Peter and Kath Storr run a lovely, friendly, happy guest house in Whitby.
How does one differentiate between one B&B and another? Much of it is personal taste. Do we feel comfortable in a guest house that's decorated in that way? Does it feel like home to us? Do we think we will like the owners?
Furthermore, there's not a huge amount to say. We've got some rooms, the price is this much, we do/don't take dogs, all the rooms are upstairs with en-suite / downstairs without en-suite. It's all fairly straightforward. Which isn't to say we can't differentiate, but I've not yet met a B&B owner who is ready to differentiate themselves except on small things. I'm aware, though, of a B&B in Scarborough that caters mostly for gay people interested in theatre. Now that's differentiation. A more mainstream example might be the various vegetarian B&Bs dotted around the country. I suggest thinking about what you enjoy and at least mentioning that. If you're into golf, let's hear it.
Anyway, in this case I thought I'd say it all with photographs, and I had a play with layout. The resulting site is a little different to what I'd normally do, but I rather like it. My emphasis on photography is there.
The idea is: have a huge photograph as a backdrop, and then position a small amount of text over an inconsequential part of the photograph.
I recognise it's imperfectly done, but it works 99% of the time, it was done within budget and deadlines, and it's generating traffic and enquiries, so, all's well.
There is a tension, however, between this being the only B&B website I've done that actually has an accessibility statement, and the fact that in this case I actually dropped my normally very high accessibility standards in order to try to convey the warmth the owners Kath and Peter provide. What can I say? I made that judgment call early on based on what I thought were the most persuasive elements of the project. In the one or two hours I spent with Kath and Peter, and the conversations I've had with Peter on the phone .. they just kinda made me happy. They giggle and seem to be really close. There's some soul here. I wanted to try to put that across in a heartwarming way.
The site took about a calendar month to complete, and 18 hours of actual work from my side, requiring an investment of £810 plus about £50 of costs comprising a domain name (.co.uk) and hosting.
The client's happy, I just don't think I wrote down any quotes. To be honest, for some reason I didn't write up this case study until months later, and I can't quite be bothered to trawl through my notes. Sorry about that :-)
Oh, it may not be available when you come to click, but here's the old site.