Following a busy couple of weeks working on the admin system, back end code and front end pages for the website we are pleased to announce that the new updated Accommodation system is now live.

The updated accommodation pages now include over 70 different facilities which the business owners can select to give potential customers the best information possible about their accommodation.

We have also made the pricing system simpler so accommodation owners can show their prices by date range as well as minimum prices on their listings.

We have updated the availability system to make it much easier to use for both website visitors and business owners in the new and improved accommodation administration section.

The Advertise your accommodation business page at http://www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/advertisewithus/addnew.aspx now includes full size screen captures of a demo property which has all available options enabled including availability, reviews and all of the new facilities which are now grouped into type such as Camping and Caravans, Accessibility, Internet, Rating Scheme, Entertainment etc.

The new accommodation admin system has a simplified navigation system with each section being grouped on the menu. The admin home page also shows the advertisers latest enquiries from their accommodation listing. This allows them to view any enquiries which may have been missed in their emails or to review previous enquiries. 

The new look accommodation admin intro page.

We would like to welcome three new accommodation advertisers who have joined us in the last few weeks:

The Priory Wareham, Church Green, Wareham

http://www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/accommodation/details.aspx?id=1324

Railway Cottage, Victoria Avenue, Swanage

http://www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/accommodation/details.aspx?id=323

Minterne, Park Road, Swanage

http://www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/accommodation/details.aspx?id=322

We have been working on some updates to the website for the New Year.

The events section www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/events/default.aspx has been given a complete facelift with the event organisers now being able to add much more information including the events address, contact phone, email, web link and if booking is required.

You can now view the events by month, location or type and the By Location and By Type lists have paging so you don’t have one very long page to scroll down.

To add your events for free simply submit your details on the submission form www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/events/addnew.aspx

We have added a new Festivals section www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/events/festivals.aspx which now has many of the popular festivals listed. It is free to add your Isle of Purbeck festival so please contact us if you would like your festival added to the list.

The site search page has been updated to now include events and festivals in the search results so you can now search the following: Accommodation, Directory, Pages, Events and Festivals and the results are sorted alphabetically making it easier to find the information you require. 

We have been reviewing our visitor stats for the Virtual Swanage website for the first four months of 2012 compared to 2011. The stats show an increase in the accommodation, events, local directory and the Buy and Sell sections but a decrease in the Gallery and the blog.

 From these stats it seems that more people are looking for accommodation for the current year and are looking for events to visit while on their holidays and also local business, clubs and organisations. The gallery hasn't had as many updates this year as we had planned due to other work commitments and weather conditions and this also results in a lack of new blog posts notifying of new additions to the site.

We have had an increasing problem over the past few months with our advertisers not updating their contact details when they change their email addresses and this is resulting in enquiries from your customers not reaching the correct destination.

We urge all our advertisers to check their details are correct and update them if necessary.

A comment sent in today about the Return on investment (ROI)  when advertising online yet again proved that you need good quality photographs of your property if you are going to gain customers either online or with offline advertising.

The saying "A picture paints a thousand words" is very true when advertising holiday accommodation. Having poor quality, badly lit, poor angle, cluttered or blurred photographs will make your holiday accommodation look poor compared to businesses with good quality, well lit and in focus photographs.

Some interior photography tips:

1. Use a tripod, this will eliminate any camera shake which results in blurred photos.

2. Turn on the lights in the room, this helps to light any dark corners.

3. Don’t shoot direct into the windows as this will cause your camera to underexpose the rest of the room resulting in a dark room with little detail and very bright windows.

4. Use a flash on your camera, bounce the flash off a flat surface such as walls or the ceiling which helps to give a more even light throughout the room.

5. Style your rooms, include items such as towels, soap, coffee cups etc in the rooms which are normally supplied for your guests. Don’t overdo this as too much clutter will be distracting in the final shot.

6. Take your photos using a wide angle lens and shoot from corners rather than from side to side. Move any furniture to enable you to get as much of the room in the photo as possible.

This website http://www.strobist.blogspot.co.uk  has a lot of useful information for photography using on and off camera flashes and some posts on shooting indoor rooms

Over the past few months we have had an increase in calls complaining that accommodation advertisements have been removed from the site, this is because the renewal invoices which are sent via email have not been paid.

We send the renewal invoices before the due date and we also send a reminder after the due date.

The website automatically removes any adverts that have not paid their invoice thirty (30) days after the renewal date. This is an automated process.

The invoices are sent to the contact email you entered for your accommodation listing so please ensure that this is correct.

Advertisers (accommodation) can login to their admin section at any time to view their invoices and pay any outstanding ones.

Some email clients will put emails with attachments in the Junk or Spam folders so please can all our accommodation advertisers add payments at virtualswanage.co.uk to their safe senders list. (change at to @ and remove spaces for full email address).

This will save all our advertisers a lot of problems and loss of customers from the Virtual Swanage website due to expired advertisements.

If you do not remember your login details, the accommodation admin login page has the facility to request your login details which will be sent to the email address you registered with your entry.

We are pleased to welcome Bayview Swanage to the website in the accommodation section.

http://www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/accommodation/details.aspx?id=306