Guide

What belongs on a property website. The list of things a guest looks for in the first minute

The guest does not read a website from beginning to end. In the first minute they try to answer a few simple questions for themselves: how much it costs, whether their dates work, what they get and how to reach you. The portal next to yours answers these questions at once. If your website stays silent, the guest goes back to where they got an answer.

I run two properties of my own and with every change I look at the website through the eyes of someone who does not know me yet. The list is shorter than it seems, but every item has to be current.

The price first

It does not have to be a single number for the whole year. It can be a range with a clear explanation that the season, the length of stay or the room type change the result. The guest simply wants to know whether it fits their budget.

Without a price they assume it is expensive, or that the place no longer operates. The portal shows them one for their chosen dates, so that is where they go, even if your website looks better.

Check-in and check-out times

Give both times and check whether they are the same as on the portal. The guest plans their arrival, a train, key pickup and the return trip. They do not want to find out on the spot that the two sources disagree.

If the website has no times, or they differ from the listing, the guest sees a risk they do not have to take. The portal next to yours hands them a ready answer, so they choose that listing.

What the stay includes

Write whether bedding and towels are on site, who cleans after departure, and which fees are already in the price and which appear separately. This is not about a long set of terms. It is about the things that change how the stay is judged.

The portal shows this information at booking. If your website does not have it, the guest does not know what they are really buying and goes back to the place where the list is ready. A missing detail looks like a hidden cost, even when there is none.

Check it yourself

Open the website on a phone and answer three questions without scrolling to the end: how much the stay costs, when you can arrive and what is in the room. If you have to search or write to yourself, the guest will search too, or close the website.

House rules

Animals, children, smoking, quiet hours and parking are not extras to the description. They are the questions that decide whether a property fits a family or a person travelling with a dog at all. Write the answer outright, including when it sounds like no.

The portal has these fields on one screen. A missing answer on your website forces the guest to call, and not everyone will. Some will pick the property that does not make them guess.

How to get there, not just the address

The address alone says where you are. The guest wants to know how long it takes to walk or drive to the thing they are coming for: the trail, the slope, the lake or the centre. Give the distance in minutes on foot or by car, and add a note when the road looks different in winter.

The portal often shows a map, but it does not know your area the way you do. If your website has no practical distance, the guest cannot judge the location and goes back to the listing that gives them at least an approximation.

The season

State plainly whether the property runs in winter and in which months it takes guests. A seasonal property shown as year-round gets enquiries that then have to be turned down. That is wasted time for you and disappointment for a person who had already started planning a trip.

The portal may open the calendar for the whole year, even for months when you are not taking guests. If your website does not explain the difference, the person does not know which source to believe and picks the simpler answer.

Contact that works today

The phone number should reach a person who picks up. The email address should be read, and the form should carry a clear note about when you reply. Do not enter contact details that worked once or that you do not check.

The portal gives the guest the feeling that someone is on the other side after booking. If it is not clear on your website whether a message will arrive, the guest goes back to the place they already know.

The date of the last update

Put the date of the last change on the price list or the most important page. The guest does not need the history of every edit. They need a signal that someone checks the information and that they are not looking at a record several seasons old.

A price list signed three years ago makes them assume the whole website is three years old. The portal may not show a date, but it shows current dates and availability. Without a date of your own, you lose credibility.

Photos of what is really there

Show the room, the bathroom, the entrance and the view the guest will actually see. A catalogue photo or a shot of a place they have no access to builds an expectation you will not meet. It is better to have fewer photographs, each honestly described.

The portal next to yours has a gallery, so the guest can compare the real layout and equipment. If your website shows only a wide view from afar, it gives them no reason to stay right here.

The checklist

Price. The guest must know whether their plan is possible.
Times. Arrival and departure cannot be a riddle.
The stay. The list covers bedding, towels, cleaning and fees.
Rules. Animals, children, smoking, quiet hours and parking have clear answers.
Getting there. Distances lead to the thing the guest comes for.
Season. The calendar does not promise months when the property is closed.
Contact. Someone answers the phone or reads the message today.
Date. It is visible that the information is checked.
Photos. They show the real place, not a catalogue promise.

What does not need to be on the website

You do not need a history of the property several screens long. The guest can read it once they have decided, but they will not decide because they know the year the first building went up.

You do not need a long greeting from the host. One sentence saying what to expect is enough. Spend the remaining space on the information people look for before choosing.

You do not need a news tab nobody has kept for two years. An empty tab does more harm than no tab, because it shows the guest nobody is looking after the website.

If a subpage has nothing current to say, remove it from the menu or write one true piece of information on it. Silence pretending to be news looks worse than the plain absence of a tab.

The short answer

A property website has to answer the questions the guest asks in the first minute: price, times, the scope of the stay, rules, getting there, season, contact, how up to date the information is and real photos. Every gap sends them to the portal, because there the answer is already waiting. History and a greeting can stay, but they must not cover the information needed for the decision.

You can do this yourself

Open your website on a phone and set a timer for sixty seconds. Note which of the nine questions you answer at once, and which make you scroll, call or guess. Then compare the same questions with the property's listing on the portal, and fix first the gaps the portal shows on the first screen.

If you have several room types and several sources of information, such a list quickly turns into more than one evening of work. Then I put everything together, list the gaps and hand you the order of fixes to carry out yourself.

See what the audit covers