PetBookings.com

PetBookings.com is a different type of website than we typically build, as the concept of the project was selling Pet Boarding instead of hotels. Although the concept of the project was slightly different than our norm, we still used a lot of the same practices we do when building our hotel websites. Customers are able to search for pet boarding facilities by destination with their selected dates, and the website produces live rates and availability. They can then select an appropriate facility, pick their kennel based on their pet’s size,  and complete their booking, all online.

One other requirement from our client Chris, was the ability for boarding facility operators to add their listings to the site and maintain the listing moving forward. Facility operators can also track reservations and set rates and availability through their control panel.

The site was launched last week, and has already started to build a traffic base. Please view our case study page to view screenshots and full development details. Also check out our testimonials page to hear what Chris had to say about working with the HBCWeb team.

This project was a huge undertaking by the HBCWeb team, encompassing a Hotel Booking Path, Sporting Event and Non-Sporting Event Ticket Booking Path, Vacation Rental Management System, and many other development features. I have outlined the site’s main features below:

Hotel Booking Path

Like most of our travel websites, SportsStay.com features a complete full world, hotel booking path. Hotel inventory from the Priceline Partner Network was used, and pages were built out for every Region, Country, State, Province, City and Hotel within our database. This adds up to 40,000+ landing pages that will be indexed by search engines.

The hotel booking path is also used to cross-promote the Event Ticket Listings path, with upcoming events being displayed on each city page. Additionally, for users that just want to search for a hotel for specific dates, in a specific city, we offer a quick and easy searchbox to find live rates and availability.

View the SportsStay Hotel Booking Path

Event Ticket Booking Path

To tie in the “Sports” aspect of SportsStay.com, an Event Ticket Booking path had to be integrated. The TicketNetwork XML Service was used to build out pages for all Major Leagues, Teams, Tournaments and Events in Sports. We also implemented an ultra-functional  searchbox that allows users to quickly type and find what they are looking for, with an auto-suggest feature to help out. To once again cross-promote other aspects of the site, each Team page lists some featured hotels in the corresponding city that the team plays in, as well as other events going on in the city.

View the SportsStay Event Tickets Booking Path

Vacation Rentals Management System

The last major element in the development of SportsStay.com was the Vacation Rentals Management System. The concept behind this was essentially to give customers who are traveling to watch sporting or non-sporting events, the ability to find Vacation Rental Properties, as an alternative to hotels.

Users have the ability to create an account within the website, and from there can quickly create a Vacation Rental Listing. They can then preview their listing, and once they are happy with it, they simply just have to pay the monthly or annual fee and the listing will be displayed live. An admin system is included for each property owner that will allow them to add a property description with amenities, manipulate their rental rates through a quick calendar system, upload pictures and more.

Browse SportsStay Vacation Rental Properties

Overall, we are extremely pleased with the launch of SportsStay.com, as it showcases a wide range of our design and development abilities.

• Put a newsletter sign up box right on your home page.  If you think about it there is nothing more important then getting your customers contact information so you can send them product and services updates in the future.
• Always ask if people want to receive your newsletter.  Even if you don’t have a newsletter yet, add a check box to every contact form on your site that allows people to sign up for your newsletter. At least now if someone bothers you with a support request you can market your product to them in the future.
• Have an Offer. Offer something to sign up for your newsletter.  For instance if you make $20 on a sale offer $10 off to sign up for your newsletter.  This will help increase the number of subscribers you have while growing sales.

Learn more about our Email marketing solution

Tell a Friend Tool. This is one of the easiest ways to grow the amount of potential customers that know about your site.  We have our Tell a friend tool on every page of our site.  I am always amazed by how many people don’t use one.  Why wouldn’t you add a tool that allows your customers to personally refer more customers to your site?

Bookmark this Site Tool. Social bookmarking sites are one of the fastest growing segments of the internet, but it’s important to remember that a lot of web users are still not savvy enough to understand how they work.   Most beginner internet users add sites to their built in browser favorites and then visit them later.  These same users usually don’t actually know how to add these sites that’s why you always have a simple link on your site that when clicked automatically adds your site to there favorites.

Link to this Page Tool. For those of you who didn’t know the best way to increase your sites presence on internet search engines is to get links from other websites.  One easy way to do this is to put a link on your site that says “Link to this Page.”  Then when the user clicks on the link you can give them easy to copy preformatted html with a link to the page there on, and the keyword that you would like them to link to your site with.

Bonus: Using this type of link will also help you to get “deep” links because the code will offer a link to the page the visitor is on, normally most visitors just link to your homepage.

A Blog. While most “new age” internet tools are still not mainstream enough for us to recommend as “Must Have” tools.  A blog is easily one of the most important things you can add to your website.  A blog is especially useful if you run a fairly basic website.  A blog allows you have one section of your site you can easily add products, services, features, pictures or anything else about your company you may want to share.

It was at that point I decided to take on the project myself, from design right through to development. With the help of our talented programmer – Andrew Johnson for the behind the scenes work, my ideas and design were brought to life.

Here are just a few of the features of the new site:

Who Are You Guys? – Our previous site didn’t feature much information about who we are and how we got here. Our About Us section now features a Company Overview, a full listing of our Team Members, a description and photos of Our Office, as well as a summary about the Priceline Partner Network and Client Testimonials.

Full Portfolio with Case Studies – Each of the project featured within our portfolio now have individual case studies. You can now read an overview about each project, as well as development details, and view screenshots of the actual live site.

Services Section – Our Services section has been revised to include a full breakdown of our web development process. Our other services are also highlighted with a full description of each.

I really hope that everyone enjoys the new site. Please feel free to comment with any feedback.

Rob