My Favourite Vacation Rental Sites – Le Chant d’Oiseau

In my hunt for favourite vacation rental web sites I’ve come across a lot that don’t draw me in for more than a few seconds. Others are mildly interesting, perhaps because there are good photos or the location is appealing. Mostly they’re just not good enough to hold my attention and have clearly been created with a free template with little or no thought to design or clarity. Finding those that have holding power has been more difficult than I first thought but it’s a fun journey. Le Chant d’Oiseau with its quirky, slightly off- beat design has a unique approach that is eye- catching from the get-go and it pulled me in to explore further.

I loved the header. The cute goggle-eyed birds grab attention and while the colour scheme may not appeal to all, it’s consistent throughout as is the overall design. Sites that bounce around with different colours, layout, font styles and sizes, are confusing while a well designed site that maintains a consistent theme on each page offers a clear flow and fewer distractions.

Writing great copy means using words and phrases to attract different people. We all have different learning styles – some of us like visual information, others prefer an auditory delivery while some like to learn hands-on. Incorporating these preferences into text we use in a listing takes skill, and this site shows how it’s done naturally using words and phrases that stimulate those preferences, not only using visual, auditory and kinaesthetic (touchy-feely) words, but using those that stimulate other senses as well – taste and smell. (If I’ve confused you, my next blog post is on how to use sensory words and phrases to appeal to a wide range of visitors to your listing or site.)

Here at Le Chant d’Oiseau we don’t promise anything but a place to relax, unwind and cast aside the stresses of everyday life. Whether relaxing in the sun with a good read, or meandering the quiet country lanes by bike or on foot, we invite you to soak up the peace and tranquility of ‘la France profonde’ at its most enchanting.

Testimonials are used throughout the site and although there is a link to Trip Advisor reviews on the left hand menu bar, I’d be inclined to put that further up the page. I’m noticing from my own site that testimonials are drawing more interest – our Trip Advisor entry has brought over 50% of our confirmed reservations so far this year and I can only see this growing.  With 21 ‘excellent’ ratings this badge deserves a more prominent position as it is likely to attract more travellers who are using feedback from others as a primary decision making tool.

I liked a lot about this site so for brevity here’s my quickie list of good stuff:

• The right-hand  menu bar has quick links to photos & sites which I found quite useful and gave the site its sticky nature for me. I think captions would be useful though – for example there is a link from the text ‘Lots of Things to See and Do’’ to a photo of what looks like a re-enactment attraction, but there was no explanation as to what it was.  Perhaps some of those links would be better served going to pages that gave more information.
• Travel page  using Google Maps directions gadget: I hadn’t seen this before and it is so useful
• I love downloads – it’s like getting something for nothing. I’ve come away from the site not only with information on the place itself but with lots of other ‘stuff’ for planning my vacation. What a great idea this is! However I could only find only one for the camping site – I would have liked to see one for a gite guest too.
• Great bedroom photos – I bang on all the time about the real value of making bedrooms look attractive and welcoming and it’s refreshing to see an owner really getting it right.

There are a few things I think could be better or more useful for site visitors. The links page is a great idea but most of the links go to French language sites which isn’t very helpful to non-French speakers. I would prefer to have a brief description of each attraction to help me out with planning. For example I was interested to see what Holly Park  had to offer and clicked on the link, but ended up none the wiser for it.

A few of the pages are quite dense with text and would benefit from being broken up into sections with a few more headings.  On the page describing Hibou there is a lovely description of what type of wildlife can be seen but I had to thoroughly read through the page to find that buzzards, deer, boar and barn owls could be spotted from the property.  I’m thinking that deserves a page to itself.

If I’m getting really picky I’d say there were too many nav elements – the top bar and both side bars have a lot of links which makes it very busy, and it could be confusing. However I think people will tend to stick around because the site looks interesting so this may not be too big a deal.  Overall it’s a great example of a well composed and consistent site – well done Stu & Syb and I hope you have a wonderfully successful season!