The holidays are the time when a venue's page works hardest, and the owner has the least time to look at it. That is why it is best to do the review two to three weeks earlier, calmly, from the same list.

Sample scenario

Imagine a guest house with six rooms in a mountain village. The owner, let's call her Maria, has not changed anything on the page since the summer. One evening she takes her phone and follows the guest's path: she opens the page from Google, looks for a room for New Year and tries to send an enquiry. Here is what she checks, in the order in which the guest sees it.

1. The first screen

  • The title and the first photo show the venue as it is now, not as it was last summer. If the photos are from the green season and guests come for snow, add at least a few current ones.
  • The phone number is at the very top and can be tapped: from a phone, one touch should lead to a call.
  • It is clear where the venue is and what kind of guest it suits, without scrolling.

2. Dates, prices and holiday conditions

  • The "from" price, if you show one, is for this season. An outdated price leads to an awkward conversation or a lost guest.
  • The holiday dates are described: from when to when the holiday stay applies, whether there is a minimum number of nights, and at what time check-in and check-out are.
  • The prepayment and cancellation conditions are written simply and in one place. If you have special rules for the holidays, they sit next to the price, not at the end of the page. Check the legal requirements for the text for your own venue.
  • An offer or a festive dinner: is there one, what does it include, and by what date are requests accepted. If the menu for the evening is published, check that it matches what the kitchen will make.

3. How to get there and what the guest should know about winter

  • The description of the route is for the season: are the roads cleared, are chains needed, where to park, how far it is from the car park to the entrance.
  • The late arrival time and the way to collect the keys are written down, because holiday evenings are exactly when nobody picks up the phone.
  • Pets, heating, breakfast and kitchen opening hours: everything people call about every year should be on the page.

4. Contacts and enquiry

  • Send yourself a test enquiry from your phone. Does it reach you, what does it look like, and who sees it?
  • Tell guests how long a reply will take, if possible. During the holidays it is more honest to write "we reply by the end of the day" than to stay silent.
  • It is clear on the page that an enquiry is not a reservation and does not hold a room. That way the guest does not think everything is settled.
  • The phone number, email and address are the same on the page, on Facebook and in the Google profile.

5. Readability and accessibility

  • Open the page on a small phone screen: the text should be readable without zooming, the buttons should be tappable with a thumb, and the form fields should not be hidden behind the keyboard.
  • Light text on a light photo cannot be read. If the title gets lost, change the photo or the position of the text.
  • Every important photo has a short description, and important information is not only inside an image (for example prices in a picture), because it cannot be read by screen readers and cannot be copied.
  • Links and buttons have clear names: "Send enquiry" is clearer than "Here".

6. A last walk-through

  • Go through the page once more as if you were a guest who does not know the area.
  • Ask someone close to you to open it and tell you what remained unclear to them. One unfamiliar viewpoint finds more than a second review.
  • Write down the date of the review and what you changed. After New Year you will need it for next year too.

What comes out of such a review

Maria finds three things: the "from" price is last year's, it does not say from what time check-in is on 31 December, and the enquiry form sends the message to an old email address. None of the three requires a new website, and it is all about two hours of work. What matters is that each of them would lead to a phone call, a misunderstanding or a missed enquiry in exactly the busiest days.

How to make it repeatable

Make yourself a sheet with six lines following the sections above and go through it before every season, not only before the holidays. A more detailed list for the content of the page is in the guide to a small hotel's website, and how to check the page through the guest's eyes is shown in the article about fifteen minutes with the phone. It is a good idea to keep the calendar for preparing for autumn and winter alongside this list.

If the page is run through ISKA Website, changes can stay as a draft, be reviewed and then published, and if there is a mistake the previous version can be restored. That way you can update the prices and the holiday conditions without guests seeing unfinished text. ISKA Website is available by individual quote and is not an online reservation system: it covers the presentation of rooms, the "from" price, services, the gallery, offers and the enquiry form.

Assumptions

Maria and her house are made up for the example. The times and the number of rooms are illustrative, not data from a real venue.