are located clearly in the top right-hand corner of the homepage. This makes it easy for guests to engage directly with all avenues of the hotel’s online presence and easily access any inspirational and interesting content they share. This is important in building a loyal following and marketing itself to past guests and potential guests. Social media channels allow businesses like hotels to really communicate their personalities in a more fun, informal setting.
User friendly design: A simple attractive homepage and clear, concise menu to reach the relevant pages makes the website welcoming and easy to navigate. It’s very important to consider the layout and the key pieces of information your website needs to display to avoid clutter or missing out key sections. Many websites try to be too clever and fall into the trap of becoming so overcomplicated people simply give up and go elsewhere. Websites lose a huge proportion of customers with every click through or page loading delay – research has shown that even a two-second delay can result in conversions falling by 60 per cent. So, make it easy for guests to book online in as few clicks as possible, with clear call to action buttons. An ‘About Us’ section is a wonderful way of adding some context and personality to the website.’’
Greg Stephenson, PR & Marketing Manager for Wildsmith Hotels, said: ‘’We are thrilled that leading hospitality software company Avon Data have highlighted Forest Side’s website as the UK’s top hotel website. We have taken a considerable amount of time to look at sites from around the world, examining social media integration, overall styling and flow, copy and use of content imagery to inform the customer journey. The latter is of great importance to us, consequently we work closely alongside fellow Cumbrian’s Catherine Connor and Jenny Heyworth from White Feather & Co, one of the UK’s foremost photographic companies, to help us achieve this.’’